Covent Garden, some years on
In one of my very first posts on this blog, I used a picture I had taken in Covent Garden about twenty years ago. I went back recently and tried to recreate it, here is the result. I prefer the old one - what do you think?
posted by Ham at 23:36 --
Comments here: 16
Comments on "Covent Garden, some years on"
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ems said ... (10:24) :
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Anonymous said ... (13:15) :
post a commentExcept for the wool shop sign, you can't really tell the difference. By the way, is the shop still there, or has it been turned into a trendy boutique?
The old one was overexposed Ham, this is much better.
Curly's Photoshop
Beautiful arcade. Love the black & white.
I prefer the slightly fuzzy look of the original complete with hanging signs. Both good photos though.
Gails man - None of the old (interesting) shops are there any more, they are all trendy boutiques :-(
Curly - Intersting technical comparison between the two: I'd say the old one (probably FP4) has more detail retained in the highlights (not entirely fair comparison because that is a scan of a 20 year old home-brewed print.)
Christina, ems. thanks.
Flicking back and forth between the pictures, I just can not prefer one over the other.
The "old one" is a picture of movement and restlessness in the arcade which is secondary. The "new one" is a picture of stability and the building's dominance over movement. To me, it is like comparing apples and oranges. I like both very much!
I dont really want to compare the pictures...I can't believe how little Covent Garden has really changed in 20 years! Ok new shops but other than that all I can see is a new stair case and the exit at the back has been widened (for the resaurant I'm thinking). Can see the wear and tear on the hand rail though, must be all the people looking over for the opera singers!
p.s. Ham I found an elephant that you haven't found yet hehe.
Hi Ham, first I found it amazing that the Covent Garden looks pretty much the same ; and I also like the old photo mainly because of the blurry image of the shoppers ;-)
Ah FP4 and home developing, them was the days :)
I like the feel of the older one more I think... though I'm not sure exactly why.
Good to see how much of it seems to have been retained especially the hanging lamps.
One thing you certainly didn't have on the old photo is hot-pants!
One of my favourite places as a child, Covent Garden retains an air of excitement for me whenever I see a picture of it - nice one.
Briang - thanks.
Ms Kitten - you MUST email me the suggetion, the elephant tank is running low (not quite empty) ! (oh yeah - please)
Lisi, Nic, I'm with you. part of it is that the old (OM) lens was fixed focus and pretty fast. For me, there is more character in the older one. Just wish I had the neg.
Gerald (and all others) I, too, was surprised by how little had changed.
Ham, you did very interesting trial.
As you said, I like old one too.
It has more movement and live feeling, (may be because of blur on the image?)
I like the all over tone of new one.
It’s very good to see how much changed (or not changed).
I admire your experiment and I definitely do same/similar on few years later.
There is something about the "older" one that is more appealing for some reason. This is still a nice image, though.
Definitely the old one.
Post them next to one another :-)
I like this one, I think because of the exposure of the image rather than the content. It is an interesting pair of shots, though.
I'm surprised by the "olde worlde" appearance of Covent Garden c. 1986 though - the signs look a bit dated.