The Horses of Helios

The Greek legend of the horses of Helios says that each morning, Helios used to ride his chariot across the sky from the dawn in the east to dusk in the west. Each night he would rest to be ready for the next day. Once his son Phaeton had a go, lost control of the horses, crashed into the earth and set it on fire. You can find this statue at the junction of Haymarket and Picadilly.

You may have noticed, this was shot in film on my old Olympus Trip.

It's London

Sometimes, photos don't need explanation.

Discovering Elegance

Isn't it odd how you can find elegance in the strangest places, and how a photo can help show that? This small, inconspicuous statue is on the north side of Blackfriars Bridge, here is the Google Maps Streetview. Different, isn't it? Shot on my Olympus Trip, a little point & shoot 35mm film camera.

National Maritime Museum

The colonnades at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich are one of my favourite sights in London, can't quite explain why. Photo taken on the Bronica.

London in the Rain

Doesn't this shot look as if it comes straight out of a period drama? That's probably because it does. I happened across them filming Dorian Grey, and stopped to watch the fun. They were making their own rain, you can see the whole scene here. Turns out there is a trailer for the film already.

It's a Hollywood movie - I wonder how true they will be to the very dark spirit of the book - especially the ending. (incidentally, the whole text is available on project Guttenberg)

Saville Row

One of the things I like about doing The Way We See It is the way it forces me to try to see things differently. This week we were in Saville Row, a street full of history and familiarity, synonymous with fine tailoring. I was very pleased with this study in reflection. Seconds to decide to focus in the distance - focus on the other side of the road, swing round, compose and click. (and this film shot is straight out the camera - via the scanner)

Frank Gehry at the Serpentine Gallery

It's taken 77 years of Frank Gehry's life for the first of his buildings to come to London and England, the Serpentine Gallery is the site. I thought it would be an interesting challenge to photograph the newest structure with my oldest camera - the 1937 Voigtlander Bessa.

(warning: photographic ramble follows)

This is an astonishingly challenging building, both to experience and to photograph. The whole edifice (which doesn't leak) strains your ideas of what a building should be. And yet, it is there: wood, steel, glass, massive and foursquare. I didn't look at any photographs before I visited and looking at them since, most fail to convey the sense of the place. My digital effort is here, (from a similar angle) but this shot on film using a seventy year old camera with a fixed lens is my favourite. Not just because it is the only film shot I took - I walked and looked for a while before shooting - but because it seems to contain an sense of the improbable, that combined with the richness of tone from the film greyscale make it for me.

Do you prefer the film or the digital version? do let me know. I'm particularly interested in what you think if you've seen it - do let me know (don't forget to click and look at the larger version, please).

Which version of the photo do you prefer?
	The B&W film one
	The colour digital one
	Neither are very good
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Chapel Market

This week's TWWSI took me to Camden Passage, a place I have been before. So, I dusted down my trusty old OM1 to see what images I could make.



Just about all the film shots I post are shown full frame, as scaned without any post production.

Summer in Bloomsbury Square

For this week's The Way We See It, I found myself in Bloomsbury Square. Alongside my digital, I was shooting with the Voigtlander Bessa, now sorted and ready to rock. The huge negative (6 x 9 cm) contains a huge amount of information, that is lost on the small digital image you can see, but I hope you like it all the same. The camera itself dates from 1932 - 1938, as far as I can tell.

Limehouse Basin

Just a photo today, from the Bronica. A full colour daytime shot here.

The M(urder) 25

The M25 motorway girdles London, and is notorious for its accidents and jams. You would have thought, then, that the accident statistics for the M25 would be easy to find: they are not (that's a challenge for anyone who chooses). I came across this small tribute on a cycle ride today. Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad, Brother, Husband - that's what the faded cards say.

See where on the London Daily Photo Map

Staying Local

Don't we often take our own immediate environment for granted? Where I live is steeped in history, as is so much of London. The building you can see has been there for 300 years, and seen a lot of changes. For a while, it was the Conservatives local HQ, and hence the bust of Churchill who was the local MP. Diamond Geezeer walked the walk and talked the talk here, too. The stone plinth was made out of a bit of the old Waterloo Bridge.

But the real reason I took this photo was as part of a test reel to try out another £5 special from eBay, after fixing it. It's an Agilux Agifold, a late forties/early fifties camera made in London (Croydon). In case anyone is interested, it has a 90cm f4.5 lens, here stopped to f/8, shot on Fuji Acros processed in ID-11.

Greenwich Flea Market

OK. I found another £5 camera on eBay. This one is a 30's Voigtlander Bessa, that produces 6 x 9 negatives. The shutter needed fixing, and it looks like there are other issues, but I got one decent shot out of the test reel.

This was taken today at the small but interesting flea market in Greenwich. Because it is slightly out of hte town centre it is often neglected, but it is certainly worth the visit.

See where on the London Daily Photo Map.