In what has become something of a recurring theme along my travels, the quick weekend trip I recently took to London, England to participate in a documentary coincided with several days of looting and rioting. I say recurring theme, because general mayhem tends to follow at an uncanny rate quickly upon my arrival to cities around the world lately. There was the uprising in Bahrain and destruction of the Pearl Monument 2 days after I left, my failed flight to Egypt on January 27th (when I finally arrived in May there were several religious clashes), and hockey riots in usually peaceful Vancouver among others.
Coincidences aside, (I just left Las Vegas and it’s still standing, though I think it’s baseline state is abnormal), what particularly struck me about the violence was the flip-side; how quickly Londoners coalesced to condemn and combat the destructive outliers in the community. At times in large cities it’s easy to feel as though everyone is marching to their individual tune, tiny egos oblivious to their environment – or feel that way about the world in general. Earth seems such a large place when we focus on the negative but so small and manageable when we focus on humanity’s good. Over those few days of violence, London felt like one of the smallest towns I had ever visited.
You can view more of my photos from London in the album here.
Otherwise known as ‘Dunkirk Spirit’ in Britain. 🙂 We’re good at it. Oooooh, what was the documentary then…or it is a surprise?
Julia
Thanks for that, just looking up the Dunkirk evacuation now, interesting story I had no idea about.
As for the documentary, it’s not a surprise completely, it’s about people who are using mobile technology to create careers and opportunities online. It’s sponsored by Nokia and being filmed by David Betteridge (http://davidbetteridge.com). The final product should be out sometime in September and I’ll share links to it when it’s released. Hopefully I make the final cuts!
I’ll be sure to check your upcoming travel plans to make sure I do not follow your trail too closely.
Watch out for my wake! Not sure where I’m headed next but I’ll let you know in case you need to detour 😉
Love the picture Anil. I am assuming it was took in RAW format? Do you have any previous posts relating to taking pictures in RAW and processing them? I am experimenting with my camera but not sure which direction to go in or where to start. This RAW format seems complicated.
Thank you Natalie. This picture wasn’t in RAW, it was shot in JPEG at 6 different exposures. I haven’t written anything about RAW format previously; what direction are you trying to take your photography?
Hi Anil,
I still do not feel comfortable behind the lens of a camera so I am trying to learn as much about my camera as possible. The aspect I am stuck on is taking pictures in RAW format. I could really do with a guide on taking and formatting RAW pictures from start to finish if you know of any. Was really surprised to find out that this was a JPEG picture. Do you mind me asking how you did and the tools you used?
Beer and Beans just released a new ebook that covers RAW, though I’m not sure to what extent. I’ll forward this to them now (and will have a review copy soon to let you know more) but it’s recommended by many people whose photography I respect and Bethany herself is a wonderful photographer:
http://almostfearless.com/travelbooks/book/getting-out-of-auto/
As for me, I took this picture on my point-and-shoot Lumix DMC-ZS10 at 6 different exposures. I merged the images with Photomatrix Pro, then further edited with Adobe Lightroom.
Hi Anil, Thanks for your help. I bought the book as the content showed some other subjects that I am not sure of and it was only 18 Turkish Lira. Beer money for one day 🙂 Photomatrix pro seems a bit pricey at the moment but I have plenty of reading to catch up on first. Thanks for your help.
You’re welcome Natalie, I hope it helps answer many of your questions. Also, for HDR, you can try Picturenaut (free) and Luminance HDR has some really interesting tone-mapping options worth playing around with (also free).
Anil, the HDR looks great. CN tower doesn’t look as colourful, so don’t come to Toronto anytime soon. LOL 😉
Thank Priyank, I’ve been having fun playing around with it lately to find a good mix. I’ll also protect Toronto from my wrath…for the time being at least!
It looks as gray and rainy as when I was there a few weeks prior!! Blah. But great pic!
I think the sun peaked out just a few times but it was definitely mostly cloudy London style 🙂