A night out in London. A selection of my street photography from this weekend.

mrk

mrk

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This is visit number 2 with NickXXX specifically for the purpose of photographing the streets, perhaps it will be a yearly thing let's see :p

I find street photography fascinating, especially at night. The light (or lack of) is a challenge for both camera and user and you tend to find the best scenery during the darker hours too. I visit London often but usually on business or visiting friends/family so don't always have time to spend walking the streets for hours on end.

Last time we walked ~10 miles, most probably more. This time I don't know the mileage but Nick's pedometer app registered over 21,000 steps at the end of it all. That's more than double the number of steps recommended per day for an average adult and all in the space of ~9 hours!

Needless to say, by the time I got home my shoulder was feeling it as were my feet and I'm used to walking around 5 miles a day anyway. Thankfully the weather was brilliant, not too cold, some clouds and most important of all, dry.

Fuelled up with Nando's near Waterloo I felt amped to get into action mode...

Some of these have been posted in other threads so please excuse the repost in here. All but a few were taken on the Sigma 35mm 1.4, even a couple of stitched panoramics. The detail at f8 is really excellent.

1 - @ 17mm. There were lots of people taking pics of this view, how could I do something different? Stitch, stitch with a wangle set :p
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2 - I asked this guy for a little caption, maybe a few words to put on. He said "I don't know what to say" :o
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3 - This guy was in a phone call, best not disturb him *snap snap snap*.
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4 - Looking over one end of Hungerford Bridge wondering what to shoot when suddenly...
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5 - On the bridge. She was very nice and polite, I gave my card with social links so she could grab a copy if she wanted. In fact I gave everyone the same thing after each shot.
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6 - From the end of the bridge I wanted to get a good vantage point without getting foreground objects in the way. This worked out decent.
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7 - Came across this chap doing things with poetry, had an interesting face. I like interesting faces. He said "I have Facebook, you can send me a copy", yes, yes i can!
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8 - This guy was also really polite and cool although he did say my photos would come out too dark!
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9 - Paul and Gizmo. These two were on the same grounds as the National Gallery, the dog was well behaved and playing with the other people doing their thing outside.
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10 - These guys were playing some music on a boombox and doing some popping & locking. It was really cool and they were rather friendly too.
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Here's a quick video of some of the movements:

11 - "I have no idea what anyone's number is!"
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12 - This Rickshaw driver was looking at me as we walked past, he made a camera gesture with his hands, I walked over and took this portrait. He offered us a ride anywhere but ain't nobody got time for dat :p
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13 - A restaurant worker on his break.
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14 - A bus passenger looks out as the bus pauses at a junction for a few seconds.
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15 - The City of London is well maintained, though that's to be expected :p
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16 - Even still, the homeless will find places to sleep.
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17 - And the iBins are not exempt from crashing either.
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18 - The ruins of this church were quite amazing.
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19 - Again, how could I get a slightly alternative view of landmarks such as St Paul's!
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20 - Sometimes you just have to snooze on the spot.
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21 - Even at work!
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22 - Saw a few examples of nice motoring too at 2:30~AM
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23 - The final scene before heading back to Waterloo for the train home.
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Associate
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Brilliant set. Love them all but in particular the rickshaw driver and the couple walking along the bridge.

What ISO and fstop were you using?
 

mrk

mrk

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Thanks all! Sadly the city quietens down as midnight rolls round even on a Friday night so next time I think an earlier start is in order. Will be able to get more interesting faces then :)

Brilliant set. Love them all but in particular the rickshaw driver and the couple walking along the bridge.

What ISO and fstop were you using?

Hi, I used 100-3200 throughout the night - The ones by the National Gallery (8, 9 etc) were ranging from 2500 to 3200 and the others mostly ranged between 800 and 1250 with a couple at 1600.
 

mrk

mrk

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Appreciate the feedback! Interesting to see what pictures people like over others too compared to my own favourites :p

Street photos is hard work at times but really rewarding!

A store man in Chinatown walked up to us and said "you want to be careful, guys like the ones there will steal your cameras!" :eek: - Guess it can be risky too :D

In shot #18 there was a drunk man too who looked like he was early 20s, he watched us from one of the low walls and sat on one relaxing then said "I don't want to be near you guys" and started talking about some stuff that sounded like conspiracy jumbo. He then ran off into the distance!

Amazing.
 
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Soldato
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Some nice stuff there mrk. I have to say I'm really not keen on the 'gamma push' look that seems so popular at the moment (NB, I don't actually know what it's called or how it's achieved!). It can be used to good effect sometimes but I find it really fatiguing on large sets.
 

mrk

mrk

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I don't think it has a name as such but yeah the style does seem popular and people do use it to varying degrees of intensity - Mine do vary as I find it purely depends on the scene itself. Some don't warrant it at all, some look better with it - I guess it's a preference thing :p
 
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