Diamond Jubilee Pageant

Earlier in the month I went down to the Thames to see and photograph the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Pageant. ( I'm just catching up with processing the  photographs)
It was already crowded when we got there at about 12.30. People had been waiting near Millbank pier, where we ended up, since 6am. It was cold and wet, the news has reported quite a lot of cases of hypothermia on the day. My sister and I stood near one of the gangways to the pier with a number of people dressed in party outfits, they were waiting to board one of the boats on the Thames.

We had a coach with police inside, parked next to the pavement at our backs, which actually kept off some of the wind and pressure from the crowds. Lots of crowd control guys were milling up and down the gangway all the time, but there were no problems. The only action being people climbing on the tree next to us, the crowd control guys tried to get them down, with most of the crowd booing and saying shame, leave them alone! Some came down some got back up.

I managed to get fairly close to the wall to see the pageant, though some shots were taken with my camera held up high. As the pageant slowed down and the rain got heavier, some of the people left and we got right to the front. With all the rain and low light and holding the camera high up, it was pretty tricky to get many good images.

The floating Bellfry leading the pageant.

I enjoyed the enthusiasm of the crowds, though there was no singing along our section, The mobile bellfry with the special bells cast at the Whitechapel foundry, was good to hear coming at the head of the procession and the musical boats were an important addition I think.

Dragon boats.

Sea Cadets carrying the flags of the Commonwealth.

 The manned boat section and the working boats I enjoyed the most overall. Though I felt sorry for any of the boats following the fire boat spraying tons of water as it sailed along. It was bad enough having the rain.

The Fire Flash a London Fire Brigade Fire boat.

The Royal Barge The Spirit of Chartwell.

Inspired by the Queen's hats.

A new use for tesco carrier bags,waiting in the rain for the pageant to start.

Getting home was as difficult as it has been reported and all of us caught up in that were asking how London was going to cope with the Olympics. I can't help but wonder how different it would have been in the sunshine. Was it a big mistake to leave a roof off the Olympic Stadium?

Lord Mayor;s Show and David Hockney in Paris

I was off taking photos of the Lord Mayor's Show on Saturday, continuing with my documenting of the traditions in London. I hadn't been to the show before (quite often because the weather was bad and/or it's the season for colds and virus.)

I was surprised to find that it was such an old tradition, apparently it was the 795th show, which is quite incredible and there was at least one man dressed as a Knight representing the Knights of the Knightengild who were given land for loyalty to King Edgar in the 10th century. They protected London training in East Spitalfield. Knightengild is now the ward of Portsoken link to the history here


I was also surprised to see how many modern Livery Companies were part of the parade. I hadn't quite realised that modern businesses would like the idea of being part of a pageant, but I suppose tradition is a powerful thing.

I enjoyed being around before the start of the procession and at the end as people returned to the Cheapside area. The Lord Mayor's gold coach is amazing, it was a bit difficult to get a good photo as it came past though.


Spotted a news item about a new David Hockney Exhibition in Paris. Called Fresh Flowers it is Hockney using new mobile phone technology to make drawings and send them through to the gallery. I have always loved Hockney's response to new technology how he has embraced it and really enjoyed finding new ways to express himself.
Link to the gallery here

Chinese New year

Just before all the snow, I was in Chinatown to see the New year celebrations. It was really great to see all the streets full of red lanterns. In the middle of winter in all the cold weather it brought a real sense of cheer to London.


There were stalls outside the shops selling loads of kitch ox animals, it being the year of the ox, paper dragons, small hand drums, fortune cookies and loads more. It was very cold and I was glad of the crowds at some points that kept the wind off me. At one point I was next to the drummer at the start of one of the lion dances, but as it started I was left behind as the huge crowd surged forward.
I could just see the dragons head pop up and down from time to time, as it made it's way down the street paying visits to the shops and restaurants.

Video Art

A New Year and a new course on video editing. Of course I don't have a Mac or the very expensive software at home, but some of the skills will be transferable I'm sure.
I have quite a collection of videos waiting for a bit of editing so I can upload them. Doing some more research for video artists lead me to Jonas Mekas where there are some great short videos to download and others to buy. I liked the little intro video by Jonas as well.

Here a couple of my short videos, filmed at the Christmas market along the Southbank.