London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony

If you have a spare 4 hours or so, you can now watch the entire London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony on you tube. If you haven’t seen this, how comes? It is fantastic, and made me feel proud to be British.:

The London 2012 Olympic Games Have Arrived

Last night the London 2012 Olympic Games finally got underway. The Opening Ceremony to celebrate the start of the games was fantastic. It was quirky, eccentric, funny, moving and above all, very British. I am not too sure how many people outside the United Kingdom got the meaning of the many different segments, but one thing that did come out was, that you know, its OK to be proud to be British.

I was lucky enough to get a ticket for the Technical Rehearsal of the Opening Ceremony, and below is one of what appears to be the iconic images of the Opening Ceremony, I am so lucky to have captured my own version:

I have 39 photos from the Technical Rehearsal, which until last night, I had to keep secret,  but you can see them NOW.

Was Everyone Shocked?

This was one of the best kept secrets of the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony. “OH MY GOD, IT IS THE QUEEN”:

The Olympics are Coming – Part 5

Last night I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony Technical Rehearsal. I can’t share too much information with you, as we were asked to save the surprise:

However, I can tell you, it is going to be spectacular, very British and in places very eccentric.

The Olympics are Coming – Part 4

One of the most tangible signs that the Olympics are about to start, is the arrival of the Olympic Flame. This weekend, it has finally arrived in London. It has been on a relay across the United Kingdom for 63 days, and now with less than a week to go, it will be touring the 33 London boroughs.

This weekend, I have become a “Torch Tourist”, and I have now seen the torch three times:

First of all in Stepney:

Then in Whitechapel:

…then nearer to home in Dagenham:

The organisers must be so pleased. Apparently over half a million people turned up to see the torch pass by, and today in Dagenham, in parts the crowd was 7-8 deep. Amazing. The Olympics are nearly here.

One Week to Go

I can’t believe it, is it possible, the London 2012 Olympic Games will begin in 7 days time!!! All the waiting and preparations are nearly over, and in 7 days time, the eyes of the World will be on my hometown.

However, in the meantime, to get us in the spirit, Wenlock and Manderville, the Olympic and Paralympic mascots, have taken over the streets. Here is my favourite one so far:

Wenlock as Big Ben!!!

South Kensington Subway

The South Kensington subway was opened in 1886 to link the Undergroud station with the 3 big museums, The Natural History Museum, The Science Museum and The Victoria and Albert Museum. I think its a great space, and I have tried many times to get a picture that showed it off.

The tunnel is rather dark, and without a tripod, it has been very difficult to capture. Then the other day, I had my Nifty Fifty lens on my camera, when I found myself near the subway – so I thought “let’s have another try”. This time I was rather pleased with the results, and decided it looked best as a black and white image:

 

Shoreditch Photo Walk

It has taken me a month to process all the photos I took walking around Shoreditch. There is so many examples of great “street art”, it seems a bit demeaning calling it graffiti. These are real works of art, and I am sure many of these examples, if painted on canvas and put in a gallery, would sell quite easily.

I hope you enjoy:

 

 

The Olympics are Coming – Part 3

With 12 days to go to the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, the campaign to get Londoners to think about their travel arrangements during the games is in its final phase. Now appearing at affected bus stops, new signage and posters have started to appear:

Looks like they are encouraging us to run instead of using the buses.

 

 

The Olympics are Coming – Part 2

The Olympic Rings can be seen everywhere – even the top of one of London’s tallest buildings, Tower 42 is showing its Olympic colours: