Posts Tagged London
Reasons To Hate The Tube #8: Rain
It’s been eight months since I last shared a reason to hate the Tube. In that time, the mechanical behemoth has continued to plod along; left stations with doors open, closed large portions of the network and struggled to cope with mosquito swarms. At least it wasn’t looted.
Anyway, Rain. We don’t get a lot in England and us Brits certainly don’t talk about the weather a lot. Summer 2011 has been a scorcher – a spectacular display of su…
Oh, who are we kidding? It’s been pants and in particular, the extremely damp kind. Why is rain particularly bad for the Tube? Surely being in an enclosed carriage, metres beneath the earth makes the whole issue of rain defunct, right?
Wrong. People stop walking. Tourists in particular are renowned for their ant-like behaviour – back to the safety of the hill! It only takes a single drop to overload the Tube with soggy armpits. It’s hot in the tunnels, and having dripping businessmen rub up against you is hardly the most enjoyable of situations.
Pour Show
Not only that, everyone runs around with gigantic umbrellas – the branded, golf kind that shout “I went to an Insurance trade show and all I got was this lousy umbrella”. They’re massive – you could do a pole-vault with them, they’re so big. They’re particularly adept at poking people’s legs and eyes still coated in the acid rain that London inevitably produces.
So in a moving greenhouse that’s the Circle Line, rain above ground is the last thing you want in August. Everyone’s jetted off to whatever poolside retreat suits them – it should be a clear run. The commute should take 40 minutes as opposed to over an hour. Everyone has a seat. August is nice on the Tube, even with the 63 degree heat and the swarms of families standing in doorways and on the right.
Except it’s not. It keeps raining and people keep catching the Tube from Leicester Square to Covert Garden. Climate change – what a washout theory.
Late Night Tube Photography
Despite my love of the Underground and photography, I rarely mix both together. Last Friday when I was heading home on a late train (around 11PM), I got the camera out. I often read about ways to improve your photography and challenge your conventions. Obviously picking a niche and honing your craft is a good way to do it (I think I’m slowly getting there).
Sticking to a single focal length, area, lens or photography type are other ways. So constrained to a Tube carriage I tried to look at different angles, shapes and things in the train to come up with some work. Not my most impressive work, but still pretty cool – that bee was gigantic by the way, it was scaring what little passengers were on the train.
All work is under copyright.
Fantastic Mr Fox
I visited my cousin last Monday and there was a fox, bold as brass, sitting in her garden. For her it’s an ordinary occurrence, but we’ve only ever had one fox in ours and that was at night. It was happy to sit there as I took the above two photos. I love both, the first is a brooding shot while the second makes it look so happy as it scratches.
Great Tits
Yes, completely sensationalist and misleading, but then again, I do work in PR… These little guys were in some bushes outside our living room window. It was taken early morning, so a fair bit of light enhancing has been done. Couldn’t avoid the darkness around the beak area without it looking unnatural.
I’m going to upping the photography sizes from 500 – 640 pixels now. The showcases will stay 500 due to loading times.
Grumpy Families
Fridays are never a good day for One A Day. The above was taken on Valentine’s Day. It’ll appear with some other shots on Faces of London soon.
My Travel Website
- Northern Myanmar: Land of 1960s Travel 17 February, 2013
- Photographing Buddhist Clarity 3 February, 2013
- Face to Face with Dead Monks: Hidden Temples in Bangkok 29 January, 2013
- Getting a Thai Tourist Visa in the UK: The Facts 22 January, 2013
- A Love Letter to London Underground 16 January, 2013