London Photowalk 2

2nd edition to the London Photowalk series. Its now the spring of 2011, sunny blue skies and beautiful flowers blooming. One of the best traits of London is the royal parks, which are so well maintained and serves as an escape from the bustling London life. The pictures above are from 2010 spring, along with a few shots taken during the winter.

The shot above was from the Sherlock Holmes premier in Leicester Square, London. It was during the winter of 2009, and a few of us camped out for a few hours to get a glimpse of the stars. It felt like it was just last month, we were standing there in the cold. Sigh, how time flies.

One of the pictures from Borough Market, London. For me, the coming of spring is trailed by stale, watered down coffee and hours of the day indoors. Exams are usually around this time and this is usually when I start drinking cheap instant coffee, just to keep awake and keep going through the night.

Above, the birds at Hyde Park. I've been going through quite a few photoblogs and travel journals. Properly documented, the travel journals serve as a great memoir for you to go back and relive those memories. Complete with interesting, catchy captions and narration, you can really go back in time with the photographs.

Picture above taken by a friend, an architectural student. It is a very fitting picture of spring in my opinion.

Anyways, with the exams looming I won't really be able to post a lot, not that I have been updating a lot. I have a huge backlog of photographs and travels to share, and hopefully I'll be able to post on a frequent basis then. 

Picture above of the friendly neighbourhood cat, London. Enjoy the rest of the pictures! Below are 2 of the scenes from Regent's Park and Borough Market.

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Bernard Chandran Autumn Winter 2010-11

Early 2010, as the cold winter is ending, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to attend a fashion show. It was my first time attending such an event, and I was super excited. Furthermore, I had the chance to use the Canon 70-200mm 2.8 L lens, which was insanely awesome (first time handling an L lens). 

The fashion show I attended was held in conjunction with the London Fashion Week. I owe my thanks to Mr Seah for all the help and guidance. =) Unfortunately, I wasn't very prepared and didn't have much practice. It was like driving a super fast car at only gear 1. Maybe gear 2.

Anyways, please enjoy some of the few shots I dared to post. The others didn't really come out that well. And the problem with using the 70-200mm, is that I was too CLOSE! I was only at the event as a guest and not an official photographer.

And if you are puzzled over what sort of 'unique' fashion this is, hi-5 to you as I really have no idea whats going on.

Maybe its just my lack of understanding for art =) Enjoy!

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London 2010 Countdown

The 2010 London countdown coverage comes in 8 months late. Yes it is indeed mega procrastination. Thankfully it is out before the 2011 countdown, otherwise I might never post it up, ever. For this photo series, I did not go for long exposure method, with the long light trails. But I would definitely want to try them next time.

2009 marks another amazing year in university, with plenty of amazing and fun experiences. It also marks the start of next step into DSLR photography. And it ended with a good display of colourful fireworks. I won't really delve into how the 2009 year has been as I'm sure you are not interested. Instead I'll just stick to the photographs.

This is my favourite scene of the fireworks show. It isn’t the flashy blasts of lights display or the bombastic explosions in the sky. I was mesmerized by the millions of floating lights in the sky, which is like a brilliant display of stars in the sky. And the stars seem to be drawing nearer as it floats down. 

The countdown was held at the London Eye, along the Thames River. The entire area was literally filled with people, and the few of us were waiting in the freezing cold about 3-4 hours before to get a good view. 

Seasoned countdown-goers were there with mini chairs and hot chocolate, picnicking in the cold while waiting. That is something to note for those of you going for the next one. The above picture contains few of the many colours the London Eye lights up in. Quite a beautiful mix of colours.

Unfortunately, things weren't so rosy after the countdown. Drunk or overly excited people started to get rowdy, and being stuck with thousands of people taking the tube at once is hardly a pleasant experience. Best to have an accommodation nearby to avoid the mass exodus of people going home. Do be careful when you are going for these events!

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Old Trafford - MU vs WW

On the 15th of Dec, Alex and I went to Manchester to watch a match. Well I don't really know football, but according to Alex, tickets were cheap at GBP50? I wanted the experience, so why not. Went down to Manchester for a night.

Many thanks to my college mate Siak Gee for having us over. Also had a tour around the city courtesy of Alexis. Didn't really spot anything extraordinary in the city, so no pics there.

Oh, if you are still wondering what were the words at the bottom of each picture, they are the chants from the fans. You can hear them here at http://www.fanchants.com/football-team/manchester_united/. I've only included the ones I like, but you can find more over there.

Well I must comment in a cliché manner that, the experience was so surreal. Outside the stadium everything seems normal and you keep seeing bare concrete walls and metal stairs. But once you come across the door which leads inside the stadium, its like an opening into another world. With seating capacity of 75,957 (wiki), it feels amazing being in the stands.

In the Owen Hargreaves pic, directly opposite from where the view is in the corner the opposition stand. Just the 2 columns. If I'm not mistaken less than 1000 Wolverhampton fans were present.

I'm not really a football person, but it was fun. Especially exhilarating when goals are scored. Other than that, the ball just goes back and forth across the field. Luckily the funny chants from the fans were quite the amusement.

We went for the Old Trafford tour the next day, which takes you around the stadium and into the off limit places. You even get to walk right next to the pitch (not on it though). It was an interesting experience, but I doubt I'll be paying so much to watch a football match again.

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London Photowalk 1

After getting a DSLR, I've been taking a lot of photos, about 8 gigs after about 7 months. I've never really uploaded my pictures, just a few occasionally on facebook when I'm harassed to do so. Considering it's the exam season, and I need a healthy stress outlet, I decided to work on this photoblog (after months of procrastination) during whatever leisure time I have.

Well, this is the first edition of the London.Photowalk series! Photowalk series are a bunch of random pictures of my extended period of time at a place; in this case London.Photowalk to me, means exactly as the words literally say; photography walks. Just me and the camera walking about.

I kinda like the name photowalk, and the idea for the name photowalk came from a blog I frequently follow, dannychoo.com. Was always fascinated by the photographs posted, and I wanted to share the same fascination I had. I also like the concept of how boston.com tells its photo news stories. I guess I'm trying to go for something similar to it.

The first five pictures of this photowalk is of Caffé Concerto at Regent's Street, London. Went here on an outing with 2 lovely ladies for some cakes and hot drinks.

Beautiful cosy place, with one of the most wicked hot chocolates I've ever had. Extremely chocolaty with the smooth rich taste. The taste is quite good surprisingly considering no sugar was added.

It was just early winter, and we would have short moments of sleet, especially at night. I'm currently staying at tower hamlets, one of the boroughs in London. Tower Hamlets is one of the designated boroughs which will be hosting the London 2012 Olympic Games. I hope I'm still in London when the Olympic Games are here.

Initially my housemates and I were quite worried to be moving in to this area. It was extremely dodgy looking, although not as bad as the Hackney area, which felt as though we would get robbed any moment. Must the the exaggeration from the media and so on.

But after living in this part of London for 7 months, thankfully it has been incident free. As long as you respect others and stay out of trouble, no trouble (or not much) will come your way. Really enjoying the place, as our neighbourhood has a Mega-huge Sainsbury's 3 minutes away.

Picture above taken at Primrose Hill. It was an outing to see a comet/meteorite, but the skies were empty except for the occasional air planes. Still, it was not a wasted experience, quite fun just hanging about in the freezing winds with my mates.

Well, I won't be doing a lot of commenting; so I'll drop you off here. I particularly like the last photo, it was displayed above a cinema. Enjoy!

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