A Hurry Around Holland Park Japanese Gardens

Went to see the California Exhibition at the new Design Museum (disappointing) and thought a quick look at Holland Park's Japanese Gardens a good idea, brilliant sunny afternoon, which as we photographers know is very contrasty, not so good for landscape shots.

In Holland Park there are two Japanese gardens, one close to the other: the Kyoto garden and the Fukushima garden.

Kyoto garden was a cooperative project between the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the Kyoto Chamber of Commerce in Japan. It was built in 1992 to celebrate the Japan Festival in London.  A waterfall and a pond are the key points of the garden; all around there are different type of trees, including several maple trees, a few stone lanterns ishi-dōrō 石灯籠, and a tsukubai つくばい. The pond, with koi, is crossed by a bridge (in cement) and selected rocks are placed in the pond and along the shore.

Fukushima garden, inaugurated in 2012, was built to commemorate the support of the British people to the Japanese people following the natural disaster occurred on March 11, 2011. It is almost an empty space, covered by a green lawn on which a few rocks and a lantern are carefully placed. The landscape of the garden gives the feeling of emptiness left by the tsunami.

The statue is Walking Man by Sean Henry, who specialises in these human figures in a landscape.

Black and White Plus Shades of Grey

A lot of subjects I see as quite graphic and like to process as monochrome, to use that definition, as they impact better to me. This view changes from scene to scene, obviously, I like to have blocks of colour as well. Processed in the main in Lightroom, which has an abundance of adjustments.

This is a random selection from my library, all I think quite good, but I cannot be objective enough with them to differentiate sometimes, so much harder with my own stuff. Different genres of course.

A Little Loiter in London pre concert

Last Saturday I fulfilled one of my wishes, to see Penguin Cafe live, and they did not disappoint, proving to be an accomplished band indeed, playing a couple of my favourites too, Music For A Found Harmonium, Perpetuum Mobile, preceded by the very excellent Peter Broderick and Friends.

Prior to that I walked down from Leicester Square to Southbank Centre, taking in the sunshine and taking some shots. Not a fully fledged photo trip so just used Olympus M1 and Panasonic 35-100 , which was the wrong choice, should have selected 12-40. Also a final try with an old Fuji X-A1, plus 18mmf2 lens, disappointing results, so will part with.

A range of shots, but found myself not quite "in the zone", having to flaff around with Oyster Card and renew, which took ages to sort.

Anyway, tried some detail shots around National Theatre and a few on the way. My focus was on dress modes, we are so casual compared with smartness of previous generations, my grandfather never went out without suit, tie and headgear. Not wrong, just different. And the special outfits for groups on a day out, we just wear cameras.

Few different looks for the National Theatre, beautiful clouds there. The lady with the glass looked so sad, I wondered why. The Trio I liked, and the 4 friends in a line. Moments in lives. As usual red features a lot. Skateboarder needed lots of shots to get even one !