Just Stop Oil protest Dec 23

No prison for peaceful protest

Here are 8 shots of last week protest by climate activist group Just Stop Oil in London.

The protest was mostly against the imprisonment of members of the movement after some protest last year I think ( maybe related to Occupy Westminster ).

A very peaceful march from Scotland yard to the High court of justice. Probably as many photographers as protesters and more policemen it seemed.

I understand that as part of recent legislation changes some protest actions like road blocking can lead to prison charges for their perpetrators.

On top of this main request to free their fellow activists, they also protest against recent changes in UK policy to come back on their promises to fight climate change and limit fossil fuel exploitation.( In case you don’t know, UK has off shore fuel resources ).

Blame my inexperience in protests, but I was a bit shocked by seeing the police film the whole event. I know we live in the period of social media ( this post is proof if need be) and most people there will have their face / name in the public space, but still.

I also don’t like my journey being disrupted by protesters, but lets remember there is no planet B.

All shot’s done one a slightly expired TMX 3200, that has travelled by plane a couple of time ( here goes my carbon footprint ). Only one camera this time, the Leica M6 classic with Summicron 35mmF2 Asph. The film was shot at box speed.

There are a few more shots is the next roll, stay tuned.

The Queen is dead (The film edition)

There are a few inconvenient living close to Buckingham palace, one good thing is that its easy to drop buy when something is happening, even an unfortunate event as the passing of queen Elizabeth II.

It was easy to go a couple of times over the fatal week end, shoot a bit of film, with the M6 and the Summicron 50v5.

Oh we are 20th of October 2022 today, so from now on I have to specify that my M6 is an original classic one with alloy body, not the new version with mate paint over brass body, as it seems these things matters to camera makers.

This is part of a roll of Ilford HP5, hand rolled from the 30 meters spool I bought nearly 2 years ago, processed at the usual Analogue Films Lab in Shoreditch.

The two days were quite different, the Friday being is, may I say, more interesting and laid-back, we could even see the King getting out of the palace. The area before the palace was easy to access, and I circled it a few times.

Saturday, the place was packed to the point of not being accessible (no interest if you ve been here the day before), and the crowd was mostly laying flowers in Green Park.

It was a heyday for photographers, even for smartphotographers from Asia.

Talking about the event with my wife we remembered that we witnessed the passing of King Baudouin of Belgium in 1993 while we were living there (sorry I don have any pictures) and the one of Lee Kwan Yew in Singapore in 2015 (you can find some of my pictures here), but don’t go imagining things.

The Philippino ladies kindly agreed to have their pix taken

Are you ok?

Good bye Mister Lee – Day two

On the second day or the mourning, the body is mister Lee was visible in the Parliament house. A large crowd attended the transfer itself early in the morning. From then the body of mister Lee was visible for the public inside the parliament.

A large queue started to form and when I stepped outside of home and head to the river, by 3pm the queue was zig zagging along more than 6km to end up around Clark Quay.

People with flowers were trying to reach the start of the queue

The queue was turning along new bridge road up to Hong Lim park. Luckily there was shade for most of this stretch.

Not so lucky were the people still on the bridge.

The police organized the queue, but everybody was polite and patient it seemed. No the policeman is not pointing at me.

Some more far-sighted people have brought umbrellas and seats.

Staff from Song Fa Bak Kut Teh shop were distributing water to people in the queue passing by their shop.

I made it to Canvenagh bridge in 30 minutes, probably it will be 4 hours minimum for the people in the queue and from here a good one to two hours extra to get the parliament. I could not cross so I walked back along the queue.

Opposite the Fullerton hotel, some guys were distributing water.

Another refreshment point in front of Maybank

The queue passed with Marina Bay Sands in the background, the latest Icon of the capital city.

I really hope this woman did not have to go back all the way to Clarke Quay to queue. People I met at this point had no idea how far the start of the queue was.

Today’s walk from the back of the queue up to Cavenagh bridge, took me a good hour.

All pictures with Leica M4

Summilux 50mm1.4
Rollei RPX100 or Kodak Tri-x