An Avid Lensman

By SarumStroller

"Somehow I'll Find My Own Way Home"

Quoting the Jon & Vangelis song.

Have you ever seen Trafalgar Square so empty? 

Anyone who's ever been there on a Saturday afternoon will know just how jam packed it almost always is.

Plans in London were changed radically as, due to unforeseen circumstances, I couldn't get there until sunset, so no big lenses or big tripods (and no Des, either) and the pretty picture postcard sunset behind the Houses of Parliament, the iconic skylines and London Eye at dusk turned into prowling around the darker corners of the west End with the 11-16mm Tokina handheld, usually at 11mm, f3.2 and usually never more than iso 1600.

For a lens I thought (and bought) for really being just to get stars and stuff fixed on a tripod, it became quite a mighty weapon. You get a lot in - and in some really dark places too, though I always preferred manual focus, just so that I could stay in control.

And without this lens, this shot would not have been possible, as I also made my way home (OK, Waterloo Station, then not getting home until 1.30 a.m.), this handheld capture of this fellow weaving across the paved Serengeti under the watchful eye of a spotlit Horatio Nelson. Handheld, 1/20 sec, f2.8, iso 2500, is pretty close to the bone but I do go to London to improve my Street skills and you try to make memorable or different images of usually cliched places and situations.     

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