Lomography

After taking it easy on a Saturday night, I decided to get on my bike early on a Sunday morning and see London as i never have before, desolate and peaceful. Loaded with my little Holga 135bc and a few rolls of film, I rode around London's quiet streets and shot away.

After moving from a small, relaxed beach town in Southern Sydney Australia to the fast pace lifestyle of London, I wondered what it was that everyone was always going on about how beautiful London is. It was busy, noisy and so different from home. I didn’t understand how you could actually take in the beauty of the city (that has building older than our country) with the thousands of people, both local and tourists, flooding the streets, until i ventured out early one Sunday morning.

Armed with nothing more than my bike, my bag and my Holga loaded with some black and white film, i rode to spots I had been before but had always been caught in a sea of people and never had the opportunity to really take in the beauty of my surroundings. And as soon as i stepped outside my door, i was presented with a side of London i had never seen before, a London with next to no cars, and not a soul on the street.

Excitement ran through me immediately as i could ride freely on the rode without weaving through cars and dodging pedestrians, and more so, all those places i wanted to photograph but were always too busy, would too be empty like the streets. No tourists bumping into me, no random heads getting in my shots, and most of all, being able to take my time before i shot.

Everyone when they come to London get the same photos with the same fancy digital cameras and they all look the same, this is why i set out on my adventure, to get some different pictures of London, and more so to see London in a way not many people do with the streets so empty, the water so still and everything just so quiet. It felt as though i was in some sort of film where i was the only person left in this world, and i loved it. It was the first time i could stare up at Big Ben and look at it in detail without a digital slr wielding tourist knocking into me, being able to take a while looking through my plastic viewfinder to see what angle looks best and just being able to enjoy taking the photos without any rush or waiting for a quiet moment, it was enjoyable! Never before have i seen al the tourist spots actually look appealing or seen the Thames so still and motionless, it made me see really what London is really like and it explained to me how people fall in love with London.