Shakedown 2011 part one: the machines

Bank holiday Monday was a scorcher, as is usually the case for the annual bank holiday Shakedown motorbike rally.

Every Easter, tens of thousands of bikers, scooterists and trike lunatics mob up at the Ace cafe just outside London and ride to Southend, sit around eating ice cream and ride home. All for charity.

So I went down the seafront with Nath to record the moment.

Shot using a Leica D-Lux 4, unphotoshopped (where do you find the time?) and unmanipulated, other than using the pinhole setting on the camera and a polarising filter.

D-Lux 4: pimp my little Leica

I fancied getting a bit more experimental with my picture taking the other day so started to Google polarizing lenses for the camera.

While I have yet to discover the correct accessories to attach said lens to my camera, I have stumbled upon some fine examples of D-Lux 4 pimpery. It seems there's a whole legion of nutters out there accessorising their  cameras with rare and hard to find equipment.

If I ever find the relevant adaptor myself I will be able to let you know if this actually makes for an improved image.

I found the image above and below are of a camera owned by Tetsu Sawamura. This is his list of accessories for the image above.

Panasonic DMW-LA4
46-52mm stepup ring
52mm protect filter
Voigtländer LH-3 lens hood
Pax view finder for wide conversion lens
Leica hand grip for D-LUX 4

London: the glorious East

Found myself round Spitalfields and Brick Lane way last week, always good for a few shots.

I should thank Nath for the pic of the church, I was facing the other way when he spotted the sun on it.

Those of you familiar with Brick Lane and Shoreditch High Street will recognise a few of these places. I was quite impressed with the Conor Harrington near the Truman Brewery. That would have required a bit of nifty ladder work.

Barcelona: Gaudi in the city

It's one thing to build a few buildings in a park, completely another for city planners to let you loose on an apartment block or two. But to build a cathedral? That requires friends in high places.

The trouble with having friends in extremely high places, however, is that you have to get yourself killed to meet them. Someone must have been desperate, because Antoni Gaudi didn't even get to finish the Santa Familia before his time came up.

Not that he would have lived to see it finished even of he hadn't got ran over by that tram. He was 74 at the time.

More than 120 years later, the place is still a building site.

At least he finished a couple of apartment blocks though.

I know this is yet another load of pictures from a trip you probably forgot I'd taken by now, but I reckon they're worth seeing all the same.