London Meetup - The Revenge Of the Lens Thread

LaFoto · Sep 9, 2006

Teehee, I'm just seeing that Duncan made my pic into his avatar, the fisheye pic of him trying out the 100-400mm lens for the first time. :lol:

Cool avatar! :lol:

PlasticSpanner · Sep 9, 2006

Just 4 more from me.

A flash car.

Rob.

Cupid.

The bright lights of the city.

OK That's my lot! Time to pick a couple of favourites & get them in the darkroom.

Antarctican · Sep 10, 2006

Day 1

Shortly after I joined the rest of the gang in the late afternoon, we all headed off to Soho Square to take the traditional TPF Salute picture. Lafoto was in charge.

After dinner in Chinatown, the diehards made their way to Picadilly Circus to take some nighttime shots.

^^^ Eros statue in Picadilly Circus

Finally, I was the only one left standing (probably because Id started my picture taking so much later than the others). So I made my way down to Trafalgar Square and the embankment to continue taking some shots.

Day 2

The majority of the group (eventually) met up at Euston before heading over to Canary Wharf. The swapping of the cameras and lenses began!

^^^ Duncan and Corinna

Soon it was time for another group shot.

Back Row: Notegraphics/Jerry, Rob, PlasticSpanner/Chris, Simon, Scurra/Ben, Antarctican/Jeanne, Lostprophet/Andy
Front Row: Lafoto/Corinna, Duncanp/Duncan, Lil Loui/Louise, Hertz van Rental/Graham

after which the cameras were checked in case any had sustained damage by having been subjected to such torture.

^^^ Ben & Louise

Then it was time for a two mile forced hike to The Gun pub, just to test Jerrys resolve. Along the way there were plenty of photo ops.

At long last we reach the pub, only to be told the chef hadnt shown up, so there was just minimal food service (bread, olives, fish pate, sausage, and chips/fries). Everyone kept their sense of humour about it though, and just kept snapping pictures.

^^^ Jerry

^^^ Rob

To be continued..

lostprophet · Sep 10, 2006

well Jeanne Jeanne the Penguin Queen it was worth wait!!

cracking shots

LaFoto · Sep 10, 2006

Cool. You captured the "Making of Duncanp's new avatar"-moment

. For that was when with Andy's fisheye lens on my camera I took Duncan's pic trying out Rob's (I think) 100-400mm lens for the first time. Nice.

And hey. The one of me setting up the "TPF-Salute"-shot is actually quite a nice photo of myself. That one I even like (for a change). Cool. Thanks for that one.

Antarctican · Sep 10, 2006

Thanks LP and LF!! There are more to come, but it'll have to wait 'til tonight as it takes soooo long to upload the images. LP - the shots of you are in part 2 :sexywink:

. And glad to hear you liked the shot of you, Lafoto. :blushing:

lostprophet · Sep 10, 2006

Antarctican said:
LP - the shots of you are in part 2 .

how does $5,000,000 sound NOT to post them?

LaFoto · Sep 10, 2006

Maybe I can post some more until Jeanne gets ready to post her pics of Andy and others? (And no sum of money will do, you pics WILL get posted, Andy!) (Won't they, Jeanne?)

This was somewhere near Soho Square, taken on the first of our two meet-up days.

And here are a good number of Canary Wharf pics/architectural abstracts:

I don't think there's one of us (apart from Hertz, I guess) who did NOT take a pic of this reflection!?!?!?

Which version do you prefer?
Original?

Or B+W tinted?

Different pic:

And then we got thrown out of Canary Wharf Shopping Mall...

LaFoto · Sep 10, 2006

Some more:

And one more people-pic, a little less abstract, and so totally NOT showing at what time we finally found Jerry who had been waiting for us at Canary Wharf since ... when? 10? 11? :wink:

LaFoto · Sep 10, 2006

Ah, and my "fruit in sparkling water"-pics:

Jeanne, now hurry up, I can't keep this alive forever

!!!

PlasticSpanner · Sep 10, 2006

Yes Jeanne, great first set! Can't wait to see the second lot. :thumbup:

Nice shots too Corinna! I'm glad the colourful cafe shot turned out. You seemed a little dissapointed with it at the time but it looks cool!

We need more shots from Andy & Ben now too.

Antarctican · Sep 10, 2006

lostprophet said:
how does $5,000,000 sound NOT to post them?

Ooooo, sorry, your cheque bounced. So I'm gonna hafta post 'em. :greenpbl:

LaFoto · Sep 11, 2006

*tapping foot* I am waiting ... Jeanne ... *tapping foot even more* ... WAITING!

Antarctican · Sep 11, 2006

So, where did I leave off? Oh yeah, we’re at the pub-with-no-food and everyone is taking pictures and socializing:

Shortly after 4:00 some of the group had to start the trek home, while the rest of us took the Docklands Railway back to the Embankment tube station. Which is where I almost got busted by the transit police for having failed to swipe my transit card back at the docklands.

It’s the one time, I forgot to swipe it, the one time (really)! Luckily my charming Canadian accent (?!) indicated I’m not from here, eh? And after flashing a big innocent smile

and making an expression of true remorse :blushing: , I was told to be more careful next time and I didn’t have to pay the fine. Whew!

Rob, our knowledgeable tour guide, led us along the north side of the river, past quaint structures and touristy sights like Tower Bridge (which I am assured is available for purchase, together with some swampland in Florida), the monument to the Great Fire (see below), and St. Paul’s, which I’m surprised to see is still being renovated, since it was under scaffolding when I was in London two years ago.

We take the wobbly bridge across to the south side of the river and continue to the Oxo building. On a high floor there’s a lovely lounge where we have a drink while seeing the skyline at dusk.. Simply beautiful, and it’s a spot I would guess most tourists don’t know about.

Afterwards, it’s time to say goodbye to Simon, Chris and Andy who have to catch their trains home.

Ben, Louise, Rob and I head off to find a nice spot for dinner. Rob takes us to a wine bar that’s in a converted wine cellar. It rather resembles a cave…lit by candlelight (with barely standing headroom, and water running down the walls and onto our table.) That makes it sound weird, but it was actually a very cool spot. We share a nice bottle of wine and then head to the buffet…..only to be told we’ve juuuuuuust missed the last chance to have food there. :er:

^^^^ Ben in the wine cellar

So off we head to Chinatown where we finally get some food! Afterwards, we say our goodbyes and look forward to the next international meetup.

All the people who attended this meetup were a ton of fun. I’d like to thank each one of you for making it a memorable occasion, filled with laughter and good times. You made this ‘bloody foreigner’ feel most welcome (well, for the most part. I did take my share of joshing&#8230