London

The Shell Centre, South Bank, River Thames, London. Undergoing refurbishment. It's pretty brutal but there are actually some lovely features – I'm waiting to see if they survive – including the layout of the public space around it. The bronze window frames and Portland Stone cladding were apparently criticised when it was new, for being backward-looking. In fact, I think they've helped it age rather better than a lot of its (1961) contemporaries.

Can't decide how best to crop this one... This, or this ?

Can't decide how best to crop this one... This, or this ?

I love this little hairdressers salon in Blackheath – the polished gold metalwork, that red neon sign – it's straight out of the... what, 50's? 60's? Even the notice stuck to their door is on antediluvian notepaper with their logo just as it is on the neon, a diagonally tabulated address, and an 01 xxx xxxx phone number...

I was about to follow Alexandra through there. But although she ran pretty damn fast, she got an awful lot more wet than any of us expected ;-)

Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, and approximately 5565 close friends, in Trafalgar Square to break the world record (previously of 1789, by some colonials) for the number of people simultaneously making horsey noises (clip, clop) with coconut shells. To the tune of "Always look on the bright side of life!" :-) I no longer have my coconuts, because a random person asked if he could have a shot, and later bought me a beer as a thank-you. I felt it was only fair to let him keep the clip-cloppers! It was a cool evening like that. I also met the son of a former Turkmen ambassador to Moscow. I'd say "small world" but that would imply I had any other connection to Turkmenistan, which I really don't. But still... news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/6586187.stm

Shamelessly manipulated cos it was otherwise a fairly unsatisfying photo without enough contrast. But I do love the way such street artists can be found even in grimy London. One associates them so much more with Venice or at least Paris...

Tucked away beneath Canon Street station on the north bank of the Thames.

Yeah... well, it's not the glossy saturated HDR you're used to. But I quite liked the effect. It's three shots (+/- one stop) with the camera not on a tripod, but resting on a pillar.

The least blurry of my attempts to hold the camera for a third of a second or more! I loved the sky, with the detail of the decaying vapour trail which only really revealed itself in the longer exposures. Looks great on the camera's small screen! ;) Try on black .

Not toned to blue — mostly just playing with the white balance really. And I need to sort out my monitor gamma because it looks SO much better and brighter in Lightroom than here. View it bigger to get any of the detail: big or huge . See also in sepias (again mostly just from white balance): here .