Notting Hill Carnival 2013

What I wanted to do: walk the entire Notting Hill carnival route (from the top of Great Western Road all the way round to Ladbroke Grove).
What I ended up doing: walking against the route and deviating from it at the bottom of Great Western Road (the crowds got a bit too big to pass). Mission almost accomplished.

I've never walked the full carnival route from start to finish (or finish to start, whichever way you head). It takes a lot of patience and careful timing. Leave too early and there's nothing on the street, too late and you'll just see the tops of other people's heads. I live really near to the "holding area" of the route where the floats and dancers line up before starting the procession at 12 noon, so I could either walk with the flow and look at people, or walk in the opposite direction and re-join the procession somewhere in the middle. I started with the former, got to the top of Great Western Road then walked back, as going against the route would provide better photo opportunities. Crowds are good for street photography and candids but if you're only out for that when there's a carnival going on around you're a bit odd.

Some of the day's better shots:

 Air drumming

 Where's Wally?

This guy was fun, he was really feeling the music.

Train tickets costume.

 "On the Beat". For the bobbies.

I didn't ignore all street photo opportunities. This kid standing on a window sill with black bar shades was too good to pass up.

Eternity Drum. One of my favourite pictures of the day. You can really feel the energy and fun in their performance.

Then I couldn't walk the rest of the route (Great Western Road was completely rammed out, and basically one-way) so I had to take a detour through Portobello Road...

...snapping one more street shot along the way for good measure.


Also goes without saying that Monday is the day to go. Sunday is a little more chilled (kids day and all) but you don't really get the full-on experience of big costumes and crowds of people. And travelling light/safe is good. I carried my little Lowepro Toploader rather than my big Crumpler Cupcake, my camera was strapped into my Pacsafe strap and I had just the bare essentials in my front pockets.

Umbrellas

It was the repeating patterns and bright colours that caught my attention on this drizzly day. I also liked that because the 2 girls were talking to each other they smushed their umbrellas together for a double canopy.

Smush is a silly word.

Spider Hunters

I saw these kids climbing trees in the woods behind my house in the Philippines. What they were doing was looking for spiders, which they would later pair up to fight against each other. Mr. Orange decided to climb the trees, while Mr. Red was on the lookout, directing Mr. Orange to where the big arachnids were.

I kept this shot in colour rather than convert to black & white as the orange and red t-shirts contrasted really well against the green leaves. The colour also helped to define the imaginary rule-of-thirds lines; the picture is divided vertically by the two trees flanking the diagonal trunk, as well as horizontally by the dark green tree canopy up top and light green scrubland down below. The kids sit nicely on the horizontal lines, with the diagonal trunk and Mr. Red's face leading your eye upwards to Mr. Orange.