The last Sunday in May I was photographing the annual Pagan Pride Parade in central London. It’s an event I’ve photographed several times before, certainly in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008 where you can see pictures on My London Diary, and possibly in early years, when I was still using film. It’s an event that has being going for I think around ten years and has changed a little over that time but is still basically similar.
Jack in the Green gets into the fountain
This year I remembered the one vital piece of equipment for the day, a pair of decently waterproof shoes, as one of the more important parts of the event is dancing around and through the fountains in Russell Square, a circle containing computer controlled jets which rise and fall, sometimes rather unpredictably.
For most of the pictures in this pool I used the D700 with the 16-35mm lens, both reasonably shower-proof, working with my a microfibre cloth clutched inside my left hand to wipe the splashed off the UV filter on its front. Nikon do make a very nice 14-24mm lens, but it has a bulbous front element which means you can’t use a filter – just like the Sigma 12-24 which I used in some previous years in this situation. I’m rather less happy keeping wiping a curved lens surface than a disposable filter.
Eventually the front element of that 12-24mm did get scratched and pitted, making it unusable, and although I was able to get it replaced, it did cost around £90 and take two months to get the job done. A replacement filter from Hong Kong would have been around a fiver with postage.
It isn’t easy to photograph the dancing, because the main thing about it is simply chaos, and it’s the kind of event where you just have to keep on working and hope to get what you want, but you are very dependent on the event itself, and perhaps this year it didn’t quite develop as much as it has on previous occasions.
From the pool the parade led on through Bedford Square and into the courtyard of the British Museum – an addition to its route which apparently began last year. It makes for some good backgrounds for pictures. I left the parade there as it headed back to carry on with its private events inside Conway Hall where photographers are not welcome and instead went to one of my favourite London pubs, recently restored to its Victorian splendour, the Princess Louise.
Quite a lot of pictures from this year’s event on My London Diary.
