There was no sign of Aurora where the #Iceride protesters were gathering in the Victoria Tower Gardens, and the Greenpeace media people weren’t over helpful, though they did tell us to expect her coming over Lambeth Bridge. We went there and waited. And waited.
Paw marks but no bear
We found a group of #Iceride cyclists on the Albert Embankment, but they seemed equally in the dark. Then at last we saw a few Greenpeace stewards making their way across the bridge and finally they admitted they were on their way to the polar bear, and we followed them down the Lambeth Rd.
If I’d stayed on the train to Waterloo I would probably have spotted the giant bear in a yard next to the railway bridge, but on Sundays my trains call at Vauxhall, from where a bus took me directly to the advertised meeting point. But despite all the waiting we still got there before Aurora with its teams of pullers and crew left the yard for her slow journey to the Shell Centre.
It isn’t easy to navigate a 3-ton polar bear the size of a double-decker bus crewed by a team of twenty and powered by another 20 or so on ropes, and for a while it seemed touch and go whether Aurora would make it out of her lair and on to the A3203 or not. But eventually she was making her way down the Lambeth Rd to the roundabout by Lambeth Palace.
The plan had been for her to go over Lambeth Bridge and past Parliament, returning to the South Bank and the Shell Centre over Westminster Bridge. I’d already decided a key image would be on the bridge, with the Houses of Parliament behind – as had probably every other photographer out that day.
But the weather had robbed us of our cliché. High winds and a forecast of heavy rain meant the team had decided it was unsafe to cross the bridges, where strong winds blow unchecked down the river, and Aurora was to take a shorter direct route on the south bank.
By the roundabout at the ‘south’ end of Lambeth Bridge (the Thames actually runs roughly west to east, so this is a kind of liturgical south, being on that side of the river which is flowing roughly north here) on the is a large and I think rather ugly block of flats (what estate agents term a prestigious development) called Parliament View. For £3000 per calendar month you can rent a flat there with a perfect trajectory to the Houses of Parliament only around 650 yards away, though I suspect would be renters get a fairly strict vetting from the nearby MI5 in Thames House just across the river. But I went for the cheaper option of trespassing on the steps and garden area around its front.
Which was fine except for a little street furniture when Aurora came down the Lambeth Road, and I moved into position for a picture as, together now with a large crowd of followers who had swarmed across Lambeth Bridge she turned the corner to go in front of the river frontage of the HoP.
She was coming up to the right position and I took a few pictures. But at the critical moment, Aurora disappeared behind a No 3 double-decker bus, waiting to get on to the roundabout. And waiting, while I tried running back and forth to get a better view. It almost happened but not quite. It wouldn’t quite have worked event without the bus, as the bear had turned around just a little too much before coming in front to the building.
It was time to photograph some of the people who were following Aurora, some in bear costumes and other fancy dress, as well as the team of three dancers who were in front of the bear. At the Westminster Bridge roundabout we got another glimpse of Big Ben in the distance, but it didn’t make a great picture for me. There was a little too much harassment by police and stewards to make it easy.
But finally on York Road, close to the end, I made an image that satisfied me. This was an event with very few placards, but I saw rather a good circular one, and an idea for a picture.
It wasn’t easy to get and keep in the right position in the crowd, as both bear and placard were moving, the placard rather more erratically. It was easy for people to get in the way too, and they did. But the main problem was the difference in size so I had to keep the two at very different distances and zoom to frame.
I took 21 frames working at the idea – the best was frame 16. The focal length needed varied from 39 to 99mm (equivalent) with the 18-105mm on the D800 and was 93mm equiv on the image above. Working at ISO800 I had closed down the aperture to f14, giving me a usable shutter speed of 1/200 but not quite enough depth of field. The placard is sharp, but the bear is just out of focus. I decided it was sharp enough for the image to work (with just a little help from Lightroom ‘Clarity’.)
There were some interesting moments at the rally at the Shell Centre, with some chances to use both the 10.5mm fisheye and the 70-300 at up to full stretch (45omm equiv) and you can see these at Aurora tells Shell – Stop Arctic Drilling.
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My London Diary : Buildings of London : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage
All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated are by Peter Marshall and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.
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