A Soho Photo-Wander

I decided to get out and do some photography yesterday. It wasn't the best day for it, with a flat gray sky and subdued light, but since I'd spent the whole previous day basically on the couch, I had to get my body moving.

I took the tube down to Bond Street and walked through the fancy shopping area, which I may revisit at night once the holiday decorations are all up and lit. I explored a few quiet side streets until I crossed Regent Street into Soho.

I can never resist a self-portrait!

I saw some interesting characters wandering around, including a big bearded man in black palazzo pants with a bejeweled broach on the front of his stylish turban. I also saw a whole busload of guys dressed like Bedouin sheiks in flowing robes and scimitars, and at first I thought they were Middle Eastern tourists -- but I think they were actually part of a film shoot.

This elaborate sidewalk mosaic commemorates John Flaxman, a British sculptor who lived nearby. Wikipedia says he was "a sickly child, high-shouldered, with a head too large for his body." But he apparently overcame his infirmities, had a distinguished career, married and died at 71 in 1826.

I would like to have taken a photo of the whole thing, but it was too big. You can even see it on Google Earth.

I walked over to Covent Garden, passing the obelisk at Seven Dials. I popped into a shop called Magma that had some interesting photography books -- I bought one by Stefano Samà called "People Buying Plants," which he shot over a year at the Columbia Flower Market. It is exactly as the title describes -- pictures of people buying plants, which I thought was a pretty fun idea for a book.

Finally I made my way via St. Giles and Denmark Street back to Soho, where I walked up Carnaby Street. I suppose those big boxy things are holiday decorations, but they remind me more of Skylab. Maybe I have to see them lit to appreciate them.

Otherwise, I did a load of laundry and plowed through a bit more of "Bleak House." Dave and I started two shows last night, a documentary about the Yorkshire Ripper and a drama called "A Confession" on Netflix, and only after watching a couple of episodes did we conclude that we'd seen them both before. We don't really remember them, though, so I think we'll keep watching! Everything old is new again.