In case you missed it, the reason I’m here in London is for a photography workshop. A week of nothing but photography, with some cultural enhancements like last night’s blues show mixed in. After a good night’s sleep, I went out late in the morning for some shooting, and then met with my fellow participants and instructors at 1:00pm.

We are a very diverse group. Steve, the organizer of the workshop whom I’ve worked with before is a Canadian living in NY. He is a very accomplished photojournalist, documentarian and has published five books of his work. Edmond, the other instructor, has also worked as a photojournalist, produced films and received many awards for his work. He was born in Iran, but has lived in the UK since the age of 8.

There are three other workshop participants along with me. Philip, Q and Alain. All live in the US. Philip was here since Friday night, while Q (a woman) arrived this morning and is still seriously jet lagged. Alain is in town, but was sick today. So we had an excellent student/instructor ratio today: 3:2. But there was only a little “instruction” today, mostly organizational and scheduling issues.

I started my shooting today (1) by taking a walk (2) across the Thames to the South Bank, and area I had never really explored before. The part right over the Waterloo Bridge is fairly commercial, with some modern office building and the Waterloo Train Station.

But after walking for a while we found a nice street with some interesting people and older building and shops.

Later we met back with the group in Covent Garden, and then it began to pour. We and everyone looked for a place to hide from the rain, which meant that thousands had to crowd under eaves and into shops. We hung out for a while in a clothing store, then sought shelter under an arcade.

We watched as people scurried by, but were captivated by a small boy who had the best idea and made a game out of the puddles.

I finished the day’s shoot by capturing some of the characters in and around the Covent Garden area.

Then we went for dinner, and headed back to our respective hotels.

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(1) After the excitement of yesterday’s Pride Day parade and celebration, I’m afraid today is going to be much less exciting.

(2) Philip joined me for this.