Around London with the Fuji X100

London is a busy place. A very busy place. For someone like me who appreciates open spaces and plenty of room to move around London can be like hell on earth. I'm not sure why you would want to live in such a congested and noisy place given the chance, but some people love its bustling, never goes to sleep nature and think quite the opposite. One thing it is good for though, even I would have to admit, is the many street photography opportunities it provides. Being so busy the keen photographer is best advised to travel light, preferably with a camera that can be shoved in to a pocket whenever needed. The Fuji X series of cameras fit this bill nicely. I've been shooting with a Fuji X100 for many months now and find its small size a great advantage in such situations as it doesn't sacrifice image quality in comparison to much larger and heavier DSLR's. It also tends to go unnoticed by members of the public as it looks not too dissimilar to the majority of point and shoot type cameras on the market at present. With a fixed 23mm F2.0 lens, ( equivalent 35mm on full frame cameras ) it always manages to capture beautiful, saturated sharp images.

The Underground is always a great place to shoot a bit of street photography as there are normally so many people about, although if it gets too busy you can't really see the wood for the trees. People tend to keep themselves to themselves on the tube, either having a nap or their face buried in a book or tablet computer. This can make for some great images. Just remember to try not to look like some kind of stalker. The fixed 23mm lens on the X100 means you have to get in close if you want to capture images with impact and sometimes this means you can look a bit intimidating and weird. Best just to react quickly when you see a photo opportunity so the 'target', I mean subject, doesn't really know what's just happened.

Taking a nap

Colliers Wood Station 

The Tube

The museums provide some fantastic photo opportunities also, and so many of the people are using cameras of their own that you tend to be largely ignored by everyone else so can happily shoot away. The Natural History museum has some fantastic exhibits and the the architecture is particularly grand providing the opportunity for many photos.

The Natural History Museum

Many lines

The Science museum also provides an opportunity for some great photographs. Because the Science museum and the Natural History museum are right next door to each other it's easy to hop between the two. You probably need at least half a day in either one to truly appreciate what each has to offer so bear this in mind.

It's above you 

Rocket

These are just a few examples of the many places that make good street photography locations in London. There are more great areas like the colourful Chinatown, Soho and Carnaby Street that you may want to venture round so best put aside a week or so, book a room and some cheap travel and get on down there. Just be prepared for the hustle and bustle and you'll be fine.