Hackney Carnival 2018

The sun was shining and Hackney, London, England held its Carnival on the 9^th September 2018. This carnival was nearby and you could move freely to take pictures.

I went back in time to my first digital SLR camera. I purchased this camera in 2006 and it had Six Megapixels. What was in important was that it had a RAW mode for capturing images. I charged up my 4 AA size batteries. The camera had a 18 to 55 mm digital lens and I packed my 55 to 200 mm digital lens. I found as many 1 Gb SD cards as I could because nothing else would do.

The camera was set to sunlight white balance, ISO 200 (the lowest it can go), aperture f5.6, with the shutter speed allowed to automatically adjust.

As can be seen above there was not going to be an issue in terms of the quality of the images captured. However, I did test the camera in advance to ensure that I would get good results.

With the strong sunlight the images still looked good after being processed by software.

The group images came out good. For the size of the images needed for a website you will not notice the difference between a 6 megapixel and a 24 megapixel picture.

The digital SLR camera was quick to respond to a developing story. This lady was trying to catch the young man’s attention by tripping him. I was able to capture the expression on his face.

After she got his attention she played the innocent party. Always be ready to capture a story with your camera.

The child below makes a good advertisement for something. Any suggestions?

The carnival! I started at Ridley Road which is a market that sells Caribbean food. For today it was being used for the gathering of people.

At the entrance to Ridley Road a band was playing so many different instruments and Caribbean food was being cooked for the arrival of the crowd later on. A sound system had set up its speakers.

After taking more pictures I decided to leave Ridley Road and headed up Queensbridge Road towards the park. I continued taking pictures on Queensbridge Road.

I finally reached the entrance to the park. In the park was where I needed to be. I started taking pictures whilst walking around. The 55 – 200 mm digital lens was connected to the camera to take some pictures.

After taking so many images in the park it was time to follow the last part of the parade on the street. The streets of Hackney had come alive with the carnival. Mixing with the parade and the public now involved lively pictures with a changing background for each image. The results are below.

I finally returned to Ridley Road. It was completely filled with people having a good time. The Sound Systems were playing and the people were enjoying the food.