If you haven’t been to the Royal Academy of Arts in a while then chances are you’ve missed some fantastic work by renowned sculpter Anish Kapoor.  Best known for his large scale works of art in the Tate Modern Turbine Hall and in Chicago, Kapoor is the first living artist to have a major solo exhibition at the Royal Academy.  I’m coming a bit late to this exhibition as its been at the Academy for a few months now, but i’m so glad I found it last weekend.

If you haven’t seen the exhibition yet, then I have one word for you…HURRY!   Its only on until the 11th December and then it packs up and moves on.  Even if you don’t have time to see the exhibition in its entirety then just pop down Picadilly and take a look at the fantastic sculpture “Tall Tree and the Eye” that sits in front of the Royal Academy in the Annenberg Courtyard.  It is this sort of work that Kapoor is perhaps best known for and this new scultpure is certainly drawing the crowds in London.  I’m really hoping that when the exhibition closes this sculpture finds a permanent home in London as a piece of public art.

You can find out more information about the exhibition including ticket details at the Royal Academy’s website http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/

If ever there was proof needed that the people of Speakers Corner are dedicated (or crazy and obsessed) you would only have to look at today.  Despite freezing temperatures and really heavy showers three Speakers dutifully turned out to entertain the crowds.

Well I say crowds, but to be honest there were only about 15 people there and they weren’t all that enthusiastic!  Most seemed to see how quiet it was and give up only staying for a few minutes.  Even one of the speakers who was there couldn’t be bothered and just sat there on his stool in the rain. Bit crazy if you ask me!

But despite the wind and rain, and the lack of much of a crowd one of the Speakers was going full force.  He wasn’t one i’ve heard before, but his message wasn’t that uncommon.  He was talking about the most common topic in the Corner, religion.  He was obviously a proponent of a particular type of Christianity.  But my description isn’t brilliant so why don’t you listen to the two audio clips i’ve posted to get a better idea.  I have to say I think even the most religious people will disagree with this guys wide definition of what qualifies as murder!

Today about 1,000 students marched through central London calling for greater government action to tackle the increasing problem of youth unemployment.  The group, called Youth Fight for Jobs started off at Malet Street surrounded by the University of London (where I have just finished as it happens) and finished across the river in Lambeth.

Although I knew today’s protest was going on I hadn’t actually planned on shooting it.  I was actually in town to start my Christmas shopping and see a couple of exhibitions.  It was by pure chance that as I left the National Portrait Gallery (where i’d been to see the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize – which is well worth a visit) the protest was heading down Charing Cross Road.

To be honest I probably shouldn’t have tried to photograph the protest with a bag of christmas shopping in one hand  Not the best decision i’ve ever made and I definitely won’t try do it again in the future.

(To see the video in HD click the video)

This morning at about 7.30 I was already awake and on the Tube heading to Westminster.  Now I normally don’t do early mornings, especially on Sunday’s but today is a bit different.  I have an American friend in town at the moment who was quite keen to attend the Remembrance day service and parade so I decided to tag along.  As it always is it was a very powerful and moving service and my friend was grateful that he had the opportunity to see it while he’s here (he served in the US Army).

From a photography point of view I was a bit disappointed to be honest.  Even though we got there really early, others had arrived even earlier and taken the best positions.  But the main reason I was disappointed was that it was so grey and overcast that it became harder to get decent shots (at least with my limited skills) and typically i’d left my flash at home.  Ironically because we had a restricted view we ended up watching most of the service itself on my iPhone (using the excellent live TV service TVCatchup.

Despite all the problems I am still really glad I went and saw it in person.

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”

- For the Fallen, by Laurence Binyon

Tomorrow marks the official opening of the annual Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey in advance of the coming Remembrance Sunday.  That means that the workers from the Royal British Legion start working today to place the thousands of remembrance crosses in the grounds of the Abbey ahead of tomorrow’s Royal Opening with the Duke of Edinburgh.  I always try to make sure to visit the site every year, even though I have never lost anyone in a war, my grandfather spent most of his career in the Army so I think its important.

The Field of Remembrance is open at Westminster Abbey until the 14th November so if you do get a chance to visit and see it for yourself I would recommend it.  Alternatively you can go to the other site in Cardiff in Cathays Park.

Tonight at 8pm hundreds of people gathered in Trafalgar Square for what was billed as candle-lit vigil against a recent spate of homophobic attacks in the capital.  The vigil was arranged after a civil servant, Ian Baynham, was beaten to death in Trafalgar Square simply because he was gay.   Hundreds of people, gay and straight, joined together to take a stand against hate crimes.  It was quite a sight to see.

The event became much larger than originally intended and it ended up turning into a First International day of Remembrance for Victims of Hate-Crimes.  I decided to go along and take some pictures after work, but unfortunately ran into problems quite quickly as I got camera problems.  My camera wouldn’t read any of my memory cards.  So in the end I left before the event had really started so I can’t give you any details about what happened.  However in the short time I did manage to get a few shots, but I also recorded a bit of audio from the London Gay Men’s Chorus.

This is the first time i’ve tried audio like this on the blog so I hope it works!

This Sunday the NFL returns to London for its third regular season game which will see the New England Patriots face off against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  Now i’m the first to admit I just don’t “get” American football, i’ve tried watching it in the past but quickly got bored, especially with all the stopping and starting.

But with the cheerleaders and mascot of the Patriots heading to the London Eye this afternoon I volunteered to take some shots for the good folks over at Londonist for their coverage this weekend.  Now I don’t know a thing about NFL, I couldn’t name the top teams or players, but from what I’ve read i’m fully expecting a Patriots win this weekend, especially as the Buccaneers have yet to win a game this season.  But saying that, I will be watching the game this Sunday anyway to give it another chance.

Now if they’d only bring Major League Baseball over to the UK that would be great, I might even buy tickets to that.

Today saw a really odd event hit London – Bodies in Urban Spaces, by Willi Dorner.  Basically its a piece of public art/dance where around twenty dancers explore a part of a city, in this case the London Bridge area of London, creating human sculptures along the route.

It’s quite a frantic event really with each sculpture only in place for a few minutes.  Today’s event started at the South end of London Bridge and then worked its way around the area ending up at City Hall by the Tower of London.  In total it took about an hour, but time flew by!

The event seemed really popular, especially for something labelled as dance.  But I would guess there were nearly 100 people following the route (maybe more) and taking pictures as we went.  Personally I don’t know how the dancers managed to do it, even though they were only in each position for a few minutes they looked so uncomfortable.

This weekend is the first time that Willi Dorner has brought his piece to London, but it has toured around the world visiting a number of countries including Austria, the US, Sweden, Russia, France and Switzerland.  In the past the events have occasionally run into trouble as local police have mistakenly believed the dancers to be burglars attempting to break into properties.

If you are in London and are interested in seeing this in person (which I would highly recommend you do) as long as you are reading this today then you can see the final performance tomorrow at 1pm.  You’ll need to get to the Needle Sculpture at the South End of London Bridge and keep an eye out for the organisers in orange jackets.

For more information head over to the website www.danceumbrella.co.uk which lists all the events.  A word of warning, if you’re going to take pictures you need to be prepared for a bit of pushing.  At today’s event there were a couple of photographers who were very rude, one woman in particular.  They happily stood in front of others time and time again, and then pushed others aside so they could get their shot!

I think this is my favourite time of year in London.  The temperature drops a little bit and you can feel autumn setting in.  But  I think the main reason I like this time of year is that it starts to get dark a little bit earlier.  That tends to mean that as I’m leaving work the lighting is perfect.  I’m not a great night time photographer, but the sky at around 5.30-6.00pm at the moment is perfect for the sort of night photography I do like.

So taking advantage of this, yesterday as I left work I decided to stop opposite the London Eye on the Embankemnt  to take a few shots and this is what I got.  While the light stays this way I’ll probably try and do a few more night time shots so keep an eye out in the next week or so.

OK so this is a bit different from what I usually post, but much of last weekend was devoted to food so I thought I would do a short post on my foodie weekend.  As i’ve mentioned before my brother Edd is a real foodie, so when he comes to visit we tend to focus a lot on food.  This weekend was no different and this time we focused on chocolate, as it is currently National chocolate week.

The main event was “Chocolate Unwrapped”, essentially a chocolate fair at the May Fair Hotel.  The event showcased some of the UK’s greatest chocolate companys, including the London based Rococo Chocolates and Paul A. Young.  It should come as no surprise that we left the hotel with a fair bit of excellent chocolate, including a marmite chocolate from Paul A. Young.

Now this doesn’t sound very nice, and frankly it wasn’t.  It was pretty awful if i’m honest, but when you see something like that you just have to try it.  While the marmite might not have gone down too well, Paul A. Young’s other chocolates were spectacular, especially his Salted Caramel.  While we were at Chocolate Unwrapped we also met Louise Thomas, otherwise known as The Chocolate Consultant!  Does that not sound like the perfect job!!  Do take a look at her website which launches today as it sounds like a very interesting venture.

The other food highlight of the weekend was without doubt brunch at The Breakfast Club in Soho.  I’m not saying this is the place to go for fancy posh food, far from it, but if you want a really great meal in a great atmosphere then this is the place to go.  And it’s all reasonably priced as well.  I had the “The American” which was brilliant, while Edd had the pancakes which he loved.  I honestly can’t think of a better way to spend a Sunday morning than this place.  I will definitely be returning!

You can find the Soho Breakfast Club at 33 D’Arby Street just off the Tottenham Court Road end of Oxford Street, and they also have other locations in Hoxton and Angel.