On Rememberance day, 2014, my Best Beloved and I braved the crowds to see the poppies at the Tower of London. One poppy was planted in the moat around the Tower for each British soldier lost during the Great War of 1914-1917, a total of 888,246. The poppies are ceramic, hand made and coated with enamel paint. Each is therefore unique as were the individuals that they represent. They have been sold for £25 each, the funds going to the Royal British Legion to distribute among the charities that support veterans and ex-servicemen. You can read more about the installation of poppies here: https://poppies.hrp.org.uk/about-the-installation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
We travelled to Tower Bridge tube station with relative ease, and stepped out of the station into daylight at precisely 11h00, just as the two minute silence commenced. As the last notes of The Last Post died away, we joined the procession of people making their way to the promenade around the Tower of London moat. Crowd control was abominable, as is usual in London, and the crush to pass through the six foot wide opening in the barrier around the Tower moat was painfully slow. It took us around a half an hour to get within sight of the poppies, and another half an hour to get to the edge of the moat where the only impediment to our view was the iron pallisade around the moat. The poppies have all been sold and will be up-lifted from today onwards, and despatched by post to those who have purchased them.
The light was the worst I have experienced for a long time, flat and grey with very little blue sky and a harsh sun behind whispy grey cloud. The ambient reading was 1/125th f8.0 ISO200. I used the Nikon D7100 and the 16-85mm f3.5-5.6 G VR to shoot jpegs some of which I share with you here.
