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Poppies of Remembrance

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 7:34 am
by GrahamS
Poppies of Rememberance

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.



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Re: Poppies of Remembrance

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 7:57 am
by arg
I have felt all along that this is a stunning display of remembrance and I wondered if you would make it down to the big City to see it. I am so glad you did. Thank you for taking the time, and remembering, all the brave men who gave their lives in just cause. Your photos are lovely and make me feel as if I was there.

Re: Poppies of Remembrance

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 10:28 am
by Dennis Gallus
Graham,

Thanks for a beautiful and meaningful post. I've been a student of the Great War for more than 50 years. I would have had a difficult time imagining that anyone could create a memorial that was fitting enough to symbolize the sacrifices that so many young men made. But I think that Britain has done it with the field of poppies.

Although photos 6 and 10 are my favorites, I am pleased that you included some photos showing faces in the crowd. It is obvious that the remembrance hit home with people.

You did a fine job of compensating for what you term very poor lighting. Colors look quite vivid to me. What settings did you use in picture control?

Best,
Dennis

Re: Poppies of Remembrance

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 12:12 pm
by GrahamS
Dennis, I used a custom picture control setting based on "Standard" with the following tweaks:
Sharpening: Auto
Contrast: Auto
Brightness: Minus
Saturation: +1
Hue: 0

This setting in nothing more than an experiment to see how the "Auto" sharpening and contrast respond to various situations. I normally have sharpening set to zero due to the absence of an anti-aliasing filter, and I apply sharpening in post processing if required. However, the auto setting seems to work very well and I am pretty sure that the Nikon engineers have written the picture control firmware specifically for this model and not just used a generic code.

Re: Poppies of Remembrance

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 12:21 pm
by GrahamS
arg wrote:I have felt all along that this is a stunning display of remembrance and I wondered if you would make it down to the big City to see it. I am so glad you did. Thank you for taking the time, and remembering, all the brave men who gave their lives in just cause. Your photos are lovely and make me feel as if I was there.
I'm glad that you enjoyed this post and that I succeeded in taking you along with me to the spectacle. As an artwork, this installation (as it is officially described) has had a profound effect on the people of Britain, and part of it is now going on a nationwide tour.

(PS: It would be nice to know your name - we try to maintain a friendly atmosphere in these forums which is difficult to do if members are anonymous)

Re: Poppies of Remembrance

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 1:02 pm
by arg
Sorry, Graham. I am the distaff Gallus. I do try to be friendly. A

Re: Poppies of Remembrance

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 3:14 pm
by Mike Kovacs
You Brits are a real class act. This was an absolutely brilliant idea and a stunning display of thanks to the many fallen.

Re: Poppies of Remembrance

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 3:57 pm
by Dennis Gallus
Holy Cow! Not even I realized that arg was my bride!

Re: Poppies of Remembrance

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 5:18 pm
by GrahamS
Dennis Gallus wrote:Holy Cow! Not even I realized that arg was my bride!
Oh dear, now I've gone and done it! You two should get a room sometime...

Re: Poppies of Remembrance

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 5:21 pm
by GrahamS
Mike Kovacs wrote:You Brits are a real class act. This was an absolutely brilliant idea and a stunning display of thanks to the many fallen.
Mike, sometimes we even surprise ourselves.