Portobello Revisited

Looked out from the window on Saturday and there was rare lovely sunshine so I decided to visit Portobello Market to try my luck in hunting some used M42 lens. All pictures were taken with the Helios 135mm F2.8.

A candid shot taken near Liverpool Street Station. It wasn't that impressive before post processing. Picture desaturated with high contrast. I quite like the 135mm (200mm on APS-C sensor) range for candid, portraiture and landscape.

I didn't check the weather forecast and it was freezing!

Same old place.

Same old stuff.

The popular destination for Londoners and tourists.

As the Helios is a manual lens on the M42 adaptor, no EXIF data for aperture used were recorded. I guess this was taken at F3.5.

Vernon Yard.

A street performer who perform on the divider on the middle of the road.

Didn't manage to find any lens and it was too cold so I decided to call it a day at this point. Lesson learnt - check the weather forecast and wear proper clothes before going out.

Portobello Market

Portobello Market, located at the famous Notting Hill, is claimed to be the world largest antiques market.

The market opens every Saturday and it was really crowded when we were there.

Some interesting metal signboard & souvenirs.

An old lady parked her caravan and put her pet dogs in an antique pram, no tricks no performance, just to let people touch them and give donation. Like that also can ah? Anyway I think it's better than those 'big issue' people.

The dog and her master, calm...

when she saw a golden retriever, fiercer!

It's a very big market indeed with all kind of stuff.

Walking sticks in various shapes.

Polished silverwares.

Modern jewelries.

Antique jewelries - Not very shiok lah unlike Petaling St, most vendors here don't bargain.

Some antique cameras, I was hoping to find some surprise but.. nope..

Colourful fabrics!

The woman was satisfied with her purchase.

Quality fresh fruits.

You can't miss this stall, decorated with seafoods and long queue all time. We were so tempted seeing others eating the deep fried big prawns so we decided to try.

Deep frying the big prawns skillfully.

Complete with Nike wrist band. You can choose either big prawns, crab sticks or mix of both, box full of it for GBP3.

Isn't it looks good? Couldn't wait to taste it, when I had my first bite... eh... na beh *^@(%#$... I had mouthful of fried flour... I always teasing people who go to vegetarian restaurants eating flour made food and now... no wonder GBP3 for a box full!

A couple saw us eating and got tempted as well, came to us and asked where we bought it and without hesitation we pointed the direction to them straight away. It does looks good so I didn't want to spoil their mood. Never try never know, maybe they will like the flour made prawns. However, confirm there's no next time.

Bermondsey Market

Bermondsey or New Caledonian Market, is known as one of the London main antique market, open every Friday from 4am to afternoon. It is said that there used to be transactions of stolen goods at dawn till early morning. I was surprised that it locates at Long Lane just minutes away from my flat near Tower Bridge Road.

I notice that I always having the Minolta 50mm mounted on my camera, the cheapest that I owned.

Antique or body art?

Woman loves market, why?

Some nicely polished silverwares in the market.

Unless you are really a collector or else I don't expect much surprise deals one would find there. UK people don't like to bargain, do they?