rewilding

Although I didn’t plan it that way, I had what I could call an ‘Elizabeth’ day on Saturday, first with a trip to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, then a short ride on the brand new, shiny, air conditioned Elizabeth line, and then a spontaneous but very lucky visit to the Tower of London Superbloom. As a city person at heart who happens to adore nature and outdoors I could not be happier seeing all those beautiful flowers still blooming in mid September. I took a closer look at The Orbit; we might go up the viewing platform during our Halloween weekend in London, but we certainly won’t try the slide. I have travel sickness 😉

I must say I loved this skyline and the stadium looked pretty cool up close. The park itself was peaceful but I could still hear the noise coming from heavy traffic and numerous building sites.

I didn’t expect such an abundance of pretty flowers in a very busy, built up area:

Once back in central London, I though I’d walk to the Tower of London and I was pleasantly surprised that Superbloom, a semi-wild meadow designed to replace grass in the tower moat no longer required a ticket. I unleashed my iPhone and photographed until the battery died. This landscape is going to be a permanent feature from now on and I wonder, why nobody thought of it earlier ?

As usual, I tortured my iPhone pics in Adobe Lightroom Mobile. I’ve had my phone since autumn 2018 and I wouldn’t be thinking of getting a latest one, because I change smartphones as infrequently as possible. I admit though that I’m very tempted by stunning capabilities of iPhone 13 Pro, from the triple lens and macro mode to shooting in RAW. I read a negative opinion on Facebook some time ago on presets, especially applied to nature photography. I personally love them. They can be a lazy and quick solution, but also an inspiration and a creativity boost. I usually end up adjusting and fine tuning each setting anyway. It’s the end results that matter after all, not what we did or did not use.