The Regent’s Canal, joining the river Thames to the Grand Union Canal, and east to west London. This 200 year old waterway is one of the many walks that Martin and I enjoyed. Over the years though the thoroughfare has become much busier and increasingly populated by cyclists with a ‘right of way’ attitude.
Here at City Road lock, the canal approaches the Islington tunnel which has no towpath so in the days before narrow boats had engines, bargees had to ‘leg it’ or walk the tunnel walls to manoeuvre their craft and cargoes through. Meanwhile pedestrians still have to meander round it, criss-crossing streets until the towpath can be rejoined further on.
This photo was taken on a very overcast day which dulls colour and so I invariably resort to high contrast mono and adjust the light/dark ratio accordingly. The settings on the Ricoh CX3 come readily to hand for this.
Photo series capturing London before I leave it for pastures new in March
PoetryPix 
I’m guessing that the bargees had to have someone walk their horse through the streets to get back to the towpath.
a straighter trot then without the later housing and road developments
We were watching legging on TV the other day.
Interesting!
A good workaround for the light you were shooting in I think.
It tends to be a favourite mode whatever the weather ;0 but poor light leaves fewer choices
Love the grain! Reminds me of what I used to get shooting Kodak Tri-X film. Especially when I’d cook it in the darkroom — washing it in water much too hot. Strangely enough, my first SLR camera was a Ricoh manual (I don’t recall the model) that was four times the size of yours — and less than have as much fun. I really like the effect upping the contrast created.
thanks Charley – I wish I came to photography via film cameras – the secrets of the darkroom are mysterious and tantalising. Another thing my Ricoh does is produce graphic style images in its ‘text mode’ – great for architectural shots – have a few to show soon.