I would like to start this post by saying thank you (as a Welshman) to all my English friends for the kind wishes they’ve given me over the years on Wales’ national day, “St Patrick’s Day”, nuff said… 😉

I jest but I’ve never understood how it has ended up that the national day of England apparently became the preserve of fascists and football hooligans. Thankfully it seems that in recent years St George’s day has become more of a legitimate event for everyone.

I work as in house lawyer at a large organisation and a colleague mentioned to me in the kitchen in work that there was a big event in Leadenhall market for St George’s Day with Morris Dancers and bands etc.

For those who aren’t from the UK or don’t know, Morris dance is a form of English folk dance accompanied by music. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers, usually wearing bells.

Implements such as sticks, swords and handkerchiefs may also be wielded by the dancers (I seem to remember being astounded by a ground of Sword dancers in the beer garden of a pub in Canonbury). I remember there were several Morris dancing “teams” in the area of Oxfordshire in which I grew up before moving back to Wales.

So when I went done to Leadenhall market on Tuesday, it was absolutely heaving and there were lots of guys dressed as St George (one of whom was so drunk that he broke his sword). There were also hoards of photographers, some amateur, many professional.

When I arrived there was a band playing some easy listening type stuff, all great and very well done. The Morris dancers turned up later and they were great fun. I couldn’t stay for their whole routine, but what I saw of it was really professional and enjoyable. I distinctly remember a little chap of about 4-5 sitting on his dad’s shoulders looking, pointing and clapping along – it brought back a lot of fond childhood memories. In any event, no hooligans, no fascists, lots of fun, some beer (not for me though) and great fun!

Photography wise, I was very happy with the output here. I had to push the ISO a bit to keep shutter speeds high, but the Fuji X cameras can handle that and I noticed some envious looks from the photographers wielding full frame DSLRs with massive constant aperture zooms on the front. Certainly, the output from both the X-Pro1 and the X100S was very sharp.

Taken with my X100S and X-Pro1