Empty London

[sillysaurus2]

The author explains how they took these photos: http://blog.roberttimothy.com/2013/05/Deserted-empty-London-...

[RtotheT]

I can't tell you how excited I am that you shared my work and that it's enjoyed. I mean, I don't wanna get all Sally-Field-at-the-Oscars but the photos and project took ages to plot and it makes it really worth it when so many get to see it - even worth getting soaked to your underwear to get the shot of Big Ben on Christmas morning! So a ga-zillion thank yous. (And they are very definitely not faked or overlayed or multiple shots - as someone says - in the second last photo you can spot a car, presumably with someone in it...)

[brownbat]

> I didn't want to cheat and use Photoshop

I was actually hoping he did something clever like take multiple shots and stitch them all together.

Ah well, I suppose this is more noble.

[asselinpaul]

Highly recommended.

[ilamont]

The zombie film 28 Days set up a few shots like this in downtown London ... but with a movie budget and some official clearances they were able to get some sunlit shots, which appeared to be taken very early in the morning. It was a great Danny Boyle movie, incidentally.

Within the past 10 years, I remember seeing another another film set in NYC which showed a scene in Times Square, completely devoid of people or traffic. It was quite striking. Anyone remember what it was?

EDIT: I see from the other comments it was Vanilla Sky

[lamby]

> 28 Days set up a few shots like this in downtown London [..] which appeared to be taken very early in the morning.

That's some of my favourite "London" film footage. Most of the time London is shown horribly in films, just hamfistedly moving from one obviously recognisable location to another. Even the BBC do this - Spooks and Luther seem to need every outdoor scene to be set in some well-known location, which is not only distracting but a little insulting.

Saying that, because it was obviously so early in the morning for logistical reason it pulled me out of the film, even though I guess in the film's narrative of "we must travel during the day" might neccessitate a "it's morning, thus we are now travelling again" establishing shot.

[Nursie]

"Downtown" London.

Which part would that be?

I don't mean to snark, that's not a meaningful phrase to this englishman with 10 years London living under his belt. I actually struggle with definitions of downtown or uptown, it's not something we would say. How do they apply to (for instance) NYC which I'm a little familiar with?

--edit-- yes I am drunk and this is a stupid question :)

[NAFV_P]

> It was a great Danny Boyle movie, incidentally.

28 Days Later is one of my favourite documentaries. It evokes London beautifully, and the zombies are shown in an unbiased manner.

[SkyMarshal]

Vanilla Sky, also The Devil's Advocate did this elsewhere in NYC. Both were eerie.

[dreamfactory]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_(2009_film) is a great film where the streets of London are almost like a central character.

[healsjnr1]

For me that whole scene was topped off by the music which was by God Speed You Black Emperor! if you haven't listened to these guys check them out.

[ubershmekel]

I am Legend also has some NYC abandoned shots. Though it's not near as amazing as 28 Days Later.

[cmdkeen]

I was rather hoping that near the end of the photos that one would have a zombie shuffling along...

[Brakenshire]

And the tents were all silent,

the banners alone,

The lances unlifted,

the trumpet unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,

And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;

And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,

Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Destruction_of_Sennacherib...

[virtualwhys]

Reminds of the recounting of the fallen angels in Paradise Lost.

Rather than face the awesome wrath of Jesus/God miffed, the to-be-fallen angels into the abyss, drift (well, really, leap in terror, but that doesn't work so well).

[nickthemagicman]

Beautiful thanks!

[CWIZO]

At first I thought he combined several images into one (there was a project a while ago that did that). But after reading that he actually waited for everyone to clear ... that blew my mind. I absolutely can't imagine seeing big ben or piccadilly without a single person in my eyesight.

Absolutely marvellous!

Too bad I'm away for christmas this year, I'd love to stroll trough the empty streets ...

[ye]

I'm pretty sure he's lying. There's no way for most of these places to clear completely. It's like seeing Times Square empty.

I'm 99% sure it's a composite from multiple exposures.

[kailuowang]

I am wondering if there is any connection between this project and Tokyo Nobody by Masataka Nakano

http://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Nobody-Masataka-Nakano/dp/489815...

[standeven]

I had to catch an early flight and found myself walking around Dubrovnik at 4am. Seeing the wide stone streets, polished by the feet of thousands who were now completely absent, was surreal. I highly recommend waking up extra early in a normally busy city and taking a stroll; you end up seeing and appreciating completely new things.

[thruflo]

One summer, a few years ago, a friend and I flew from New York to Iceland. After a jet lagged snooze, we ventured out into Reykjavik town centre around 10am on Saturday morning -- to find the streets completely deserted.

Made sense later on, when we realised that seemingly everyone in town went out after midnight to party through the night.

Boom years when the sun doesn't set...

[drfuchs]

And Paris is pretty empty early in the morning, too. Check out the 1976 Claude Lelouch 8.5-minute vehicle(!), "C'était un Rendezvous" ("It was a date"). Classic!

http://www.streetfire.net/video/ctait-un-rendez-vous-claude-... or other similar.

[coherentpony]

I'm using linux. This site's scroll behaviour is infuriating.

[ngpio]

What a surprisingly pleasant side-scrolling experience.

[Usu]

If you liked this, you should also check out this beautiful timelapse video of Milan (same concept): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyHsouXc_HU

[spjwebster]

I've previously done this kind of thing with an ND filter and long exposures to save getting frustrated by occasional passers-by.

Here's a series of photographs of major cities around the world done using this technique by Lucie & Simon:

http://petapixel.com/2012/03/28/post-apocalyptic-photographs... http://www.lucieandsimon.com/works/silent_world

[StavrosK]

Wouldn't it be "easy" to capture a video of a minute or so and then write an algorithm to keep the parts that were unchanged among all frames? I did something like that ten years or so ago, and it worked very well (it took the mode of each pixel among X frames).

[csmuk]

The square mile looks like that on a weekend.

The rest looks like that at 05:30. in summer.

[walshemj]

Yes I remember having to go into work to reboot our systems once back in the 80's 200/300 yards from oxford street and it was quiet as the grave.

Many cafes, bars and pubs in the city shut down at the weekend.

[yuvadam]

In Israel, there is one day a year [1] where the streets actually look like this [2].

(Granted, most of the time you will see plenty of people walking around the streets, or children riding bicycles.)

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur#Observance_in_Israe...

[2] - http://www.demotix.com/photo/862508/tel-aviv-streets-empty-y...

[tomsaffell]

Nice work! And to prove they are not phony, time for a game of 'I Spy'! ISWMLE: a cyclist a trash collector possibly a policeman several lit car tail lights

Advances?

[sjtgraham]

I live near quite a few of these. The way to experience this is by being there very early on a Sunday morning or a Bank Holiday. Let me tell you there are few things as eerie as riding a bicycle around Central London and not seeing a single soul. Of course it's not totally deserted, you'll see the odd vehicle especially on the main roads, but there are definitely moments where it feels like being in 28 Days Later.

[ABS]

Preparing for a marathon I always did my saturday long run starting very early in them morning (like 5am or 6am, once I even started at 4am because I had a company event I needed to be at early) and it was definitely...awesome. Especially running along the Thames in Central London during sunrise: there were entire 10/15 minutes stretches without people and even cars.

[sharkweek]

Reminds me of the opening scene of Vanilla Sky where Tom Cruise is running through downtown Manhattan alone --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DIsa_SLifQ

I always think it's cool when we're able to capture this sort of rare feat on film, in this case emptying out Times Square for a few brief moments

[jknightco]

Times Square is in Midtown. Downtown is the Financial District :)

[crorella]

Nices photos, horrible website usability.

[SomeCallMeTim]

Black page when scripts are disabled. And the photos popping up in random places as you're scrolling? Sigh.

[web64]

Those photos are great! I've been taking some night shots of street art in London, and because of the long exposure the streets often appear to be empty. You can see some of my photos here: http://advers.com/gallery

[cmdkeen]

You don't even have to get up to experience this - just head into the City of London[1] on a weekend, especially a Sunday. Most of the streets are empty.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London

[shittyanalogy]

Gorgeous, but they look more like early morning shots than abandoned city shots. Give me broad daylight or with all the lights off and it'll really feel atmospheric. The extreme saturation also doesn't contribute to a feeling of desertion.

Also, abandoned London is spotless.