We have officially begun production in London during the 2012 Olympic games. We took the transport to meet up with the other half of the MaxLiving group to follow them on a bus tour of London. And capture as much b-roll as possible of them enjoying the city of London.

(Canon 5D Mark II, 32mm, f/4.0, 1/160 sec, ISO 3200)

The crowds were at the highest I have seen so far and one of our tour guides did her best to keep us together and moving in the right direction as we piled onto the train.

(Canon 5D Mark II, 47mm, f/4.0, 1/125 sec, ISO 3200)

Trevor and I split up on two buses to cover each of the groups. The first stop for my group was Tower Bridge where they have the Olympic rings on display.

(Canon 5D Mark II, 105mm, f/16, 1/50 sec, ISO 500)

The next stop on our tour was St. Paul’s Cathedral and let me tell you, photos do not do justice to the grandeur of this building. It is absolutely magnificent and was relatively unharmed during World War II due to the dome on top of the cathedral being a good waypoint for the German Luftwaffe.

(Canon 5D Mark II, 24mm, f/4.0, 1/2000 sec, ISO 400)

We boarded the bus and headed to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard. The crowds were intense around the Palace and unfortunately we arrived at the end and missed most of the ceremony. Once the crowds cleared we took a few moments for photos and I grabbed this shot of Dr. Joe Arvay and family in front of the gates to the Palace.

(Canon 5D Mark II, 28mm, f/14, 1/125 sec, ISO 400)

(Canon 5D Mark II, 24mm, f/14, 1/125 sec, ISO 400)

After the tour Trevor and I stopped at a local pub and had lunch. This was a great opportunity to have our first Traditional Fish and Chips. It is much better then any I have had in the US!

(Canon 5D Mark II, 50mm, f/5.6, 1/800 sec, ISO 500)

After lunch we geared up for our first interview shoot with Dr. Joe Arvay. He met us near our hotel and we walked over to the Excel. We found a perfect location at the Royal Docklands directly across the river from the Excel Olympic venue. As with any documentary it wasn’t without interruption and the threat of being run off in the middle of the shoot.

(iPhone 4S)

(iPhone 4S)

For this interview we used the new Sony PMW-100. So far, it has been a solid camera with only a few issues. The first card failed after only a few moments of shooting and the camera controls seem to be a bit quirky. Hopefully, it is just user adaptation and the camera will turn out to be a good tool.

We finished up the shoot with Dr. Arvay and headed to The Alexandra Palace where the Holland Heineken House is located during the games. After three train transfers, a creepy walk down a underground spiral staircase and a eerily quite train station we made it to the Palace and found that the Dutch know how to throw a party.

(Canon 5D Mark II, 24mm, f/4.0, 1/40 sec, ISO 2500)

It was a fun experience and great to see a bit of another culture. I continued to use a mixture of the Canon 5D Mark II and an iPhone 4S to take photos throughout the day. We made it back to our hotel around 1AM and hit the sack to be ready for the next day of production.