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Description
You know when you travel a long way to photograph something, you just have to hope that no embuggerance factors kick in to ruin the shot. Such factors include the weather, something big in the way or - as here - something I could not reasonably be expected to foresee. Yours truly travelled up with Mrs Brit from God's Country to 'Old Smoky' London Town to see friends and for me to photograph HMS Belfast which I had not previously managed in sunshine as a colour photo.

Our friends (for reasons best known to themselves) decided to alight from London Transport not at a handy location but a mile or two from Belfast on the wrong side of the river at Somerset House. Well, I managed to get them and Mrs B onto the South Bank and set off in search of the ship, leaving them in a restaurant to catch up later. I finally got to HMS Belfast the best part of an hour later, footsore and entirely pissed off, to find the fore funnel totally covered in scaffolding and white plastic sheeting. Some rather sailorly language ensued as there was no way I could get the shot I had travelled all this way for.

The day was saved by two wonderful ladies of the river ferry company who kindly allowed me access to a closed off part of their boarding pontoon to get this front-on shot which minimises the impact of the scaffolding as much as was possible. At the same moment, the sun, obviously taking pity on me, popped out from behind the clouds.

So here is HMS Belfast on February 24, 2017. Better luck next time.....

Description
You know when you travel a long way to photograph something, you just have to hope that no embuggerance factors kick in to ruin the shot. Such factors include the weather, something big in the way or - as here - something I could not reasonably be expected to foresee. Yours truly travelled up with Mrs Brit from God's Country to 'Old Smoky' London Town to see friends and for me to photograph HMS Belfast which I had not previously managed in sunshine as a colour photo.

Our friends (for reasons best known to themselves) decided to alight from London Transport not at a handy location but a mile or two from Belfast on the wrong side of the river at Somerset House. Well, I managed to get them and Mrs B onto the South Bank and set off in search of the ship, leaving them in a restaurant to catch up later. I finally got to HMS Belfast the best part of an hour later, footsore and entirely pissed off, to find the fore funnel totally covered in scaffolding and white plastic sheeting. Some rather sailorly language ensued as there was no way I could get the shot I had travelled all this way for.

The day was saved by two wonderful ladies of the river ferry company who kindly allowed me access to a closed off part of their boarding pontoon to get this front-on shot which minimises the impact of the scaffolding as much as was possible. At the same moment, the sun, obviously taking pity on me, popped out from behind the clouds.

So here is HMS Belfast on February 24, 2017. Better luck next time.....