
Empty London - TranceMan
http://www.roberttimothy.com/empty-london
======
sillysaurus2
The author explains how they took these photos:
[http://blog.roberttimothy.com/2013/05/Deserted-empty-
London-...](http://blog.roberttimothy.com/2013/05/Deserted-empty-London-
photos-of-British-capital-without-any-people-28-days-later-style-
pictures.html)

~~~
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.

~~~
nostromo
It's actually much easier than manual stitching.

Take 3+ shots on a tripod then take the median value of each pixel. Anything
that is moving (pedestrians, cars) will vanish.

Example:
[http://www.creativetechs.com/iq/photoshop_cs3s_automatic_peo...](http://www.creativetechs.com/iq/photoshop_cs3s_automatic_people_remover.html)

~~~
ollysb
Now That would be a useful feature on a camera. You could call it the tourist
eraser :)

~~~
Joeri
Nokia already has it on the lumia:
[http://conversations.nokia.com/2013/07/03/nokia-smart-
camera...](http://conversations.nokia.com/2013/07/03/nokia-smart-camera-
remove-moving-objects-walk-through/)

------
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_

~~~
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 :)

~~~
anigbrowl
Near Westminster bridge IIRC, but it's been a while since I saw the film. By
US standards downtown would be the shopping district from Marble Arch to
Trafalgar Square, if you were thinking of it in commercial terms, or almost
all of zone 1. Of course over here Downtown is wherever the most tall
buildings ae, whereas in London most of those seem to be in the City.

~~~
barrkel
London is a basically a bunch of villages with dense residential areas filling
the gaps between. I've gone whole 6-month periods never going further west in
the city than Holborn (Kingsway), and whole years never going south of the
river east of Greenwich.

You're suggesting that downtown is Oxford & Regent Streets, i.e. essentially
high-street fashion shopping. Thing is, almost every shop on those streets is
also in both Westfield malls on either side of the city, and many of the
bigger brands are also on dozens of high streets across the city. There's
seldom much call for most Londoners to actually go to those streets (IMO).

In a business context, downtown in London is the City, but the tallest
buildings aren't in the City, they're in Canary Wharf, a privately owned near-
island with 24-hour guards at all entry points, and barriers that go up on the
roads at night.

~~~
Tenoke
>The tallest buildings aren't in the City, they're in Canary Wharf, a
privately owned near-island with 24-hour guards at all entry points, and
barriers that go up on the roads at night.

Not to nitpick but this isn't strictly true. The tallest building is in
neither but very close to the City, then the 2nd tallest is in Canary Wharf
but the third and fourth are definitely in the City again. You have some in
the Wharf and some in the City after that but I am not sure if the difference
regarding skyscrapers in the 2 parts is very relevant or explicit anymore.

------
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...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Destruction_of_Sennacherib#The_poem)

~~~
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).

~~~
6d0debc071
Not how they told it to themselves at least, IRRC ^^;

Him the Almighty Power

Hurled headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky

With hideous ruin and combustion down

To bottomless perdition, there to dwell

In adamantine chains and penal fire,

Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms.

[...]

What though the field be lost?

All is not lost; th’ unconquerable will,

And study of revenge, immortal hate,

And courage never to submit or yield.

[...]

Here at least

we shall be free; the Almighty hath not built

Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:

Here we may reign secure, and in my choice

to reign is worth ambition though in Hell:

Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.

~~~
virtualwhys
Thanks for the refresher.

If any book will make one a Christian, Paradise Lost is probably it ;-)

------
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.

~~~
pdknsk
> It's like seeing Times Square empty.

It's interesting you mentioned this. The pictures reminded me of Vanilla Sky,
which prominently features empty Times Square.

~~~
danso
Funny you should mention that. Every time I think of Times Square being empty
(which can happen at certain angles at certain very early times of day), I
think of Roger Ebert's review of Vanilla Sky:

[http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/vanilla-
sky-2001](http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/vanilla-sky-2001)

> _Note: Early in the film, there 's an astonishing shot of Tom Cruise
> absolutely alone in Times Square. You might assume, as I did, that computers
> were involved. Cameron Crowe told me the scene is not faked; the film got
> city permission to block off Times Square for three hours early on a Sunday
> morning. Just outside of camera range there are cops and barricades to hold
> back the traffic._

------
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...](http://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Nobody-Masataka-
Nakano/dp/4898150314)

~~~
mturmon
Thanks for that. The London photos made me think of empty mini-mall photos
taken in LA by Cathy Opie. Here's an example:

[http://arttattler.com/Images/NorthAmerica/NewYork/Guggenheim...](http://arttattler.com/Images/NorthAmerica/NewYork/Guggenheim/Catherine%20Opie/4_Untitled_01_6.5MG.jpg)

They were shot in black and white, and when shown in a gallery context, they
are very large (4 feet wide or so).

She used a similar technique -- show up early in the morning (like 4am) and be
patient. She had do it late enough to be after the clubgoers, junkies, and
criminals were asleep, but before regular people were awake.

You can google "cathy opie mini mall series" \-- she's better known for her
earlier, transgressive lesbian/body images.

------
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-...](http://www.streetfire.net/video/ctait-un-rendez-vous-claude-
lelouchflv_2064708.htm) or other similar.

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

~~~
aj700
Yes. Usability fail. OS X often has no scrollbars. Unity has none? My mouse
has no horiz-scoll. Wed designers stop doing this. We aren't all using
tablets!

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ngpio
What a surprisingly pleasant side-scrolling experience.

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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](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://petapixel.com/2012/03/28/post-apocalyptic-photographs-
of-major-cities-around-the-world/)
[http://www.lucieandsimon.com/works/silent_world](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).

~~~
alephnil
In many cases that will do, but there will be problem with continuously
changing objects, such as ads, escalators and clocks that will be blurred, at
least unless a quite sophisticated algorithm is used.

------
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...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur#Observance_in_Israel)

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

~~~
zek
saturdays in Israel are quiet empty as well

------
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](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 :)

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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](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](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.

------
markkum
This is the London I remember from early morning July 8th, 2005, the morning
after the bombings. Was walking around to find a ride to the airport, couple
of blocks from the double-decker wreck. Wish not to experience the same again.

------
kenshiro_o
That's awesome work! Strangely I cannot believe that a place like Piccadilly
Circus is ever empty. It feels so unreal. He must have: a) waited a lot to see
the streets clear b) been quite lucky the streets eventually cleared.

------
ekr
Very interesting (and beautiful I might say, seeing the empty streets awaken
some beautiful memories), but that's not how London would look like if
everyone left. Not even close. Maybe only for the first couple of days.

------
benblodgett
This is really cool, I've never been to London so I have no reference for how
busy the places he photographs typically are. I would love to see a similar
project for NYC.

~~~
dblacc
Very busy is probably the only way to describe them. I work not far from where
some of these photos were taken where its frustratingly busy at times. You
would never think this was possible.

------
chrislo
I also enjoyed this collection of "empty" photos of all 270 tube stations:

[http://instagram.com/tube270](http://instagram.com/tube270)

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kcovia
_28 Weeks Later_ also takes place in an abandoned London.

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darkFunction
Nice photos but it also highlights how claustrophobic London is. I live here
and don't like how you can never be really alone outside of your own home.

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gulbrandr
A similar experiment was done in Paris a few weeks ago:
[http://vimeo.com/74857458](http://vimeo.com/74857458)

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shalmanese
For Americans who want to replicate this, Thanksgiving day around 2 - 3pm is
also similarly eerily quiet and a great chance to get a shot like this.

~~~
driverdan
Thanksgiving morning would be better. There is usually a ton of people out in
the afternoon picking up last minute things at grocery and liquor stores.

------
vlad
Anyone else notice that the second-to-last photo has 4 or 5 people in the
scene, as well as a moving car? Otherwise, well done!

------
kubatyszko
I recommend a photo album "Tokyo Nobody" \- similar concept.

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gpvos
The people who left forgot to turn off the lights.

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joelle
Wow those photos stunning...and thought provoking.

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ldn_tech_exec1
beautiful

