Old warriors, a photo from London, England

Photographer's Note

Today is the first Armed Forces Day - one of Gordon Brown's bright ideas. In most other countries - Australia's ANZAC Day springs to mind - such days are public holidays and everyone takes the day off work and shows their support for their armed forces.
Here in the UK, the new Armed Forces Day is on a Saturday when people are off work anyway, and it all seems a bit half-hearted to me; more of an afterthought than anything.
Anyway, these guys seemed to be enjoying themselves - I took this shot yesterday at the veterans' parade near Tower Bridge.
Needless to say, the two men on the left are members of The Parachute Regiment, and the chap on the right is a former Royal Green Jacket, a light infantry unit.

macondo has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

serp2000 (47063) 2009-06-27 1:45

Hi, Ben,
Excellent portraits! Interesting note. Fine colours and good details! TFS!
Regards from Ural,
Serghei

Bluejeans (64251) 2009-06-27 4:42

Ola Ben ,
Belo retracto destes veteranos de guerra , bom ponto de focagem , gostei dos detalhes, parabéns !!
Um abraço Gonçalo

macondo (20449) 2009-06-27 11:03

Hello Ben.
I like your notes here, and the very natural looking shot. The shallow DOF works well, but we can still see the other faces clearly enough to make out their expressions. I was just a week ago on the D-Day beaches at Normandy, and have spent a life-time listening to my 90 year old dad's war stories about Dunkirk and Burma. I don't know if these fellows are old enough to have been in WW2. To be honest, ANZAC day does tend to be about myth-making as much as it is to honour the dead, but many would disagree with me.
Anyway, all the best to you.
Regards,
Andrew