A man named Chalmers Butterfield took these beautiful photos of London in 1949 in deep, rich Kodachrome. Here's one of Shaftesbury Avenue at Picadilly Circus. You can see this one, and several others from the series, in hi-res at How To Be A Retronaut, a website that is trying to match up these views with photos of present-day London taken from the same spots.
For example, one of the Retronaut readers found this view of Grosvenor Chapel in Mayfair on Google Street View, and it matches up nicely with the Butterfield photo #4 here. Another reader found a contemporary Google Street View on Sloane Street near Sloane Square, which shows how much has changed architecturally on that street since Butterfield took photo #3 in 1949. Note the men wearing hats.
Photo by Chalmers Butterfield.
For example, one of the Retronaut readers found this view of Grosvenor Chapel in Mayfair on Google Street View, and it matches up nicely with the Butterfield photo #4 here. Another reader found a contemporary Google Street View on Sloane Street near Sloane Square, which shows how much has changed architecturally on that street since Butterfield took photo #3 in 1949. Note the men wearing hats.
Photo by Chalmers Butterfield.
http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/2010/01/1940s-london-in-stunning-hi-res-colour/ - via twitter
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Marilyn Terrell.
Fedora! FTW!!!!!
(*Vintage car joke courtesy of MST3K, all rights reserved)
If you like that sort of image quality by yourself a Sigma camera with a Foveon X3 sensor. It's the only digital sensor that comes close to the quality of Kodachrome. Foveons layer three sensors on top of each other one each for red, green and blue, just like colour film. This way you get a nice sharp true colour image, each pixel being exactly as taken.
You like these images buy Sigma.
Can film cameras even be bought any more?
The pictures bring to mind this snippet from Mr
Browning.
"Oh, to be in England
Now that April's there,"
@Kalel - I like the cut of your jib. That's twice now I've been cracked up by a comment of yours.
(as opposed to being cracked which I've been for a long time)