One of the interesting things about riding a double-decker bus is that you get to look into second-story windows. This photo was taken somewhere in Knightsbridge around 8 pm or so. I guess it’s some kind of clothing design or alteration operation. I’m not sure what accounts for the strong bluish tone. My camera’s white balance was set to incandescent lighting, which would normally produce a slight greenish cast under fluorescent light, but that’s all. Maybe something in the glass? That could be, but at the top right you can see a sliver of the room through an open window, and it looks blue too. It’s a mystery.

UPDATE: The consensus in comments is that the studio is using full-spectrum (sunlight) bulbs so they can accurately gauge the color of the cloth they’re using. But sunlight looks blue when a camera’s white balance is set to incandescent. Many years ago I accidentally shot an entire day of pictures in Switzerland using the incandescent setting, and they all looked like this. It should have occurred to me sooner.

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The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

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