Short London Trip Report

[KarenAylwood]

Hi All! DBF and I returned from London last Wednesday and had an awesome time. We really lucked out on the weather, and only had about 2 or 3 short rainshowers, and snow on our last day. Mostly blue skies! Below are some pictures from our trip. I gotta say, the best decision I could have made was buying the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 prior to the trip. I'd say I shot with it about 75% of the time, if not more!

View from the top of our hotel, the Luna Simone.

Houses of Parliament

The entrance to Westminster Abbey (one of our favorites on the trip!)

Westminster Abbey

I shot this on our way to find a taxi to take us to meet someone for lunch. One of my favorites for just shooting it on the fly!

We had a short rainshower before our Christmas Cruise on the Thames. This was a nice result (which only lasted about 20-30 seconds!)

Big Ben

Houses of Parliament as seen from the Thames

Just as we started to go under the Tower Bridge

I can't remember where this was, but I liked it.

The London Eye

Now this... this was creepy. You could give him some change to get your picture taken with him. All the children looked terrified and we didn't see anyone with him as we walked by

Also somewhat creepy. We saw him scaring small children as we went by.

Candy floss. 9 out of 10 dentists recommend it.

Taken in Trafalgar Square at dusk

Trafalgar Square

The National Gallery

Our lovely hotel, the Luna Simone (recommended by another DISer!)

Christmas at the British Museum

The British Museum

The Great Court at the British Museum

Having a beer after the British Museum at the Museum Tavern

An embassy that I found out later I wasn't supposed to take a picture of.

 

[KarenAylwood]

Swans in Kensington Park

London telephone booth.

Natural History Museum

Skating rink at Natural History Museum

View from St. Paul's Cathedral

St. Paul's Cathedral

Bulldog in a bar!

View from the Bloody Tower at the Tower of London

Tower of London

Tower Bridge

Entrance to Tower of London

Tower Bridge

Christmas lights on Oxford street

Christmas lights

Oxford & Regent Street

I think this was Bond Street

Before the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace

Gate at Buckingham Palace

My dream... at Harrod's

Harrod's

And that's it! I took a ton of pictures but these were my favorites for the most part.

 

[shawn68]

Great shots! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Suburbanmom]

Looks like you had a wonderful trip and took many great shots!! Someday I'll get to London too. Thanks for sharing the report..love your downtown night shots.

 

[SrisonS]

Cool shot!!!! I'd love to go to Europe one day.

 

[pjacobi]

Evacuate all buildings in London immediately! All the walls are about to fall down backwards!

To avoid this appearance in your photos, keep your camera level and don't tilt it upward.


-Paul

 

[boBQuincy]

Really good photos! I especially like the swans!

 

[annnewjerz]

The shot in the "Great Court", the beer, the swans and the view from St. Paul's Cathedral are my favorite.

Great shots, glad to see you made good use of the UWA and enjoyed your trip!

 

[Icemann]

Those are some awesome shots Like the night ones the best

 

[Marlton Mom]

I LIKE the tilted ones!

There are tons of really great pix that you got. Great Job!!

I just got back from the World with my brand new Tokina 11-16 and I had the dilemma of having to tilt the lens up to get the top of the subject because I could not move back far enough. I was aware that the distortion would occur if the lens was not dead level with the subject but sometimes it's a judgment call and it adds to the pix!

Didn't you just get the Tokina right before you left?
You have a wonderful eye!

Smoochies,
Marlton Mom

 

[aggielawyer]

Thanks for sharing. I had been thinking about going back to England but had lost the desire...your pictures changed that!

 

[Judy in Texas]

Great pictures!

re: the embassy picture. I tried to take a picture of the Israeli embassy on Embassy Row near Kensington Palace. Israeli Security guards with limited English skillls came out to the woodwork. We were a couple of 50-something white women (didn't meet what I think of as the normal terrorist profile) who almost ended up in jail with our cameras smashed. They are very serious about their security.

Thanks for sharing. Makes me want to go back tomorrow.

 

[KarenAylwood]

Evacuate all buildings in London immediately! All the walls are about to fall down backwards!

To avoid this appearance in your photos, keep your camera level and don't tilt it upward.


-Paul

Haha. Thanks Paul. I do actually like the look of them, I know it's a little distorted but it was the only way I could get the whole building in the picture while standing so close. Pretty much all the downtown streets required me to tilt it upward to get everything in the picture. It's one of the reasons I bought the lens!

I LIKE the tilted ones!

There are tons of really great pix that you got. Great Job!!

I just got back from the World with my brand new Tokina 11-16 and I had the dilemma of having to tilt the lens up to get the top of the subject because I could not move back far enough. I was aware that the distortion would occur if the lens was not dead level with the subject but sometimes it's a judgment call and it adds to the pix!

Didn't you just get the Tokina right before you left?
You have a wonderful eye!

Smoochies,
Marlton Mom

Thanks Marlton Mom! Yeah, I got the lens about two or three weeks before I left and had time to take pictures with it twice. It took a little getting used to because I felt like I had to get so close to my subject, but it worked out well. I'm very glad I bought it.

Great pictures!

re: the embassy picture. I tried to take a picture of the Israeli embassy on Embassy Row near Kensington Palace. Israeli Security guards with limited English skillls came out to the woodwork. We were a couple of 50-something white women (didn't meet what I think of as the normal terrorist profile) who almost ended up in jail with our cameras smashed. They are very serious about their security.

Thanks for sharing. Makes me want to go back tomorrow.

We didn't see any signs when we walked down the street (same one - near Kensington Palace) until we came to the very end and saw there was a sign saying no photography at the Kensington Gardens entrance. I was surprised no one had stopped us but there were so few people on the street. It was right around dusk (aka like 3:45pm or something!) so it was pretty deserted. I got lucky I guess- I took a ton of pictures on that street. Oops!

Thanks for the comments guys! We had a great time. I was afraid I wouldn't get a good chance to take many pictures because we only had 4 and a half days, and it was in the middle of December when the weather is very iffy!