Kathryn and I decided to book a few days in London.
She was interested in visiting a museum, taking in an theatre show, and I was happy to take my new fisheye lens along to see if I could grab some architecture and street scenes.
I also took my 28mm prime lens for some general street photography. I also took my travel tripod in a bag for a possible night time shot.
Kathryn used my Fuji fixed lens camera so she could grab some photos too.
The reason I’ve called this blog “snaps” is obviously because this was a leisure trip with a camera, not a photography trip, although snaps can easily make their way into a club competition as my city windows shot proved.
Arriving in London
On arrival at Liverpool Street, we visited a First World War memorial in the station on the first floor.
I liked the look of the plaque of Captain Charles Fryatt so did a close up.
Charles Algernon Fryatt (2 December 1872 – 27 July 1916) was a British merchant seaman who was court martialled by the Imperial German Navy for attempting to ram a German U-boat in 1915.
When his ship, the SS Brussels, was captured by the Germans off occupied Belgium in 1916, Captain Fryatt was court-martialled by German military law and sentenced to death for “illegal civilian warfare”.
He was executed by firing squad near Bruges, Belgium. In 1919, his body was reburied with honours in the United Kingdom.
Day 1 – South Bank
We went to the Tower of London and I got the shot below using the fisheye lens.
We wandered down past the tower and beared left along the riverside towards Tower Bridge, which just begs you to photograph it.
I took a shot of the Tower of London here thinking carefully about composition.
We stopped at the steps that take you up to Tower Bridge and I took a few shots here as I quite liked the decorated staircase.
As we made our way across Tower Bridge, there were some interesting shots to be had.
I tried an arty-farty shot through the steel girders of the bridge.
The attempt at something different kept going…
As we made our way across the bridge, I got a shot overhead.
We got down to South Bank and Tower Bridge is equally stunning from side as it is the other side.
I was quite pleased with these two “street” reflection shots:
As we reached the end of South Bank, I grabbed another attempted arty shot below.
Our first day was at an end, and my final shot was this wide one of London Bridge – it’s no competition winner but I liked the idea of lots of people (lemmings) walking across the bridge.
Day 2 – National Portrait Gallery and Theatre
We were heading for the National Portrait Gallery and I grabbed a couple of tube train shots trying to catch the motion of them.
As we were walking along, I spotted these two gents chatting which seemed quite apt with the statement on the stone.
As I turned round, there was a classic London scene to be captured. A bus and a telephone box. I captured it quickly before the bus moved off, like I was a tourist.
We moved on to the National Portrait Gallery and spent a couple of hours in there as the displays were excellent, and it’s so good that these museums are free.
They had a really good Kings and Queens exhibition and in general a lot of British history – below is an impressive painting of the House of Commons in 1833 by Sir George Hayter.
Unsurprisingly given the name of the gallery, there were many impressive portraits of pivotal people in British History.
A couple of phone shots are below of King Charles and Mo Mowlam.
We went to the nearby Pret and stopped for a coffee and a sandwich then made our way back to our hotel to get changed and head to the theatre.
We were booked to see Sister Act at the Dominion Theatre, Tottenham Court Road.
The show starred Beverley Knight and Ruth Jones and was excellent. We were both blown away by Beverley’s powerful voice.
That was a good end of a packed but enjoyable day two.
Day 3 – Westminster, Leake Street, Sky Garden
As we didn’t get to Westminster the previous day, we headed over on the tube.
No trip to London can be had without capturing Big Ben, and I really like the warped perspective the fisheye lens produces with these kind of compositions.
The same principles of ‘must do’ apply to the Houses of Parliament, again the fisheye lens producing something a little different.
It was interesting to see a memorial to the Covid pandemic.
Next up was a target location which is the front of the Photographing London book by Fotovue.
It’s a walkthrough which upon entering from the memorials, you look back at a scene of Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster bridge, all framed by the tunnel.
This is a popular tourist snap so we had to wait for two groups to do their selfies, and much longer for a German woman to grab about ten self-indulgent poser shots for the old Insta!
Once her and Mum clocked our impatient faces, they duly hurried along and having got my exposure set as best I could, I snapped a couple of frames in 2-3 seconds, just before another pedestrian came walking through.
The underpass takes you to Embankment and the London Eye, which was another test for the fisheye lens, although I don’t think this combo works.
Walking further along, we both took shots of this carousel.
We tried some shots to get movement but none of mine worked so I just concentrated on getting shots of the carousel making the most of the wide view from the fisheye lens.
A stop here at this carousel brought back happy memories of when we spent a few days in London with my son and daughter when they were young c2006.
They had a ride on this very colourful structure and we have a photo of them in a frame in our living room.
Walking on, there was a skateboarding area which looked perfect for more fisheye action.
A couple of other snaps of nearby sights was bagged.
We decided to head towards Leake Street which was on my list, with the promise of lots of street art to photograph.
It did not disappoint. In fact, Kathryn and I were blown away, and could’ve spent longer here but we had dinner on the Sky Garden booked so needed to get moving.
I’ve selected a few favourites below and included a mono conversion too – it works well but you cannot ignore the rich colours on offer.
We made our way back to the hotel to get changed and headed off to our dinner at the Walkie Talkie Sky Garden.
I didn’t take my camera but suffice to say the views were impressive.
On return to the hotel, I was keen to grab a night time shot, so I grabbed my travel tripod, switched to my prime lens and we walked down to the view of Tower Bridge.
However, the riverside area near the Tower of London was closed so I couldn’t get to the spot I wanted.
We walked the opposite way further away from the bridge and passed these interesting ‘pods’ people have dinner in.
I was disappointed not to be able to get to the spot I wanted, and didn’t have the motivation or energy to consider going over to the side of the Thames.
So I took a handheld shot which is noisy and nothing like what I had in mind.
That concluded a very busy day and evening.
Day 4 – St. Paul’s, Millennium Bridge, South Bank
On our last day, we had our bags locked up securely so could have a final wander around.
I didn’t get anything to shout about from St. Paul’s and we had a little go at panning to try and get buses or cyclists in motion, but nothing worth showing here.
Onto the Millennium Bridge, I grabbed this shot, and have converted it to mono.
Once across, we went to take a look the other side, and I could recognise the following scene from shots I’d seen online, plus there were three photographers with tripods.
Walking along South Bank, I grabbed this shot of a Transport for London structure, and quite like it with the person in the middle as they walked through the scene.
We hopped on the tube to Tottenham Court Road and walked to Covent Garden.
We had two celebrity spots on this day… Brett Anderson (lead singer of Suede) and Mylene Klass.
I grabbed a couple of shots from the underground and I’m still intending in future to get a decent tube train shot where I can show motion.
Kathryn wanted to visit St. Paul’s Church aka The Actor’s Church which has lots of plaques if not the bodies of many famous celebrities.
We then made our way back to the hotel, collected our bags and headed for Liverpool Street for the train home.
All in all, a superb trip, and fantastic sights and experiences wandering around. Despite being in March, on occasions the weather was mild enough to walk around without coats or jumpers and added to the chilled out relaxing experience.
The fisheye lens was superb and the only disappointing thing was not bagging a night time shot given that I’d taken the travel tripod with me.
Onwards and upwards…