I had some trouble capturing light the way I wanted to on my trip to London last year. These photos are imperfect, because my tools were imperfect. Let it be known that I brought my third best camera to London, because I was afraid to lose the more expensive ones. Please note that this was a stupid idea; if I am too afraid of losing my best camera to bring it on trips, I should not have purchased it to begin with. Let me not be that person who buys an expensive sports car, only to leave it in the garage under a waterproof cover and drive the Toyota Corolla on the weekends. The first photograph posted here is from the fountain in front of Buckingham Palace. If I'd brought the Porsche of my camera collection, the colors would not have been washed out, but you can still see this beautiful mermaid well enough.
This next photo was taken at the British Museum, and illustrates why it's a better idea to blog about a place while you're still there, or take better notes than I do. I don't know who this is, or who made this, just that it was difficult to get a clear photo of her that didn't include passers by. Also, I struggled with the not-Porsche camera, and had to futz with the flash and the automatic settings until I got a shot that made her look like marble instead of yellow pottery. At this point, I acknowledge that I won't actually write much about my trip to London. I'll spend more time wishing I'd brought the right tools with me on the trip, so this blog post may as well be about that, as about anything.
When you're planning any endeavor, equip yourself for success. This includes bringing your confidence in yourself. I didn't bring either one to London, I'm afraid. If I'd brought my confidence, I'd have trusted myself not to lose my good camera, and these would be better shots. But they are what they are; I brought what I brought. If I'm to have confidence in myself, I suppose I'll learn from my mistake, but enjoy what I brought home anyway. One thing can be said for my trip to London: I did not overpack. I only brought two pairs of shoes, where I actually needed three, and that goes against my usual packing strategy, which means I only need two, but I pack six. I went with just a flight bag and a backpack. I'll explain about the shoes in another post that will hopefully have more recollections about London than this one does.
When you're planning any endeavor, equip yourself for success. This includes bringing your confidence in yourself. I didn't bring either one to London, I'm afraid. If I'd brought my confidence, I'd have trusted myself not to lose my good camera, and these would be better shots. But they are what they are; I brought what I brought. If I'm to have confidence in myself, I suppose I'll learn from my mistake, but enjoy what I brought home anyway. One thing can be said for my trip to London: I did not overpack. I only brought two pairs of shoes, where I actually needed three, and that goes against my usual packing strategy, which means I only need two, but I pack six. I went with just a flight bag and a backpack. I'll explain about the shoes in another post that will hopefully have more recollections about London than this one does.
This was my first trip out of the country; I don't count Alaska, Puerto Rico, or Tijuana, because the first two are part of the US, and the last one is just a hop over the border of California, and is kind of like a Mexico-land theme park, not really Mexico at all. This was my first trip where I needed a passport, and it was a long time in the planning and execution. I may have written this already, but I was nervous. I don't enjoy air travel. I'd never gone through customs before. I didn't know what to expect. By the time I reached Buckingham Palace, however, where the photo at left was taken, I was settled. I was abroad, and it was different, but it hadn't killed me. Some would say I still haven't been abroad, because I went to a place where everyone speaks English, and so forth, but I thumb my nose at those people. I still had to figure out foreign currency, and I took it in the teeth with the exchange, thank you very much.
I lucked out with the shot above, the second of the Buckingham Palace photos. My camera didn't want me to take this shot. The slightest upward angle and this whole shot washed out white automatically due to some frustrating programming of the camera's. I had to trick it to give me this shot, with that lovely sheen of white picking out this statue's highlights. I wonder if I could have taken this shot better with the Porsche. I like to think not. By the way, it's a Nikon, not a Porsche, but I like the sports car image, so I'll use Porsche for now.
I lucked out with the shot above, the second of the Buckingham Palace photos. My camera didn't want me to take this shot. The slightest upward angle and this whole shot washed out white automatically due to some frustrating programming of the camera's. I had to trick it to give me this shot, with that lovely sheen of white picking out this statue's highlights. I wonder if I could have taken this shot better with the Porsche. I like to think not. By the way, it's a Nikon, not a Porsche, but I like the sports car image, so I'll use Porsche for now.
This shot was taken at Trafalgar Square in front of the National Portrait Gallery. Dad is carrying the porpoise so the kid can take a long spit, I suppose. This was my first day in London, and my daughter and I went for a bus ride, and got out at a random place with beautiful statues and big buildings; that was Trafalgar Square. We walked a long way, and she stayed with me all that first day. I'll write about that in another post, because we stopped and had a bite to eat, and I took photos of the pub signs I saw along the way. I'd just like to say the first day was very nice because we were together. At some point, sooner than I wanted, she took off on her own, and I was left to wander solo through this big city I didn't know. I didn't come prepared to spend most of my trip to London alone, but that's the way it happened. I wouldn't have had all these photographs had we been together the whole time, so there's a silver lining there as well.
The next time I go abroad, I'm going to bring some things (my Porsche camera, my own pair of wellies, more minutes for my phone, more patience, bed bug spray, my self-confidence) and I'll leave some things behind (primarily, my expectations). I will probably not have a better plan. On this trip, I saw most of the standard things tourists see. As you've already seen, I went to Buckingham Palace (I didn't pay to go in), the British Museum (you don't have to pay to go in), Trafalgar Square, and the Tate Modern. I went to a lot of other iconic places, but this post has all of the lovely statues I saw, not those other places, so I'll have patience. When I take photos, I think I'll take better notes. For some reason, I felt rushed. The first day, I think because my daughter has a different plan than I do on how to explore a city, but after that, I had no excuse. I could have spent the entire time I was alone taking photos and writing about them, but my notebook for the most part stayed in my bag, and I took photos without commentary, absorbed by the light and the colors, and the awareness that I might not pass that way again. I hope I will, but I'm not sure I will. The odds are against it. After all, there are a lot of other places I'd like to see. There's a whole world out there, and so little time. If I go back to London, it will be because I love London better than any other place I can imagine, and I'm not there just now. So in a way, I took pictures as if I'd never see London again, and yet I didn't have a planned itinerary. I bought a Not For Tourists guide and I just went here and everywhere on the buses and Underground, and tried not to get lost. Some places I got to because I got lost on the way to somewhere else.
Like this. I found the Ghandi in Tavistock Square because it was the last day, and my camera battery had run down, and I didn't have enough time to get all the way back to the Tower of London, but this statue was nearby. It was only a couple of bus stops away. By now, I was homesick, but still snapping, determined to bring home a thousand photographs to make the homesickness worth it.
The statue of Ghandi was seated on an altar-like pedestal and people had decorated him with flowers. In the altar alcove were more flowers, and candles, and incense. No one else was around in the whole square, and it felt strange to get off at that stop, with the rest of the city headed home from work. I was a tourist, out of time with the people who lived there, like the people who are riding in the duck boats in Boston when I'm on my way home from a long day in my glorified cubicle. Someone had taken the time to put a necklace of flowers around Ghandi's neck, but by the time I saw him, it was time for people to go home and be with their families.
This post feels disjointed, bare, much like my memories of travel this past summer. And now I understand that the writing is rich either where the images are fresh, or the memories are deep. I have not yet fully plumbed the memories of London here. I've just scratched the surface, and presented you with some pretty pictures, but pictures that I think are not as good as they could have been.
There's something here in all this. Hopefully, I'll figure it out.
The statue of Ghandi was seated on an altar-like pedestal and people had decorated him with flowers. In the altar alcove were more flowers, and candles, and incense. No one else was around in the whole square, and it felt strange to get off at that stop, with the rest of the city headed home from work. I was a tourist, out of time with the people who lived there, like the people who are riding in the duck boats in Boston when I'm on my way home from a long day in my glorified cubicle. Someone had taken the time to put a necklace of flowers around Ghandi's neck, but by the time I saw him, it was time for people to go home and be with their families.
This post feels disjointed, bare, much like my memories of travel this past summer. And now I understand that the writing is rich either where the images are fresh, or the memories are deep. I have not yet fully plumbed the memories of London here. I've just scratched the surface, and presented you with some pretty pictures, but pictures that I think are not as good as they could have been.
There's something here in all this. Hopefully, I'll figure it out.
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