The River Great Ouse viewed from Purfleet Quay.
This would be my fourth city on the River Great Ouse – King’s Lynn, a sea port and market town in Norfolk in East England. An uneventful night for me – no rain, no goose bully, no stepping on animal poop, just a still night under merry ‘ole England’s usual dreary winter skies. Enjoy!
*On a side note, I am now on Twitter so FOLLOW ME here if you will, or you can click on the little bird in the sidebar. [...Wait, more photos!]
Still early into blue hour, but since I knew the bridge was not going to be lit up, I started early while I still had some ambient light. The wind was not forgiving that night as you can see from the motion on the willow tree branches.
I found another small town that sits by the River Great Ouse, the third one in this series – St. Ives, Bedford, and now Godmanchester. And I’ve said it before, the trouble with these small towns is that most of them are very dark at night. Having seen very little of Godmanchester online, and even on Flickr, I did not have my hopes up as far as lighting goes. But I like to challenge myself that way and explore the possibilities I can come up with.
I’ve seen quite a few oriental bridges but never one like this; maybe it’s because I’m more familiar with the Japanese ones. This Chinese bridge, which is Godmanchester’s main landmark, was named so because it was built in Chinese architectural style in 1827. It has since been replaced a couple of times because of bad condition. Not a spectacular bridge by any means, as compared to the mighty old bridges of Europe, but these gems in smaller towns make photography a little less mundane and fresher to the eyes, albeit more challenging.
Bedford Bridge and the river Great Ouse. These swans were a challenge to include in the shot - I wasn't sure if I wanted them there or not. Since they moved all the time and I wanted to freeze their motion, I had to shorten exposure time. Bedford bridge was nicely lit in blue too, but at the same time, it was also hard to separate it from the blueness of the sky.
Hope everyone’s New Year started out nicely. For the first day of 2011, I thought I’d visit the town of Bedford, and there I was greeted by a group of swans by the river. Swans are known to be symbols of beauty and grace, but new to me is that they are also regarded as masters of earth, wind and water.
I thought I’d share with you this poem I came across today:
Swan of beauty, swan of grace / A queen among her ancient race / She glides across the mirrored lake / No ripple does the surface break. (Susa Morgan Black) [...Wait, more photos!]
St Ives Bridge is a 15th century bridge crossing the River Great Ouse. It is one of only 4 bridges in England with a built-in chapel; the other 3 are in Rotherham, Wakefield and Bradford-upon-Avon. The structure not only served as a chapel but was at different times a tollhouse, an inn, a notorious public house, and a doctor's surgery house.
St. Ives is a small little-known town in Cambridgeshire which I’m sure not many of you have either visited or seen pictures of, as I have not until last night. But I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of it. The name St. Ives has been popularized in the famous riddle or song.
St. Ives is not much of a photographic town either and not many landmarks to speak of, but there’s a bridge there that intrigued me and I wanted to give it a shot. It is the second bridge with a built-in chapel that I’ve visited this year; I believe there are only 4 of its kind here in England. The other bridge I’ve visited was in Bradford-upon-Avon. [...Wait, there's more...]
You’ve probably watched or read the news about the student protests in London the other day, which turned pretty violent, even putting Prince Charles and Camilla in harm’s way as they drove down Regent Street. Students rallied the streets hours after the House of Commons announced a triple tuition hike in universities. They even set fire to the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square which fortunately police had stopped before it completely burned down. See: Student protesters set fire to Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree
I had planned on shooting the tree at Trafalgar Square the same night, and had been looking forward to it since the lighting ceremony last week, but decided to do it the next day. Reading the news that night, I was worried that the tree would not be there anymore, but still went to see it anyway. Getting there the next day, clean-up crew and repairmen were on the scene fixing the lights on the Christmas tree while I patiently waited. Even with a back-up plan, I still had my mind set on this. Fortunately, they had the tree back to normal in time for twilight, which was just before 4 p.m. Inspite of that, I still found it challenging to shoot there as there were many distractions: scaffolding on the left side of the National Gallery, the work crew had not left yet, and some news reporters and carolers were on one side of the tree setting up stage. Not to mention, the light in the sky was not ideal. But I did manage somehow.
The Trafalgar Square tree is typically a 50 to 60-year old Norwegian spruce and stands about 20 meters tall. It is an annual gift of Norway as a token of gratitude to the people of London for their assistance during World War ll.
At the base of the tree stands a plaque, bearing the words: "This tree is given by the city of Oslo as a token of Norwegian gratitude to the people of London for their assistance during the years 1940-45. A tree has been given annually since 1947."
The famous fountains of Trafalgar Square were originally constructed to commemorate the Battle of Trafalgar against Napoleon. The two fountains feature mermen and mermaids alongside dolphins, sculpted in bronze.
Looking down to Big Ben from the steps of the National Gallery.
Hope everyone’s enjoying the holiday season and staying warm. Today’s temperature here is 28.9 °F (-1.7 °C) with a windchill of 25 °F (-4 °C). If it’s colder where you are, I feel bad for you.
Just a few images here to get you into the spirit.
Winter Wonderland at Bluewater Shopping Center - Greenhithe, Kent.
Somerset House Ice Rink - London.
Angel Hill Christmas Tree - Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk.
I was editing some photos of mine from last summer and came across these from Caen, a city off the Normandy coast. It is a port city located 15 kilometers inland from the English channel where one can hop on a ferry across to England. I remembered it had rained in Normandy that afternoon while visiting the American cemetery in Omaha beach, but luckily – as what seems to be the story of my life – the skies cleared in time for twilight and gave me nice cloud textures and overall beautiful tones.
Caen is a nice quiet town with its own share of antiquated structures and was said to be the favored residence of William the Conqueror. It was devastated during the second World War but a few of its important structures remained, such as what you see here:
The ruins of St Etienne le Vieux or old St. Stephen's was one of the structures that was devastated during the war. The nave and south aisle are completely gone, but the north aisle, transept and crossing tower still stand.
The Abbaye aux Hommes or the Men's Abbey is dedicated to Saint Stephen and is considered to be one of the most notable Romanesque buildings in Normandy.
One of the most imposing structures on the main square of Caen is the Palace of Justice, the court building, which dates from the last half of the 18th century.
The world's famous clock needs no further introduction.
Light trails at Victoria Embankment from Golden Jubilee bridge.
Crescent moon hovers over the Thames and London's famous icons, the Palace of Westminster on the north bank and London Eye on the south.
The Golden Jubilee Bridges were officially opened in summer 2003 and became a great new landmark for London.
Yet another rainy day in London. There was some promise of sunlight for a few minutes in the afternoon but that simmered down to false hope as dusk was drawing near. You knew there was a storm coming – in fact, they had issued a gale warning today – if you look in the sky and follow where the clouds were headed to. Although the sunset brought in some colors with it, it was cloudy and eery for the most part. At sunset, I took some shots in Trafalgar Square and headed down to the nearby Golden Jubilee Bridges at which time the rain fell hard. Luckily, it stopped after a few minutes, and I picked up where I had left off.
Despite the nasty weather, I’m still glad I went to Trafalgar Square today. It’s probably only once a year I’d get a shot like this with the poppies. Today, England celebrates Armistice Day. The entire week, I’ve been seeing people wearing poppy ribbons on their lapels, and today at Trafalgar Square, paper poppy wreaths and flowers are strewn into the fountains. In several parts of London, at the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” people stopped for a couple of minutes for a moment of silence. Even in the always busy streets of Trafalgar Square, cars, buses and cabs hushed to a stop when traffic lights turned red.
Here’s my take on this solemn occasion, with a little help from the poppies and the weather.
For more than 90 years Britons have fallen silent at 11a.m. every Armistice Day in remembrance of the day that marks the anniversary of the end of the WWI. The First World War armistice came into effect at 11a.m. on 11 November 1918, the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month". Armistice or Remembrance Day is also known as Poppy Day. The poppy is a symbol of remembrance which is said to have started during WWI when Flanders, the western part of Beligum saw the most concentrated and bloodiest fighting. There was complete devastation and a lot of lives lost and the only living thing that survived were the poppies. The poppies - flowering each year with the coming of warm weather brought life and hope to those still fighting.
We just turned our clocks an hour back this past Sunday, and that only means one thing to night photographers like me – I get to to go home an hour earlier ! In fact, how’s 5:00 p.m. for civil twilight? Yes, it gets dark early in this part of the globe, and for convenience reasons (photographically speaking), that’s a good thing for me. The only downside I could see to that is it’s rush hour in London around that time, so the trains are packed and the volume of people on the streets is more than normal.
By 5:20 p.m., my gear’s all stowed away and I was done for the day, after squeezing in every bit of that blue light I could get from the sky. I had finished off on the bridge where both foot and vehicular traffic were busy, which equates to lots of unwanted movement. I think I still got decent shots though – it’s just all about timing!
I had been wanting to go to St. Katharine Docks since moving to England. The first time I was there, the side of the bridge facing the pier was undergoing renovations and had unsightly scaffolding and wrappings. This time, everything was clear and ready for some photography, so there’s really nothing to gripe about (well except maybe the overcast skies, but that’s normal around here.) 
Hope you like them!
Designed by Wendy Taylor in 1973, this massive sundial measures over 3 meters in diameter. It's made of stainless steel ring supported by 3 chain link cables. I haven't seen many photos of this sundial in Flickr or elsewhere, and I thought it makes an interesting subject although a bit challenging to compose. The curved building in between the towers is the London City Hall.
Another subject that I found challenging composition-wise - there's just so many points of interest in the surrounding area. This sculpture, Girl with a Dolphin by David Wynne, can be found at the north side of St. Katharine Docks. A little hard to see but there's water spurting from its pool which I would have preferred not be there. It was windy that night and was blowing in my direction. As a result, I got several water spots on my lens and my photos which I had to clean up in post-processing.
This clock tower or Ivory House in St. Katharine Docks got its name from the amount of ivory passing through it during the 19th century. Today its been converted into apartments, restaurants and shops.
London's most recognized bridge (by sight and not by name apparently), the Tower Bridge, is often mistakenly called London Bridge. Unlike the Tower Bridge though, London Bridge is not as majestic or even beautiful. You can actually see some of it on this image - it's that red strip of light in the far right.
My last shot of the day. My 14mm prime worked perfectly for this tight scene, but for the last few shots I switched to my 24-70mm which I used for this particular shot. I could not quite fit the scene in the frame, hence this angle. I still quite like this shot though - it looks very dynamic and the jagged edges on the top red trails are quite interesting.
