The Gardens at Hampton Court Palace

Hampton Court Palace, home to Cardinal Wolsey, Archbishop of York, and later to King Henry VIII, is surrounded by gardens. I found them to be the biggest draw of the place, perhaps because they provided such an enticing viewpoint to look back at the palace. Many of the gardens were designed by Christopher Wren, who was hired by William and Mary in the 1690's to expand the palace.

The Privy Gardens

The Pond Gardens

The Knot Garden

Most of the gardens seemed to have a symmetrical, formal style, but occasionally you would come across one  with a meandering flow. 

And what garden is complete without the requisite statue?

Our photography focus today was on detailed views of flowers. We had already experimented with this when we visited the Queen Mary's Gardens at Regent's Park, which was filled with roses. Under today's gray sky the color of the various flowers seemed to shine more brightly.

Perfect Pinks

Yellows and Blues

Palace Wall - Great Fountain Garden

Clock Court

 And one last look at the palace.....

Swan Near the Fountain Garden

The Tube

The iconic roundel symbolizing the London Underground was designed by typographer Edward Johnston and has been in use since 1918. Above ground the words on the blue bar simply state UNDERGROUND. Once you are underground the names of the stations will be listed on the blue bar instead.

The second enduring design feature is the diagrammatic underground map, created by Harry Beck in 1931. "Basing his map on an electrical circuit, Beck represented each line in a different colour and interchange stations as diamonds. The crowded central area was enlarged for legibility and the course of each route was simplified into the form of a vertical, horizontal or diagonal. The diagrammatic map was produced on a trial basis in 1933 as a leaflet and Beck continued to refine it until 1959. His design has inspired the maps of underground networks from New York to Sydney, and a variation of his original design is still used by London Underground today." http://designmuseum.org/design/london-transport  Tube Map
Operating 11 lines covering 249 miles and carrying over 1 billion passengers each year has taken a toll on the aging 140 year old system. The network is currently undergoing a complete renovation, expected to take approximately ten years. Find out more under Transforming the Tube.

While the renovation is is progress, service updates are available at your station, online at Transport for London, and you can receive advance warnings of weekend closures by email.




There are signs throughout the stations that direct you to the correct line, or help you find your way out.

You will be cautioned to "MIND THE GAP" between the platform and the train. This will also be stated aloud as the tube pulls into a station.

Train Speeding out of the Station

Charing Cross Station on the Northern and Bakerloo Lines

Many of the stations have unique designs and artwork on the walls.

Closest Station to Florida State London Study Centre

Marble Arch Station on the Central Line

Classic Design on White Subway Tiles

The London underground is an historic engineering feat and it continues to evolve to meet the needs of today's passengers.

 Mosaics at the Tottenham Court Road Station


I would like to offer you my own "Ten Tips for Tourists Taking the Tube".
Music by The Down and Outs. Heard of Ellephants. Market Music. Released April 8, 2009.

www.creativecommons.org

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The Royal Parks

London has 5,000 acres of historic parkland spread throughout the city. Each park has it's own attractions, but they all offer a peaceful retreat from the clamor of the urban city. The eight parks together are known as the Royal Parks. Today our outing took us to The Regent's Park, which covers 410 acres and houses the Queen Mary's Gardens with over 400 varieties of  roses. Our photography focus for today was panoramas, but with so many roses at our fingertips we could not resist taking close-ups as well.

Southeast Entrance to Regent's Park

A Collage of Roses from Queen Mary's Gardens

A Perfect Pink Rose

The Regent's Park includes Primrose Hill, which offers an expansive view of the city in the distance, and is famous for being the setting for Mary Poppins "Let's Go Fly a Kite".

Cricket and Soccer at Regent's Park

The Regent's Park has nearly 100 acres designated for sports activities.

Buckingham Palace

During this past week we also visited St. James Park and Greenwich Park. St. James Park is bordered by Buckingham Palace and the mall, where tourists flock to see the changing of the guard.

Changing of the Guard proceeding down the Mall

View from the top of the hill by the Royal Observatory

Greenwich Park is home to the Prime Meridian Line and Royal Observatory which we visited on Thursday,  July 22. Nearby is the National Maritime Museum, which had a fascinating exhibit called Atlantic Worlds.

Boats, Buses, and Taxis

Our focus today was on photographing London transportation. The main assignment was in Trafalgar Square, which besides being a tourist destination for the Statue of Admiral Lord Nelson and the National Gallery, has several main London roads feeding into the square: Whitehall, Northumberland, Strand, Charing Cross, Pall Mall. The streets of London do not follow any consistent planning pattern, so there is always a bit of chaos with unexpected one-way streets, bikes, taxis, and double-decker buses trying to share the road, and a constant flow of pedestrians. Pedestrians are allowed to cross wherever they want (no fines for jay walking) at their own risk, and risk it they do. I have questioned my own sanity after dashing across the street before a double-decker bus.

However, if you cross at designated points, there is help at your feet.

Our main assignment was to capture motion, either by blurring the mode of transportation or by blurring the background. I worked on the movement of the transport, which took me a while. The opposite approach will have to wait for another time.

I have included some other shots of London transportation, also from Trafalgar Square. Red double-decker buses, a London icon known the world over, and black taxis are seen everywhere you look.

Waterloo Bridge with St. Paul's Cathedral

Today we used another means of travel on our way down the Thames to Greenwich. Boats abound on the Thames, and it is a fascinating river to watch. Wharfs and warehouses from years past still line both sides of the river, now turned into upscale living spaces and shops, but retaining some of the old features and character.

The Thames is crossed by many bridges, the most famous being Tower Bridge.

Detail on Top Span of the Bridge

And here we stood on the Prime Meridian in Greenwich.

Black & White vs. Color

Our photography focus today was black and white, and we visited Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral to try and work our magic. To me, a higher level of skill is needed to intrigue and evoke an emotion with a black and white photograph. We can't all be an Ansel Adams or Alfred Stieglitz, whose photography was truly some of the most majestic, inspiring, and enduring of our times. When a picture is stripped to it's black and white core, the composition takes on a much greater importance.

Stonehenge Under Clouds

We had another perfect day, with fabulous towering clouds at Stonehenge. Have I mentioned that I'm somewhat obsessed with clouds? : ) Because we were shooting in black and white, I included people in some of my shots.

Generally I tend to avoid this as I feel they are a distraction (those bag-toting, camera-clicking tourists,.... not me of course), unless you are specifically focusing on human subjects going about their normal lives.

Of course, most of us were not really taking black and white photos. We were shooting in color and then using a variety of software to change, contrast, crop, and generally manipulate and enhance our original photo. I must say I'm loving it! So here are a couple of color shots, which do you prefer?

Salisbury Cathedral

At Salisbury Cathedral, I contrasted the black and white photos with shots of saturated color. I hope this Andy Warhol inspired take is not offensive to anyone, certainly no disrespect was intended. What was interesting was what colors were actually underlying the original photo. The saturation effect in Picasa 3 only intensifies what is already there, at least that is how it appeared to me. Some photos did not change much at all.

Here comes the fun!