"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." — Samuel Johnson
So said this 18th century biographer, critic and author of the 'Dictionary of the English Language' (the English dictionary until the Oxford English Dictionary 173 years later) - and we agree.....though yes, we have left London, it was not for lack of things to do...
To put it mildly there is a lot to see and do, and of course, photograph. Plus it's handily the centre of the world too.....as UK comedian Al Murray puts it "in the middle of the map, at the top...well, we put the line there but it still stands!" Entirely unbiased of course.
So, we spent a couple of short stints / long weekends last year back in our hometown of London last year (well, one of our hometowns!). We were visiting UK family, plus Elizabeth's parents who were enjoying a holiday there. We are 'location independent' but having our legal base in the UK means visits are packed with admin too, so this means everything from organising the AGM for the block of flats where we have property to getting Yellow Fever vaccinations just in case. 'Just in case' in this context meaning we have a friend who got locked in quarantine in New Delhi for a whole week as they were travelling from Brazil without a certificate. After he came out, the first thing he ate, a burger, was the best tasting thing he had ever eaten and he nearly wept. We were convinced! Another crucial task was to get essential documents to apply for Elizabeth's life-long visa to India, a long-term bureaucratic task that has thankfully finished this year.
But most of all, we enjoyed walking around one of the world's best destinations for street photography. Happily, the August and September weather was perfect, an uncommon stroke of luck as anyone who lives in the UK will already know...
So please enjoy this eclectic collection of London photography, the 20th gallery on this blog!
Due to moving to a new blog app, an upgrade of the same one, there are some issues that we are coming to realise: it doesn't have 'click to expand' for galleries, and you have to create an account to leave comments, grrrr. Stupid blog. So either you can view full screen via this link with my custom titles on show: London 2018 500px gallery, or you can click on the black arrows on the below slideshow below to scroll through.
Anyway, enjoy!!
:-)
~ Vientiene
P.S. Interested in seeing other galleries? https://www.travellingfortea.com/photography
or on this photography site where I also publish https://500px.com/vientiene/galleries
Or following our travels on Instagram? https://instagram.com/travellingfortea/
Our animal & travel photography feed is: http://instagram.com/radiant_travel
For any photography enthusiasts or professionals reading: I use a Panasonic G5 (micro four-thirds), a 20mm f1.7 pancake and 42.5mm f1.7 portrait lens (that's a 40mm FF and 85mm FF field of view equivalent respectively). Previously, from 2013-2017, I mostly used the 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 kit lens and a 45-200mm f4-5.6 OIS (FF equivalent 28-84mm and 90-400mm respectively). In early 2017 I replaced the kit lens with the much faster 20mm prime, and due to weight and size I abandoned the telescopic behind in 2018 when I added the oh-so-small portrait lens with its razor thin depth of field. Such a great travel camera kit - the best camera (and lens) is the one you have with you!