The pictures for week 14 were all taken on Saturday the 7th and Sunday the 8th. My wife and I decided to keep a long-standing promise to our daughter and take her to London to see the Lion King musical in the West End and to be let loose in the bookshops on Charing Cross Road. So on Saturday morning, we drove to Calais and crossed the Channel.
Main
Monica is an avid reader, and so the hour on the ferry was spent with a book:
The alternates:
Alternate 1
We arrived at our hotel in Croydon during the afternoon, dumped our things and the car there, and immediately took the train into London. My wife was shopping at the Lillywhite’s on Picadilly while Monica and I were hanging around and looking at the crowds of people who were out enjoying the good weather:
Alternate 2
Stairs leading down to the Picadilly Circus tube station:
Alternate 3
The London Underground is always a source of images:
Alternate 4
On Sunday morning, I took Monica to Hyde Park to show her one of the world’s great democratic institutions, Speakers’ Corner. This guy was a fire-and-brimstone preacher whom I did not like very much, since he was quite aggressive in denigrating other religions. I engaged in debate with him and his sidekick, much to my daughter’s amusement:
Alternate 5
This speaker had a lot of passion for his cause but not many people listened to him, as the quality of his argumentation did not match his passion–and the weather was too good for heavy stuff:
Alternate 6
We then moved on to Covent Garden, where we were going to meet up with my wife. While waiting for her, we enjoyed a musical performance in the Covent Garden market. I especially liked this musician, both because she was attractive and because she was very entertaining and expressive:
Alternate 7
Another Covent Garden image–two brothers are having fun with (presumably) their father’s digital camera:
Alternate 8
After the theatre, we took the tube again, and again it proved to be a good source for opportunistic images:
Alternate 9
As the sun was setting, we took a walk along the Thames and had a beer in a bar near the Millenium Bridge. I generally avoid postcard-type pictures, but could not resist snapping a couple of iconic images of London. First, the London Eye:
Alternate 10
…and then St Paul’s cathedral:
Alternate 11
After dinner at TGI Friday’s, another treat for our daughter, we finished Sunday evening at Chandos Pub near Trafalgar Square:
Alternate 12
I had sought out this pub following advice from a fellow member of the Leica Users Group, Steve Unsworth, who recommended the place and its excellent beers from a brewery in North Yorkshire:
Simply breath taking- I mean, they are everything you could want. You keep getting better and better (DSLR??)- Roger
Comment by Roger — 15 April 2007 @ 19:38
Hi Nathan,
Your London series had some real jewels, particularly the natural people shots in B&W. I like your close ups of items symbolic of the times. Every one of your images comes to the point and the technical quality is very high. I don’t know which Leica and lenses you’re using, but know how to get the most out of them. It was great traveling in your company. br
Comment by Bob Rosen — 21 April 2007 @ 22:32