Houses of Parliament

The Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace and the River Thames early summer's morning, you can see Big Ben shows the time as 0605. Roadworks/refurbishments were or are in process at the moment which meant that photos were not possible on Westminster Bridge which necessitated a quick dash to the other side of the river whilst the light was this good. Wonderful warm light and blue sky - who said London's weather was all bad?

The problem here of course is using a wide lens on a building: any angle that you have positioning the camera will result in converging verticals, here though I think that the effect is not too bad.

1/80s at f/16 32 mm ISO 100

Buckingham Palace

This was taken early morning a few weeks ago when the UK was having a bit of a summer. I got up at 0500 to get the second tube to Embankment, then walked from Trafalgar Square down the mall to Buckingham Palace. It was great to be able to see such a popular tourist attraction with no one there and the morning sunshine was fantastic.

Buckingham Palace is, of course, one of the residences of the Queen of the UK. She was in that morning as the royal standard is up, though there was no wind so early in the morning so it is just hanging off the flagpole. As the morning wore on the wind picked up and you can see it flying here. The big monument on the right is the Queen Victoria Memorial, she is out of shot and looks down the mall towards Trafalgar Square. You can also see the lampost on the far right bent slightly to the left due to the wide lens angle.

1/60s at f/10 ISO 100 32 mm circlar polarizer