London

Well, usually I try to post a photo a day on my blog. Usually of my kids :) but always of something new and for me, something technically new with my camera. I like to try different styles, and I love Portraits, but this weekend it was nice to get out and see the countryside!

As I have been away, I am going to do one post, but have a few photos from the last few days, to capture in a nut shell, our little visit to London!

Our main purpose was to see my Brother and his gorgeous family, and most importantly attend my little nephew's 3rd Birthday! It was great to catch up and better yet to grab some shots of all the munchkins together.

When I first moved to the UK, I spent some time in London, and I did actually in my time do the usual touristy things, but honestly I never saw it at night, the way it totally should be viewed! The city comes alive!

I won't go into boring details of everything we saw, but I will share a scary incident we had. So taking the opportunity to visit the city at night, was great and photo hopping to different hot spots was fab!

However London is made up of ring roads, and they are sooooo confusing. The city is huge! So to get to one side from the other, is mayhem - during the day, suicidal, and at night, bordering on suicidal. 

My husband thought it would be a great idea to see Piccadilly Circus. We were manoeuvring the car around the city, based on the guides of our mobile phones acting as Sat Navs - mine thought I was in London, Ontario! Hubs phone wouldn't reload properly - this was our costly mistake. Approaching what was the street to Piccadilly circus, we overlooked it and came to it a different way - mistake, big mistake, huge!

We were in the bus lane! I told him it was one, he said it would be ok, as a Rickshaw had now come behind us. The lights changed, and with the Rickshaw suddenly going up on the pavement, it was clear we were now down a ONE WAY road...It was like a scene from a National Lampoon movie, and I was married to Chevy Chase...honestly the terror that must be seen on our faces, probably being laughed at the traffic control centre as we speak - I was screaming, he was stuttering, a man was standing waving his finger at us - and about 100 cars and buses all originally coming towards us, suddenly stopped and starred - as hubby did a....3....point...turn...in....Piccadilly...Circus! My daughter woke up at that moment from the back seat, and called out "Are we in a movie?" - the bright lights were bright, or was it my face!

Totally inappropriate, totally embarrassing, totally a tourist thing to do...damn :)

I photographed this guy at Westminster, and he was actually pretty cool. He told me I shouldn't be out by myself. I showed him the car that was waiting for me, however, he went and put his bags under the tree, and continued to follow me around and when I left, he went and got his bags again.

Buckingham Palace..of course! The queen was waving out the top window to the left ;)

I was so annoyed - what a perfect silhouette photo for day 14!

Yes, well the fateful Piccadilly Circus. I did try to get one of us with all the cars in front of us, however I was quickly told by Husband, to put the freaking camera down..so this is what I got, sneakily...

A hotel room for 2 days, with a 7 year old...this collection is tame to our usual travels...great times with La La Loopsy dolls...wine required!

My little niece giving me the word - cut it out!

Cousins - you have to love them! This is why i absolutely love taking natural light photographs! Natural, bright, kids happy, own personalities shining through - love these kids xxx

Baby Cousin, is much better than a baby sister, so her dad keeps telling her....watch this space :)

All of my images are © Leah Donaldson Photography and are not to be downloaded, copied, printed or used without my written permission.