...everywhere I go is wonderful to me, except......

Ah, London, the Capital City to shame the many smaller and less intricate capital cities. There is a common theme to my last few photography posts and they all revolve around the classic British Summertime, yes it was rainy and grey in London.
There was actually only one shot that I wanted. On my last trip I took this shot using IR but I really wanted to take it as a standard photo. As with any picture, there are options. I could bracket the shot and make a dramatic HDR, use it as an exercise and come back when the weather was better or use my filters. I opted for the latter. The issue was the amount of wind as I was using some branches from a tree to frame the shot. The exposure was 2-3 seconds using several filters, including a sunset filter to give that red look and they all increase the exposure time. I ended up with a string of shots, all perfectly exposed but with too much movement in the branches. I did get the shot, not quite as I wanted but good enough.
As a note to any coeliacs or wheat and gluten free folk that visit London, go to Danny's Gourmet Wraps on Lamb's Conduit Street, they are Coeliac aware and have some delicious gluten free wraps. We have been there a few times and they take extreme care so the danger of cross contamination is absolutely minimal.

One of my photos was selected for the Schmap website to advertise the Brighton area:

http://www.schmap.com/brighton/activities_daytrips/p=369195/i=369195_25.jpg

I felt a teensy weensy bit guilty as it was someone else's photograph that inspired me to go to Battle Abbey and take this shot but I guess that inspiration comes from what we see about us, including other photographs.
I would recommend the Brighton area, there is so much around it to see and do. I like to drive and see as much as I can and everything is very close together in this area. There are a lot of castles and some very good beaches.
Mind you, everywhere I go is wonderful to me, except for the East Anglia region. I am sure it must have some wonderful things to see and do but it is so flat. I like rolling hills, the atmosphere that comes with an undulating landscape and the woods and streams that flow down the sides of hills. We had one visit to Suffolk, we went to Orford. It was a miserable day so the weather really didn't help but there was so little to inspire. I didn't get a single shot that I would be proud of. My photographic trips are now focused on the rest of the UK, leaving the East coast from East Anglia to just North of Skegness until I have exhausted all else or someone puts me straight. There must be something there that I will love, after all it was the birth the place to one of England's greatest hero's, our own God of War, Nelson. We tend to forget the true legacy of our history. People are not remembered correctly. Nelson was a Lion for this nation when we needed a legend, he most certainly saved us from any potential invasion from Napoleon, he was a loose canon and knew how to work the press for his own self promotion, possibly one of the first documented spin doctors, his self serving self promotion made him a National hero, a title that he more than fulfilled. I read up on Nelson, and more recently, Sir Francis Drake. Drake is remembered for the Spanish armada. That is in actual fact probably the least of his achievements. He opened up trading routes between England and China, kept the Spanish at bay, circumnavigated the Globe and had coloured crew members, not slaves, earning an equal share of the spoils of war. A great man and rightly remembered as a hero but possibly not for all the right reasons.
I have now gone totally off track so I may have to start waving a flag and listening to Churchill's speeches on my ipod to ensure that I get that full effect of National pride. All I need now is a flypast, a Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster would complete my day!

If anyone does know of anything in East Anglia that doesn't involve Windmills and Canals, that would give me a good day to take photographs, I am absolutely prepared to recant everything that I have said as I can't believe that such a large area can be so devoid of interest to me.