Seats of Power: Whitehall and the Mall

The theme for my pictures is light. I started my walk at dusk which created the perfect atmosphere as the city was just beginning to light up.  Light creates an interesting effect as it draws attention to certain aspects of the photo and eliminates the background. The focus of the walk was to be introduced to part of London associated with royalty, government, and the administration of the UK.   The mood in the city is different at night than it is in the daytime, everything seems to come to life.  This parallels with my theme of light, as the city lights up, the excitement of the people also steps up a notch.

City Walk

  

The focus of this walk is the city in its historical context, as it grew from Londinium in the Roman Era through the Medieval and  Stuart Times to the size that it is in the modern day.  I chose to do a black and white theme to give my pictures a more antiqued look.  Walking through some of the streets, I got the feel for what it may have been like to walk along the streets of London during Medieval times.   One of the interesting things that happened on our walk was as we passed St Paul's Cathedral we noticed a movie crew.  We asked what was going on  and they told us that we barely missed the filming of Sherlock Holmes.  He directed us down the street to the College of Arms where the next scene was being filmed.  We walked down to find men and women dressed in old-fashioned clothing in horse drawn carriages.  It was the perfect addition to our walk because it added to the feel of being in London during old times.  Another exciting part of the walk was walking past the court where on the front was written "Defend the Children of the Poor. Punish the Wrongdoer". I like that London places importance on tradition, the city doesn't feel as modernized as most other large cities. There seems to be great importance on keeping things the way they always were.