London | R. Doug Wicker

Fun Photo Friday — London

In February of 2005 Ursula and I visited our daughter, son-in-law, and bouncing new granddaughter in England. But before we headed north out of London Ursula and I decided to do the tourist thing. This was with my first digital camera, a now positively ancient Sony F707 which was pretty state-of-the-art for the time.

One of the stops was across the river from James Bond’s office at the SIS (a.k.a., MI6) Building. A passerby jokingly (I hope) stopped and told me that I shouldn’t be taking a picture of this edifice:

SIS Headquarters — M was not receiving visitors that day, and 007 was out of the country

We also strolled by the London Eye, of course. No, I didn’t get on. I don’t do heights:

London Eye

And it goes without saying that no trip to London is complete without a photo of Big Ben (now officially Elizabeth Tour), the Palace of Westminster (a.k.a., the Parliament building), and Westminster Bridge:

Westminster Bridge, Westminster Palace, and Big Ben

Another picture-worthy span is Vauxhall Bridge:

Vauhall Bridge

As is Lambeth Bridge:

Lambeth Bridge

Of course I probably could have gotten even better photos if only I had sprung for a Thames River tour:

A Duck in the Water

These shots were taken shortly after the dawn of the digital photography age with a 5mp camera. Looking at them today, you can see why I tell people it’s not the megapixels that count. It’s what you can do with them.

Unfortunately, the interior shots of Ely Cathedral (taken in the Cambridgeshire town of Ely, northeast of London) still show the poor ISO noise sensitivity inherent in cameras of the time, but the outdoor shots look good even by today’s standards.

One of the London buildings I photographed is the SIS Building made famous in a long-running movie series, and a series of novels that date back even further (1953). How long running? October 5 will mark the 50th anniversary of the release of the very first film in this series, and November 9 of this year is the U.S. release date of the 23rd film. And if you haven’t guessed yet what the SIS Building is, or the series that made it famous, it’s more commonly known as the MI6 (or the Secret Intelligence Service) Building. It’s most famous fictional residents are a certain English MI6 agent (whose service number bears a Double-O prefix) and his boss, a person who goes by the code name of “M.”

Also featured are London landmarks such as the London Eye, Big Ben (officially renamed this year Elizabeth Tower after Diamond Jubilee for the current monarch, Elizabeth II), the Palace of Westminster (i.e., the Parliament building), and Vauxhall Bridge.