In my defense... (day 5)

In my defense, I was very, very tired when I did the last blog, so I really don't know how much sense it made. Sorry!

This one is a day late, but I'm actually capable of speaking in complete sentences, so theoretically that'll help my writing. . . . 

Now that you've stopped giggling. 'Day 5' was so much FUN!

I'm rather sad that I put it off for so long because I finally got that spine tingly, jaw dropping, suppressing-the-urge-to-jump-up-and-down-like-a-two-year-old moments where it just hit me that, yes, I was IN LONDON.

It was cold, and rainy (that photo was taken later in the day- dreary doesn't look good) but amazing. I munched croissants as I walked down the bank. I oogled the House of Parliament (gorgeous!), 

Decided that no cathedral is worth $32 just to look around and not be allowed photos inside 

and checked out the Churchill museum and War Cabinet rooms. Sadly- no photos were allowed there either, but it was fascinating anyway. 

-Did you know that Churchill's mother was American, his father was British semi-royalty and they pretty much ignored him? 

-Also- the first time he met his wife he wasn't able to bring himself to even speak to her?

-And he was in the calvary for a time, and his political career bombed multiple times before the war? (and once after)

Sadly, that took my entire morning and I rushed to class, got bewildered for a moment, grabbed some lunch to go, and got to class. And I was SO glad I did! Our speaker was FASCINATING (sorry- the following will be photo-gush and may be un-intelligible to some).

Her name was Grace Robertson, she is a British documentary photographer/photojournalist. Her career began in 1947 when she had a small photo story published in the picture post (the British version of LIFE magazine). She was entirely self-taught, photojournalism had barely begun and photography itself was still very new. Anywho- she was asked to join the staff of the picture post full time and turned it down(!) and did the same to Life Magazine(!!) after they offered her a job too. 

I think the moment I nearly turned into that wide-eyed screaming groupie was when she casually mentioned her friend Larry Burrows(!!!). I have done reports on him, he was an AMAZING photographer. She casually mentioned how she saw him in the airport the last time he headed over to Vietnam. She told him that she had turned down Life's job offer and he congratulated her on her marriage, they hugged and he left. It was the last time he was in Britain before the troop transport he was on was shot down over Korea. 

However, beyond that, she was there, helping create photo-stories as they have come to be. She saw "Spanish Village" (Eugene Smith) when it was first published. I think she even said she knew him, but at that point I was feeling something close to what most people must feel around stars. Well, maybe not. I just wanted her to sit down and talk for the next 2-4 years. It was FASCINATING.

*deep breaths* Ok. Done with the photo gush.

After class I dazedly wandered back to the dorm, resisting the urge to kidnap the lecturer. How would I kidnap a 6'4 woman who had a dinner date with my prof without arousing suspicion anyway?

I then realized I needed to see more of London proper, and it was still icky so I didn't want to bother wandering through parks hoping someone wanted to get wet. On my way to the tube I met a really nice guy and his 4 dogs.

They let me photograph them playing, which sadly ruined my previous project idea. Now I want to shoot Londoners and their dogs.  I need to find more. 

Anyway, I headed back to the embankment and a little sun  came out (thats the photo from above). Here are some of my favorites;

I wanted to get a sunset behind the Tower Bridge, so I sat. And waited. And got colder. And waited. And got bored. And waited. And the clouds go darker and darker. So I decided I just wanted a photo with the lights on. So, I sat. And waited. And got colder. And waited. And got bored. And waited. And gave up. 

So I walked away, and not 200 feet from where I had been sitting, I ran into 5 other people from my program who had the same brilliant idea as I did. So I stopped to say hi. . . and the lights on the bridge came on. So we all shot it together before braving the subway home. 

Sadly, I didn't get photos of the group trying to jaywalk to the side of the street with the metro stop in time for one person to get creamed by a biker. He was going very fast. Thankfully for her, he also had really good brakes. Apparently it also looked a lot worse than it actually was, because she doesn't even have a bruise and it looked like she should have had broken bones!

However, when we got home at 11, I realized that I had woken up at 6am, walked all over London (twice), shot for hours and had nearly spazzed over a speaker. It was a long day, so when I laid down to stretch my aching back out, it was lights out before I knew it. Hence why the post is a day late. 

Now I think I'll rustle up some food and head to bed, because in 4.5 hours we'll be getting on the bus for STONEHENGE!!!!!!!!! 

Woohoo! Big rocks at sunrise!

Maybe I'll even get in a post about today before we head out... Or not...