Traveling to UK

<p>Go to Cornwall, Wales, Devon, Yorkshire, Bath where you will see the the actual UK. It will be much more enriching and better photos, there is so much visual noise in London.</p>

<p>Hi Bruce don't know if you have thought about coach travel but if you are doing the Citys these stop at most <a href="http://www.nationalexpress.com/coach/Destinations/index.cfm">http://www.nationalexpress.com/coach/Destinations/index.cfm</a> easy to book and cheap too. They do a 7 day travel where you want pass for £79.00 you can go anywere in uk wales scotland, although the latter may be to much traveling.</p>

<p>A car would be best for the freedom it would give you.</p>

<p>I think Lake District is one of the best locations in UK and the best I have ever visited.</p>

<p>Bruce<br>

If you can get a train to Northampton ,Milton Keynes or Wellingborugh give me an email before and I will place one of my Mercedes Lond S Class with chauffeur at your disposal. We could do Althorpe - home of The Spencer family - nice countryside over to Stratford on Avon for The Shakespear tour and Warwick Cattle. Busy day but worth it. Drop you at the Station afterwards. And of course no charge.<br>

Just let me know.</p>

<p>Yeah...we drive in the right right side here (Australia) too...The Left. We also walk on the left of the sidewalk, and I get SICK of tourists who try to battle their way against this nice logic. (SORRY).</p>

<p>Bruce, train travel is not as difficult as you may think. In fact its easy. Book off-peak fares for cheapest travel. Also, contrary to the advice above, the walk-up fares are not always way more expensive. I live in London. In fact, booking online or at a ticket machine/person at the station is sometimes identical in price, for example London to Brighton, Cambridge, Oxford, Gatwick Airport etc. I have made these trips many times.</p>

<p>I always use www.thetrainline.com , you pay with your credit card and use the card to collect your tickets at the station. A rather off-beat idea may be to go to Paris for the day, return from the new swish St Pancras station in London. You can easily spend the better part of the day in Paris then return to London.</p>

<p>Photographically, I would recommend spending time in London, including getting some dusk shots in. Try visiting some of the ancient (yes, hundreds and hundreds of years old) markets such at Spitalfields (Liverpool Street station), Portobello Road on a Saturday (Notting Hill Gate station), Borough Market (London Bridge station), Covent Garden (Coven Garden station), Camden Market (Camden station). Take a walk around the Brick Lane area near Spitalfields. Take in a walk along the South Bank for all the main tourist sites (Westminster, The Eye, etc. down to the Millennium Bridge, Tate Modern Gallery, St Pauls, further down to London and Tower Bridge. Take a boat ride across to Greenwich, very enjoyable. Major, mega tip coming up..... when in London do not buy day tickets or single fares on the busses and tube (subway). A far cheaper way is to purchase an Oyster Card (looks like a blue little credit card) onto which you can load credit. All you do is swipe in and out of the tube stations and swipe in when you board a bus. Far far cheaper than individual tickets. If they want an address just make something up, give them your address you're saying at, no problem. See my portfolio for a few examples (cityscapes).Of course the parks are also fantastic, Hampstead Heath, Regents Park, Hyde Park, Richmond Park which is huge and lots of wild animals inside, etc, etc. Trafalgar Square, the Mall, Buckingham Palace, the West End for theatres, China Town, Soho, Oxford Street, The Getty Image Gallery just off Oxford Street are all good to see. Try walking around instead os using the tube too much, it gives one a much better feeling for the place.</p>

<p>Oxford, Cambridge and Bath would be some further recommendations from a photogenic perspective. In fact you can get a train from London to Oxford which only takes around an hour or so from Paddington station, or even get a coach from outside Victoria station. Likewise for Cambridge. Bath is a bit further, around 1h45mins away from Paddington. I would also recommend Windsor very close to London, fantastic castle still used by the Queen.</p>

<p>I have driven in the USA and am okay with it, not absolutely comfortable. I am very comfortable driving in peak hour London traffic, but I certainly wouldn't be comfortable driving in anything beyond medium to heavy traffic in the USA. If you feel comfortable driving, then as many people advised above you can access many areas which you won't see by train. All car hire companies offer sat nav, which would make you navigation a breeze. In fact you could buy one of the excellent Tom Tom sat nav systems from Amazon for not very much these days, especially with your strong dollar.</p>

<p>Anyway, if you want any more advice don't hesitate to ask.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Bruce, welcome to the UK and I hope you get a great few days with the camera. I second David Bell's comments. Train travel isn't the cheapest, but it is good, (particularly mainline connections) realistically, if you are not comfortable driving on the Left, don't even consider a car. Plus if you want to visit London, a car is the worst way to do it (no-where to park, congestion charge on weekdays, murderous traffic). Simply put, If you haven't been to London before it really is a must do. The buses and tube trains are comprehensive, and a One day travelcard gives you unlimited travel all day.<br>

Gray's of Westminster is definitely worth a visit! Quaint, but fantastic, and with the exchange rate in your favour at the moment you could spend some serious money! (Worth it for the second hand lenses alone).<br>

My next choice would be Cambridge. It's a city I love, and the college architecture is fantastic. You probably won't see more bicycles in any other European city outside of Holland! Students are great for candid photography, although please don't assume all us Brits have this dress sense!<br>

I live just north of London and south of Cambridge on the main railway route between the two. If I can be of any help in planning your trip around those two cities, please mail me via photo.net and I'll do my best to help you out. If you want some suggestions I can do just that as I have toured and photographed these cities many times.<br>

My one word of caution, our weather isn't brilliant at this time of year so plan for lots of damp days, with flat lighting, ISO400 most of the time! This also means that some of the scenic stuff can look pretty miserable (there is nothing more bleak than Stonehenge in the rain - but on a summers day - wow).<br>

Some of the other suggestions are great, but bear in mind you don't want to be traveling more than picture taking. plan just 5-6 places and spend the whole day there. <br>

Of course, if you pluck up the courage to drive a car (don't panic - I find when I drive in Europe, the unfamiliarity makes me more alert, not less, and I tend to be a more law abiding driver!) Just explore the south of England, little towns, country pubs, back lanes - always something for your lens, but get a good map or hire a SatNav with the car. Salisbury cathedral is impressive and not a huge distance. Beaulieu Motor Museum - a MUST. Drive to Shaftesbury in Dorset to photograph the ultimate cliched 'chocolate box' english scene - Gold Hill.<br>

In some ways I envy you having 6 days to just spend on photography!!!!<br>

All the best and be sure to post you results on photo.net, once again any help wanted, just email.</p>

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<p>While I agree with Steve Smith that it is possible to get around Wight by bus, I wouldn't do it, and I suspect that he wouldn't, unless there was no other choice.</p>

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<p>I would actually, and quite often do despite owning a car.</p>

<p>The island is only 26 miles east to west and about 16 miles north to south. You can get close to most places by bus and a bit of walking gets you just about anywhere else.</p>

<p>I certainly wouldn't bother hiring a car for a day trip to our little island.</p>

<p>Bruce, if you want to send me an e-mail just before your visit (if you decide to come here) I can give you some ideas for places to visit. steve.smith.stuff(at)gmail.com (change the (at) into @)</p>

<p>Bruce, thanks. Another aspect of visiting the UK is the weather. I don't know which part of the US you are coming from and so what you are used to weather-wise. In the UK we can get mos kinds of weather from sunny and hot to cloudy and wet. But usually it is cool and changeable with a fair amount of cloud. The trick, I find, is to see the mood and character of the westher as part of the experience and shoot regardless. </p>

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<p>In the UK we can get most kinds of weather from sunny and hot to cloudy and wet.</p>

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<p>Usually all in the same day.</p>

<p>Just to continue going on about the Isle of Wight, there are a lot of pictures, maps and suggested walks here: http://www.wight-cam.co.uk/</p>

<p>If you head to the Isle Wight, the ferry sets of from Portsmouth, you could kill two birds with one stone. I know many people who think the IoW is idylic.</p>

<p>There is also a passenger ferry and a car ferry from Southampton which is where Bruce says his wife is going. I assume he is staying with her.</p>

<p>Could be worth looking towards the New Forest area too.</p>

<p>I can't comment on the proximity of the stations in the south to things that you would like to photograph; however a Britrail pass goes a long way toward removing problems with fares and timeing. Just Google Britrail to get the details.<br>

If not a pass, just go to the local station and book a ticket the day before to get much better pricing than buying your ticket the day of.<br>

In Southampton consider a day visit to the Hillier Gardens and the Exbury Gardens. Not the wild coastal landscapes but readily manageable from in town.</p>

<p>You've gotten more advice than you probably bargained for. There's not much I can add, except that I'm envious of your wonderful opportunity. I am very fond of the UK, most familiar with London, many friends there, great family memories, and thousands of photos taken there.<br>

Please post your UK travel portfolio on photo.net so we can see what you decided on! Cheers and good luck.</p>

<p>Wow, so many excellent suggestions and I very much appreciate the generous offers of assistance. London will be on the list for a couple days and I did some reading about Bath so I can see why so many suggested it. </p>

<p>Isle of Wight looks like a winner because it is so easy to get to from Southampton. Even in Southampton, there is a nice harbor area. Much to see in New Forest so maybe I could drop off my wife at her work, then take the car there for a day. I would miss the early/late shots but this might not make much difference with an overcast day. </p>

<p>I know your weather is somewhat unpredictable this time of year so I just have to work around that. I have a plastic cover for my body/lens but I'll also add an umbrella to the bag, then hope for the best.</p>

<p>Train vs car? Been to London before and definitely don't want a car there. For the other locations, maybe hire a car for a couple days, take the train a couple days. Still need to look into this more.</p>

<p>So much to see, way too little time. Thanks again for all your insight.</p>

 

<p>The Cotswolds. Burton on Water there. Quaint and beautiful country but Spring is not yet here. As I remember I took a bus out of London. </p>

<p>I was surprised that nobody suggested the Ordnance Survey maps (www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/leisure). The Landranger maps have good content (about 1.25 inch to the mile) and show footpaths and points of interest, good for planning the following day. The area around Stonehenge is ancient and riddled with places of interest (Avebury is a favorite), you'll need a map. Local good size newsagents will have them.<br>

Hope you have a good time.</p>

 

<p>I hate to bring it up, but you might want to brush up on photography and the law in the UK, too. I recall reading a number of reports in the past year or two of photographers getting hassled by the police for taking pictures in public, especially in cities, and the home secretary has apparently proposed making it a crime to photograph the police. Try Googling "UK photographers rights," for starters.<br>

All that said, I was in Manchester and environs last spring and had no problems at all. I was, however, careful not to place myself in situations that might cause alarm.<br>

Anyone from the UK want to chime in on this?<br>

(For the record, I don't think the US is any better, especially post-9/11.)</p>

<p>Andrew Slayman - its all scaremongering. Just go into central London and see how many people are continuously snapping away, P&S and big SLRs. No problem at all, trust me. If they have reason to question you then you may be stopeed, but they would need a reason. Don't worry.</p>

<p>Here is a link to the Law above. <a href="http://www.npia.police.uk/en/11700.htm">http://www.npia.police.uk/en/11700.htm</a> Section 2 para 2.8</p>

<p>The proposed UK law about not photographing police etc is a very clumsy attempt to prevent hostile and malicious intelligence gathering. It is another sad example of over reaction by the present UK government in the name of security. In fact of course photographers must outnumber police by a wide margin and police don't have the time or inclination for such stuff. Just don't sit outside police stations taking photos of everyone going in and out. </p>

<p>Hi Bruce, Stonehenge is a must to visit. I was there last December and this is what I got..</p>

<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/8663604-md.jpg" alt="" width="679" height="452" /></p>

<p>Becareful if travelling on a Sunday by train. I find it to be the worse day of the week as that is when they do repairs etc. causes no end of problems. <br>

Have a great trip here.<br>

The photo of Stone Hedge is very beautiful</p>

<p ><strong>Maybe we are a little cautious.</strong></p>

<p ><strong>Tributes have been paid to two soldiers shot dead by the Real IRA in County Antrim.</strong><br>

Sappers Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham and Patrick Azimka, 21, from Wood Green, London, died at Massereene Army base in Antrim on Saturday.<br>

The Army commander in Northern Ireland said the two soldiers had been "magnificent individuals".<br>

Brigadier George Norton said the men had been killed in a "callous and clinical" attack.<br>

This week they were due to fly out to Afghanitzhan.<!-- E SF --></p>