Across the street from Buckingham Palace is the Queen’s Gate. It shuts the entrance of Green Park, though honestly I am not sure to whom. The gate is easy enough to walk around, but it’s barred with heavy chains to keep the aforementioned trespassers from committing their most egregious of crime. What I most noticed was the wonderful lock that makes all of this possible. It seemed a very old lock, but the perfect mechanism for the task.
A quick post today…this door caught my eye when first entering Meiji Jingu. It’s a simple door, wonderfully carved but not the one you would go through. There is a much larger entry to the left, but I found this one…I don’t know why, but I was drawn to it’s smallness. I was drawn to it’s simplicity.
I like all kinds of photography, but one style I have a hard time with is street photography. It’s not that I don’t love the style, but there is a patience needed that I seem to lack. Also when you get right down to it, I hate confrontation. Most people even when they do care won’t chase you down, but even still I generally travel with a wide angle lens and you really have to get up on people.
I love contrasts. This photo was taken in the courtyard around La Cathedral in Barcelona Spain. The place is brimming with people and absolutely gorgeous. The man on the left is absorbed in his book, journaling his experience, but all the while missing everything going on in the world around him. The young woman suns her very pale skin. While worshiping the sun she misses the beauty all around her. The old man on the right seems aloof, but content to watch people, he is turned away from the church. The woman is my favorite. She was very happy to sit and smoke, until she noticed I was taking her picture. I caught her in a moment of surprise. Somehow she seemed the most genuine…perhaps even the most honest to me.
I have said it before, but I have a tendency to forget details. I come home with a lot of shots of big buildings, but I often reminisce about things that stand out to me during a trip, only to realize I didn’t photograph them at all. Perhaps I am too caught up in the moment or the spectacle. Going forward I will be actively trying to remember to photograph things, even when these are people who do not want to be photographed. They should be remembered if only by me.
I found this rose in the middle of winter by Cathédrale Saint-Pierre. It was lost in the snow, a forgotten mishap…something that broke, or wasn’t supposed to be, but it was there for me to see. I still recall finding it, one of those little unexpected joys to brighten your day. A beautiful frozen rose in the dead of winter in Switzerland. Perfection!
One of my favorite places in London is the Natural History Museum. It looks like something out of a movie and it have one of the most spectacular collections of the natural world that I have seen! One of my favorite parts was a cross section of a giant sequoia from the USA. Though it saddens me to see even a part of one of these ancient spirits no longer standing…I am glad the world can see of of America’s greatest treasures. This particular tree was around 1300 years old when it was felled.
I knew very little of Meiji Jingu Shrine before I visited. I knew what the guidebook told me about the space to honor the spirit of the Emperor and his wife. The site is full of tourists, but also with regular Japanese people spending time in ceremony. It was a strange cosmic convergences where the practitioners lost in the murmurations of prayer form some harmonious counterpoint with the wandering spirits of overwhelmed travelers. Perhaps we are one in the same, no different as we both seek something we can’t understand or begin to explain.
One of the things people do at the temple is purchase one of these cards (Ema) to write their dreams. I am not certain dream is the correct word. Prayer is likely more accurate, but the former seemed accurate for the few cards that I could decipher. What struck me was the variety of language contained in the Ema. Shinto does not make some of the demands of other religions. You are generally not required to profess your faith, which seems a very open and inviting.
If I am being honest, British architecture is generally an underwhelming experience for me. The British just don’t have the panache of the French. I have the same problem with colonial American architecture…there is too much sensibility and little in the way of the madness of impractical beauty. One place I was pleasantly surprised was in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace. The Palace has recently seen a bit of a renovation and this particular room is spectacular. This particular time piece is an insert for one of the palace fireplaces. I found it to be a wonderful bit of detail.
Senso-ji Temple is a wonderfully interesting place. You see the Tokyo Sky Tree off in the distance…the most modern of Tokyo. At the same time you are standing at a Temple site older than Tokyo itself. It is an odd reality, but one that fits Tokyo perfectly. There are always a large number of people at the site, even after it closes. I spent my time there eating the best bean buns I have ever had and taking photos up to try and keep the people out of my shots. I really enjoyed these lanterns.
I was walking through Shinjuku Garden one cloudy fall day when I found ALL of the photographers in the park. Keep in mind this is a very big and absolutely beautiful park, but everyone with a camera was around this tree. There were literally people runny to hurry up and get to it before me…though I really was never sure why. When I got home, the bokeh reminded me of a Claude Monet painting so, though this photo doesn’t have enough blue to be a water lily, it was most definitely inspired by them.
One of the things I loved most about Tokyo is the random fun things you find just wandering around the city. Most of the time there is too much competing for your attention…neon blazing, sounds, smells, barkers, etc. Occasionally though you will find something in the raw that sort of makes you stop and wonder…why is this built like this. The Shinjuku Washington Hotel is one of those things. In a neighborhood of skyscrapers, it stands proudly and sleekly against the contrast of modern highrises. In a way it didn’t really belong, but within that I found myself feeling that it belonged more, as if the new towers were out of place. That probably sounds odd but than again, to an American, so is Tokyo.
