Sarah Johnson is a student at the University of Denver and an ISA Featured Photo Blogger. She is currently studying abroad with ISA in Madrid, Spain.
London was an amazing city to visit and photograph! I was able to stop in for a weekend and stay with a good friend – a wonderful benefit of having a school with such a great study abroad program!
I started off the trip incredibly confused because I completely forgot about how they drive on the other side of the road. Luckily, they nicely label the streets for the many people like me!
One of the first stops on my visit was the Kensington Palace.
There were beautiful gardens, cobblestone roads and a park! Here is a picture of one of the leaf-vine tunnels around the garden of the palace. Many people were enjoying a walk or going for a run through this area.
After enjoying our time here and admiring the gardens, we continued on a stroll in one of the Royal Parks, Hyde Park.
This was my first real taste of fall for the year, and it was spectacular. The breathtaking colored leaves everywhere, beautiful streams of light through the park and company of one of my best friends!
While shooting in the park, I made friends with a particularly photogenic squirrel. I started to approach him and take many pictures as I went. The closer and more cautious I came, the better the pictures turned out and the little guy just stayed there staring at me. During his “photo shoot” I could hear him saying “be sure to get my good side.”
After the dose of royal treatment, I moved onto seeing the parliament and another characteristic areas of London.
This started off with seeing the London Eye, cool street performers, and the crazy seagulls by the Westminster Bridge. I managed to snag this photo of a seagull with Big Ben in the background. It took about five minutes, but it was exactly the shot that I wanted.
Then we continued on past the bridge to get a closer look at the parliament building. It was beautiful and detailed. One mind-blowing aspect was seeing an area that I’ve seen in so many movies in real life! This was a shot of the House of Parliament with a well placed English flag from the other side of the bridge.
There were some great telephone booths around this area. I had to wait in line to take my ‘classic’ London picture. It was pretty funny, because I think I can count on one hand how many times I have used a phone booth in real life. I took the most cliché picture of London I possibly could have. The classic red telephone booth with the Big Ben in the background.
London had amazing markets full of food, art, and jewelry. I went to many that were full of character and totally fun to walk through. These included Portobello, Borough, and Camden.
This is one of my favorite shots from the Borough Market, full of fall sentiment!
The Camden Market had a delicious variety of food including handmade pasta, cronuts, burritos and so much more! There was also a lot of beautiful and intriguing graffiti – this impactful piece was one of my favorites.
Finally, we made a trip to Abbey Road!
The classic Beetles picture was just too touristy an opportunity to pass up! I didn’t realize that this road was still so frequently traveled – pretty dangerous! We got their earlier in the day so we had a better opportunity to take a good picture, but once it got crowed it was hard to take a picture and be safe! Luckily my friend Lauren and me got this one before it was too crazy.
It was a wonderful trip – I definitely recommend it!
Want to read more about our ISA students in London? Check out “3 Unbelievable (Vegetarian-friendly!) Foods to Try While in London”