Blog
A blog about photography and travel.
Easter in London
First trip in over two years that feels like normal
For Easter I visited London, one of my favorite cities, for the first time in almost three years. London is safe, walkable and has great public transport. It’s also dripping with history and sights, and has a relaxed multi-cultural vibe. To get there from Iceland is only a short flight and, although the Icelandic and English cultures are quite different, they are also compatible in the sense that we don’t take ourselves very seriously - which is a happy place to be, in my view.
It was quite a long trip so I was exhausted when I got back. In addition to walking the length and breadth of London, I also visited Southend-On-Sea, Brighton and Southampton. I have a soft spot for Brighton but Southampton I never need to visit again. Southend-On-Sea is only remarkable for it’s 2km long pier, which is actually well worth a visit.
I brought the Fujifilm XE4 along with the XF16-55, XF23f1.4 and XF50-140. Also, I had a brand new iPhone 13 Pro Max which takes decent photos. Nothing like a real camera though. The jpegs are over-sharpened and HDR-d, which I can probably fix but can’t be bothered to.
I wish there was proper support for Galleries in blog posts on this web-site - but there’s not. Image titles are especially bad. So here’s a catalog:
Image 1: Businessman at the Southbank
Image 2: @London Bridge station
Image 3: @River Thames
Images 4-8: Southend-on-Sea
Image 9: Earl’s Court station
Image 10: Seven Dials
Images 11-16: Hyde Park
Images 17-19: Kew Gardens
Image 20: Oxford Street
Image 21: Brighton
Image 22: Near Waterloo station
Images 23-24: Hi-jacking a photoshoot near Westminster
Images 25-26: @Parliament Square
Image 27: Beer-time at Brewdog Tower Hill
Image 28: A green-ish Rolls in front the new American Embassy. Had seen the exact same car at Tower Hill a few days earlier.
Japan
To Japan for the first time
In the spring of 2019, my friend Svenni and I travelled to Japan, a first for both of us. I absolutely loved it, and cannot wait to go back. We planned the trip so that we would be there when the cherry blossoms bloom, and were not disappointed. We did a bit of a mix of city tour and road trip. A few days in Tokyo, followed by the Shinkansen to Osaka, and nearby Nara, before picking up a car in Osaka to drive to Kanazawa and Nagoya. After we dropped off the car, we stayed in Kobe and Kyoto for a few days, before heading back to Tokyo.
For me, this was a magic trip. The culture is so different, and not a lot of people speak good English, but somehow it all works out really well. And as for photography, I think there is no place I would rather go.
On a side note, when I got back home I bought “Forms of Japan” by Michael Kenna. That book is a double edged sword. It’s so good that you almost wonder why you bother with photography.
