London day trip 17th november 2009

The other day me and two of my buddies Jamie and Andrew went to London for the day to take pictures.
We arrived at London Victoria station around 10.30am then proceeded to tour London on foot.
We spent 11 hours walking and taking pictures all in the name of photography lol.
We first walked to buckingham palace where the queens guards where doing a march it was very busy, we then walked through St James park where we checked out the wildlife, they have some very colourful wood ducks and even pelicans.
Next on the list was trafalger square via white hall.
I got my tripod out to take a picture of the queens guard on a horse as I fancied a bit of HDR but when I got it out a wingnut had worked loose and dissapered so my tripod fell apart, this was a nightmare as the main reason I was there was for the night shots.
After trafalger square we ventured through Charing Cross where we found a jessops store, a shop assistant named steve took a wingnut off the display tripod and put it on mine free of charge so the night shooting was back on ( thanks Steve you are a life saver).
We headed for covent garden to check out the street performers and shops but not much was happening apart from a little band playing classical music, they where very good and we watched for a while.
After wondering around we headed for the river thames as the light was fading.
We took some shots of the Londons skyline before walking along the Thames towards the millenium bridge where I got the shot of St Pauls cathedral at the top of this post.
I used a long exposure for this shot which blurred the people so they didnt show up.
I tried taking a picture of a couple of beggars but they refused me taking there picture, strange they didnt refuse my money lol.
We then headed for the London eye where we got some fantastic shots with long exposures which bought out the colours and introduced movement.
Next we completed the circle by finishing back at London victoria to get the train home, our legs where aching and backs where breaking, we was glad of the sit down.
All in all this was a fantastic day out, loads of people spoke to us, everyone was friendly and even though we was out at night with expensive camera equipment I also felt safe.
Cant wait to go back