Where to go when visiting the UK and want to get great photos: An Introduction.

Countries where my visitors come from & the British Weather

I notice from the stats that Blogspot (Google) provide me with that more than half of my pageviews are by folk in the USA and Russia. The UK makes up No. 3 in the list whilst visitors from Germany, France, India, Ukraine, Canada, Italy and the Netherlands make up the rest.

I therefore thought that as more than half my visitors are from outside the UK that I would start blogging about where you can go for some really great shots. Now, of course, we have a reputation for being a very wet country and that it rains a lot here. Meteorologists tell us that our weather is very changeable and I can certainly vouch for that from personal experience. It can be blue sky and sunshine and then in the space of less than an hour it is pouring with rain, the sky is all dark with storm clouds, the wind has picked up speed and the temperature has fallen through the floor!

Now don't get me wrong, we don't have the extremes of weather that some countries have and although it's been said that we get more tornadoes than the USA they hardly ever cause us any problems. In fact, we get more tornadoes per square mile than any other country! Don't worry though as most of Britain’s tornadoes fall within F0 and F2 on the Fujita scale, a classification used to gauge a twister’s power which takes into account wind speed and damage.

Our position as an island nation with us us being bang in the middle of 5 air masses. This means we can get weather from the Polar Maritime Air Mass (Greenland and the Arctic Sea), the Arctic Maritime Air Mass (you guessed right, from the Arctic), the Polar Continental Air Mass (from Central Europe), the Tropical Continental Air Mass (North Africa) and the Tropical Maritime Air Mass (Atlantic Ocean). Sometimes we get weather from more than one air mass at the same time!

In terms of rainfall, we do get extremes (by our standards) from year to year. Some years we have drought and then the year after we get severe floods due to having several months (or even a year's) rainfall in one day. Most of the rain tends to fall on the western part of Britain, which is due to the prevailing weather systems coming from the Atlantic. 

In terms of average rainfall, Snowdonia, the Lake District and the Scottish Highlands all receive more than 4 metres of rainfall in a year. The further east and south you go, the lower the average rainfall. Colchester where we live is one of the driest parts of Britain and parts of Essex and East Anglia are a semi-arid region according to the experts! This variety in our weather and it's changeable nature can be a bonus for us photographers. It can make for some really dramatic skies, stormy seas (we have a lot of coastline) and snowy mountain tops etc.

So, now we have made it clear that Britain has very changeable weather and on occasion we can get extreme weather, let's look at where you might go to get great photographs.

Well, almost 40 million visitors come to Britain (official estimate for 2017 is 39.7m) and London sees the largest number of these. In 2016, London had 19.1m visits, compared to 16m to rest of England, 1.1m to Wales and Scotland 2.7m.

So, in light of this, let's look at some of the best places in the London area to take photos. I am going to start off with the River Thames and the Thames Valley. One of the best ways to see the river and the surrounding buildings is from one of the many boats that travel up and down the river. 

River Thames

Thames Barrier

River Buses:

Starting with the River Buses, there are 5 routes that run from 21 piers between Putney and Woolwich. They operate from early in the day until late at night, with special services for events at the O2 stadium. You can hop on and off as you would a bus (only at designated stops of course!) and pay with an Oyster Card (links at end of article).

All River Bus boats are covered and you are guaranteed a seat: most boats also have a small outside deck area. There are kiosks onboard serving hot and cold drinks, snacks and refreshments, and most boats have accessible toilets.

River Tours:

You can also take sightseeing tours on the river. There are also hop on/off services, themed cruises and dining experiences to enjoy. Most of these you will have to purchase a ticket in advance though there are discounts available. I will put a link at the end.

Both the River Buses and River Tours offer opportunities to take great photographs of the river, the bridges and the buildings that line the river. In the summer there are trips along the river to Hampton Court (allow at least a few hours there get the most out of your visit). You can also take in Kew Gardens -again allow a few hours  to take in these wonderful gardens and the world's largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections.

Other places you can visit via the river are Greenwich, home to the famous Cutty Sark, a restored 19th-century ship, the huge National Maritime Museum, and the classical buildings of the Old Royal Naval College. Enjoy a picnic in the pleasant Greenwich Park and visit the Royal Observatory, the site of the Greenwich meridian line.

Greenwich observatory & meridian line

Other sights to take in are the London Eye, the Thames Barrier, Tower Bridge, Tower of London and Woolwich Arsenal.

London Eye

At night, you can experience the river and embankment lit up to show off the buildings and structures. You can also get some great photos with lights reflecting on the water. Even in the rain, the Thames can look majestic so don't be put off by a bit of rain!

London Eye at night.

So, that's the end of my introduction to photo opportunities in Britain. Hope you found it useful. If there are places you would like me to feature in the forthcoming posts please leave a comment below.

Here are the links I promised:

• River Bus and Tours - routes & other information
• Weather forecasts - latest forecasts from Meteorological Service
• Visit Britain - all the info on visiting Britain
• Transport for London - information about the Tube, buses and River buses etc.
• Hampton Court Palace - official site
• Greenwich Observatory - official site

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