Marylebone: decent digs in Westminster

by Tom Johansmeyer on

There are plenty of luxury hotel alternative in London, and they’re more than happy to let you spend as much as you’d like. Finding a hotel that’s a bit more affordable but still in an interesting part of town, though, can be a challenge. When I set foot in the Marylebone Hotel in Westminster, I realized that comfort did not have to destroy my budget. While it’s not a luxury establishment, the hotel does play on the upscale side of average and has all the on-site necessities that separate it from the city’s proletarian options.

Tucked away on Welbeck St. – near but not choked by Westminster‘s busier roads – the Marylebone provides easy access to public transportation and local attractions. The Thames River is a short hike away, but it is walkable for the typical city-dweller. Oxford Circus is nearby, as well, with plenty of shopping available (it feels a bit like Manhattan’s Broadway between W 69th St and W 85th St, though a little busier).

The property itself shows a surprising sense of design for a British property (sorry, guys, but its true), eschewing the traditional trappings for a sleek, modern feel. The rooms are quite large, with a desk/work area that is far enough from the bed to help you separate relaxation from any professional demands you may experience while on the road. Americans should remember that this is a European hotel: the lights won’t work until you “plug” your room key in by the door.

Speaking of plugs, perhaps the most impressive detail nailed by the Marylebone is electrical. Sockets are available for UK, U.S. and European plugs. So, if you forget your adapter (which happens to everyone from time to time), you’ll have no reason to lose your cool.

The only major problem I found with the Marylebone was dining. If you are hungry after 11:30 PM, look elsewhere. What was initially described to me by the front desk as a “limited bar menu” turned out to be a ham sandwich when I called room service. At this hour, the bar is open, but it doesn’t serve food either (aside, I imagine, from the ham/bread combo). You’ll have to walk a few blocks to find food late at night – it’s just the nature of the neighborhood.

The exchange rate has made London a decent deal for the first time in years, but the city’s hardly cheap. If you pull together decent deal on British Airways (which are available) and stay at the Marylebone instead of an up-market chain, your travel dollars are likely to go a lot farther.

Disclosure: Visit Britain paid for this trip. But, as you can see over my late-night room service debacle, my soul is not for sale, even for the price of a midnight meal.

Travel quotations and underground philosophy

by Sean McLachlan on

Travelers on the London Underground will soon get a dose of philosophy along with their overcrowding, noise, and proximity to body odor. The Evening Standard has reported that drivers on the Piccadilly line have been issued a book of quotations from famous philosophers to read along with their routine announcements. It’s supposed to make the journey go easier. Some of the quotes include, “Nothing is worth more than this day” (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) and “Man is in a strict sense entirely animal” (Blaise Pascal).

Good choices, but they could have picked ones that were more travel-oriented. Here’s a sampling.

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” (St. Augustine)

“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.” (Lao Tzu)

“Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” (Seneca)

“Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.” (Anatole France)

You can read more travel quotes at Quotegarden.

Through the Gadling Lens: taking photographs at night

by Karen Walrond on

Recently, I received a note from a friend of mine who’d just returned from a vacation:

I just returned from a vacation in which much of our activity was at night. I didn’t carry a tripod, and I was dissatisfied with using either the auto setting on the camera (the flash burst overexposed my subjects’ faces) or the in-camera “night setting” (the subjects’ skin seemed blurry and everything in the background had a nuclear orange glow). Do you have any tips for making night shots easier or better?

Night shots are definitely tricky, and sometimes downright impossible without a tripod. That said, this week, I’ll share some of my tips and tricks to taking photographs at night.
1. First, turn off your flash.

As you know, I’m not a huge fan of flash, but even more so at nighttime. To show you why, I asked my husband to come outside with me last night to our little garden swing, so I could take his photograph. The swing is in a quiet part of our garden, and the only light we had was a citronella torch to keep the mosquitos away.

This first image, was shot using a flash:

You’ll notice that while Marcus is well-lit, and you can see all the details of his face, it’s quite obvious that there was a fake light source utilized to capture his image. I call this the “party pic” effect — using your flash is fine if what you want to capture is your friends at the club having a good time, just to prove they were there.

However, take a look at the following image, taken without the flash:

In this case, although the details aren’t nearly as sharp, notice how the mood is captured — this is much closer to what I saw as we were sitting in the darkness outside. Now, in this case, I’d cranked up my ISO to 3200, and was handholding the camera — this is why the image is as grainy as it is (tips on how to avoid that to follow). But the point is made: taking the shot without the flash captures the ambiance. And this is true, whether your subject is a person, a martini glass in a bar, or a street scene.

So now that you’ve turned off your flash, what should you do next?

2. Take your camera off manual mode. Don’t get me wrong: you can take nighttime shots on fully manual mode, but you really have to be an expert on aperture, ISO and shutter speeds. If you are an expert, than really, you probably don’t need to be reading this post — go forth and capture great images, my friend. If you’re not an expert, however, trust me, your best bet is to have the camera in automatic mode.

3. Consider your ISO.

Remember about 7 months ago, we discussed ISO, or the “light catchers” of your camera? Be sure to read that post before you go forward, because it talks about how ISO, aperture and shutter speed are all related. So go ahead, and read that. I’ll wait.

Okay.

So, in a nutshell, the general rule is as follows:

The lower the ISO number, the fewer light catchers you’ll be using to catch the light. Low ISOs work better in bright sunlight — no flash necessary.

The higher the ISO number, the more light catchers you’ll be using the catch the light. High ISOs work in overcast or low light — and again, no flash will be necessary.

Now, for the purpose of nighttime shots, this isn’t to say that you can’t shoot in low light with the a low ISO. And so, a corollary to the general rule above, is as follows:


For nighttime shots:

If you don’t have a tripod (or something you can use nearby to steady the camera), crank up your ISO as high as possible, hold your breath, squeeze the trigger, and hope for the best. This is not an ideal situation, because of the following:

1) Since you’re using a high ISO, this means that you have tons of “light catchers” working in your camera to capture your image with the low available light you’re letting into your camera through your aperture. This usually means that your image will come out looking grainy — the lower the ISO setting, the less grainy your images are; the higher your ISO, the more grainy. The shot I took of my husband in above was taken at an ISO setting of 3200 — a staggeringly high ISO, resulting in the grainy image that you see. Also:

2) Since you’re hand-holding your camera, the high ISO setting still might not be high enough to reduce camera shake. Remember, in low light, if you’re camera is set on automatic, the shutter will likely stay open long enough for your light catchers to capture your light — and when your shutter is open, the *slightest* movement will cause a blur. Cranking your ISO up to a high setting will shorten the amount of time your camera’s shutter stays open, but it might not be enough.

The following images are a couple of shots I took in London last winter at dusk (so not full nighttime), handholding the camera, and setting the ISO to somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1600:

Again, notice that the images are somewhat grainy — but still, the mood of London on that cold November night remains intact, without the distortion of a flash.

Now, if you do have a tripod (or a way to steady your camera close by), this is a much better situation. Here’s what you should do:

a) Lower your ISO as much as you dare. Again, you’re doing this to try to lower the amount of grain in the resulting image. Don’t get it too low — the shutter may never close — but somewhere in the neighbourhood of 400 — 640 might be able to do the trick. (An aside: your shutter *will* close if you set your camera on “shutter priority” mode, where you can set the time for how long you’d like your shutter to stay open. Once you’ve mastered shooting at night in fully automatic mode, try playing with shutter speeds, next.)

b) Affix your camera to your tripod, or whatever makeshift “tripod” you may have jerryrigged. Note — your tripod doesn’t have to be huge — there are tons of travel tripods (like the Gorillapod) that are out there which are sturdy enough to handle your camera, but small enough that you can toss it into your camera bag.

c) Set your camera on “timer” mode. Why do this? Because at a low ISO, even the act of clicking your shutter might cause enough camera shake to create a blurry image. By setting your camera on timer, this will give the camera enough time to settle after you’ve squeezed the shutter, and before the camera takes the shot.

d) Aim, focus, and squeeze the shutter. Now note well: if you’re shooting people, they’re going to have to stay VERY STILL while the shutter is open, or they’ll appear blurry. However, movement can be a nice effect if you’re shooting a busy city street — the buildings and lights around the people will remain perfectly in focus, and the blur created by the people milling around will convey the movement.

The following are some pretty stunning shots shared in our flickr pool captured at night:

This beautiful shot of an alley in Venice shared by Geir Halvorsen was shot with a point-and-shoot, and an ISO speed of only 400. I’m guessing that Geir had a tripod or a railing to steady the camera — as you can see, it’s a great shot.

In the above amazing shot shared by ohad*, the ISO setting was at a mere 100 — the kind of setting you’d have for broad daylight! In this case, the shutter stayed open for 13 seconds — which explains why the image is generally pretty sharp, but you have those lovely lights created by the cars below.

And speaking of lights, what about that “nuclear orange glow” that my friend mentioned in his email to me? That’s generally caused by the street lamps — because street lamps aren’t has bright as sunlight, they burn with an orange glow. Personally, I like the effect — it adds a coziness to the image — but if you find that it’s too much, try adjusting your white balance setting (often indicated by a “WB” on your camera, check your manual) to the “lightbulb” setting, and try shooting again.

So that’s it! As with every photography technique, the way to master it is to practice, practice, practice — go out in your own neighbourhood at night for a photoshoot, so you’ll be ready and know your camera prior to taking it out on vacation. And as always, if you have any questions, you can always contact me directly at karenDOTwalrondATweblogsincDOTcom – and I’m happy to address them in upcoming Through the Gadling Lens posts.

Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can see more of her work at her site, Chookooloonks.
Through the Gadling Lens can be found every Thursday right here, at 11 a.m. To read more Through the Gadling Lens, click here.

Five famous fathers: Visit where they lived with their children

by Jamie Rhein on

For a Father’s Day nod to famous fathers, it seemed apropos to do a post on Father’s Day travel with a twist. Read a biography of famous men and it may take more than a few paragraphs to get to their children. The children seem tucked in between those details that made a man famous. Regardless how much or how little press is given to the offspring, there are landmarks where these men lived with the people who helped keep their legacies alive.

Although these are the sites we head to to find out about what made these men tick as contributors to the rest of us, they are also the places that children called home, and where the men who might have tucked them in at night were called “Dad” (or “Papa,” or “Father” or “Pops” or some other variation) by those people whose tiny hands they once held in their own.

Here are five men through history who have had an influence on the world and where you can visit where they lived with their children. From humble houses to elaborate palaces, here are five places where you can imagine the varied conversations that happened within the walls–the type that only fathers and children share.

1. Henry VIII (Religion)–Hampton Court Palace, London. This Tudor palace is where King Henry 8th of England, with a penchant for beheading his wives, lived the most. It’s a gorgeous piece of architecture with a fascinating history and a remarkable maze in the garden. Henry’s three children used this palace as a haven after they became adults as well. Son Edward was christened in the chapel and Mary spent her honeymoon here. Henry died when Edward was nine. The two daughters were older. Henry’s desire to divorce his wives led to the England’s shift away from Roman Catholicism.

2. Abraham Lincoln (Politics)–Lincoln Home National Historic Site, Springfield, Illinois. This is a hallmark year to visit the house where Lincoln lived with his family prior to becoming president. Take a guided walk in the neighborhood where Lincoln took strolls, probably with sons Robert, Willie and Tad (son Edward died.) Lincoln brought the North and South back together.

3. Claude Monet (Art)–Monet’s House and Gardens, Giverny, France. Monet moved to this lovely farm with his family and lived here for 43 years. Here he painted is famous works connected to Impressionism and provided a haven of art and creativity for his brood made up of eight children. When you look at Monet’s studio where he painted, inspired by the garden on the property, imagine what his children saw and how the smell of paint and flowers were prominent in their lives.

4. Martin Luther King Jr.(Civil Rights)–Dexter Parsonage Museum, Montgomery, Alabama. Visit the house where Martin Luther King Jr. lived where he was a young pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist church. This is where he was living with his four children and wife when someone threw a bomb onto the porch. You can still see the damage. No one was hurt. The house looks as if the King family just stepped outside for a moment. It’s a step back in time for sure. King’s message of equality provides hope and drive to those who are struggling for equal rights. If it wasn’t for him, and those who rallied behind his words, where would we be?

5. Elvis Presley (Music and Popular Culture) Memphis, Tennessee–Graceland. No matter what a person thinks of the over-the-top decor of Graceland, it’s the place where Elvis felt at home and he lived with his wife Priscilla and daughter, Lisa Marie until Priscilla moved out, taking Lisa Marie with her. Still, this is the home where Lisa Marie can still go to remember her dad who made a big time impact on popular culture and music. The photo is of Lisa Marie’s swing set in the back yard.

Fake 3D crater designed to slow down London cyclists

by Scott Carmichael on

When the Islington city council tried to think of a way to slow down cyclists on their famous canalway, they came up with a creative and (hopefully) effective solution.

The way I see it, this piece of “art” may have several unintended consequences:

  • Cyclists see this thing and panic – causing them to swerve and hit the fence, shooting them into the river
  • Cyclists see it, know it isn’t real and slow down to stare at it, hitting a pedestrian
  • Cyclists know it is fake, so they speed up to show the council what a waste of money this is

Check out some of these other wacky laws, place names and signs from around the world!