Flat Stanley

I had the honour to be asked to show a Flat Stanley around London. Here are the chronicles of our adventures :)

All photos were taken with the Kodak DC240. It's an incredible camera. It's not *meant* to be splashproof, but I've taken it whitewater rafting in the mountains of Thailand, and now I've taken it out in the worst that British weather can throw at it, and it has performed admirably :)

It's a bit slow taking photos, and the flash eats the batteries real fast, but other than that, it's a great camera. I regret using the flash for any of these pics, now: I'll know better next weekend. The camera is perfectly capable of dealing automatically with dark conditions, and the reflections of Stanley and off the policewoman's reflective jacket meant a lot of fiddling to be able to get ANY detail back.

This is just a random cobbled road, somewhere near Victoria Station. Me checking my camera worked. It is raining fairly constantly, and I decided he would need laminating or he'd be a pile of mush, soon.

New Scotland Yard is probably completely unfamous outside the UK, but is well known within the UK as the place where the police have their central headquarters. Sitting like a vagrant in the rain, laminating a Flat Stanley, was a fun and interesting experience, though sadly no policemen came up and asked what I was up to.

That rotating sign is probably the first (and only!) visual thing that people associate with New Scotland Yard.

This was a lovely policewoman outside Buckingham Palace. Outside, you can see a crane is dismantling a temporary stage of some kind that was outside the palace. And behind that, the palace itself. The Queen is in there somewhere, though you can't tell that for sure, because I didn't manage to get the flagpole at the top into the pic. If the flag is flying full height, it means the queen is in residence.

This huge monument in front of buckingham palace dwarfs my hat, on the ledge at the bottom, and the tiny Flat Stanley in its hatband.

A French tourist held Stanley for this photo. Behind, you can see Big Ben, and the Houses of Parliament, where our government makes all the laws and drinks lots of expensive alcohol.

In Trafalgar Square, Nelson's Column rises, a triumphal monument to the short French dude.

Oh, how I regret how this one came out.... *sigh*

The Horse Guards are one of the most beloved regiments in England, and one of their duties is sitting on their horses, guarding the gate of the Horse Guards Parade. I picked this one over the other one at the gate because he was black, and I thought that was a great show of how multicultural England has become. I asked him if he would be allowed to hold this Stanley. He shook his head grimly: they aren't allowed to speak. I tried to stick Stanley to the wall beside him, and he patted his knee and smiled a small smile. So popped Stanley on his knee, and took the pic of him riding with the Horse Guard!

How many Stanleys can say they've done that?

I took it without a flash because the camera batteries were dying: the camera turned itself off straight after I'd taken it.

I'm really sad that the camera strap got in the way, and the raindrops on the lens don't help any either... but I still think this was the best photo of the lot!