Inspiration?

Inspired.   This is what I felt as I viewed the pictures at the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 exhibition, at the Natural History Museum.   Nature is an amazing thing and to be able to capture it on camera is an art.   It is often sheer luck and a case of being in the right place at the right time, but some photographs have such great composition that it cannot be purely down to luck.   Take a look at the sneaky snap below that I took of the turtle.  Stunning.

There are many talented photographers out there.  Some old hands and some budding new between the ages of 7-17.  And just walking around and looking at the pictures just made me want to whip my camera out and get wrapped up into a photo snapping frenzy.

As I was in London, I decided to take advantage and be a tourist for the day.  So I made my way to Buckingham Palace.  I haven't seen this building in years and I'm always surprised at how simple the building is from the outside.

The only indication that it is a royal building is the flag flapping at the top, the ornate gate surrounding it and the royal guard  protecting it.  And aside from the fact that it could probably house 100 people quite comfortably, the exterior doesn't look anything out of the extraordinary.  Although I am positive that the interior is quite the opposite.

For some reason today the paparazzi were stood by the gate entrance.  Or perhaps it is an every day occurrence and I'm just not used to it.  I asked a nearby police officer if there was anything special going on and he looked at me with my nice Cannon 600D with Zoom lens and asked in a dead pan face "who are you affiliated with?"  I had to laugh and I don't think he believed my response when I told him I was just an amateur, but I guess the paparazzi can be quite relentless for any bits of information they can find.

In the end I got told that if I stood around then I might get to see some royalty.  As nice as that would be, standing in the drizzling rain for hours waiting for something to happen didn't sound very appealing.

But it got me thinking, the paparazzi are photographers too, only their subjects are usually the rich and famous.  If you look at their work in any detail, they take great portrait shots, but does their work inspire?  

For me the answer is no and with the rain slowly drenching my coat, it was quickly dampening any inspiration I had when I came out of the museum.

In the end I only came out with a handful of photographs.  I think another trip to London is in order.  Hopefully the next time I go, there will be less rain and I think I will focus on architecture to revitalise my inspiration.