Photo of the Week: Buckingham Palace (Where a Cop Laughed at Me)

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Kristin

A crowd gathered at the entrance to Buckingham Palace.

One of the highlights of the Opening Ceremony for many people was the Queen’s participation in a James Bond segment which ended with her jumping out of a helicopter and parachuting into the Olympic Stadium. So, I figured it was fitting to showcase one of her many homes in this week’s photo of the week.

I took this photo in May of last year when I spent a day in London with a friend before I headed up to my grandparents’ house. I was intent on getting photos of at least one London landmark at night (which was the reason behind last week’s photo as well), so after we saw Billy Elliot: The Musical in the West End, we wandered over to Buckingham Palace. We were a bit shocked by the number of police surrounding the Queen’s London residence — there seemed to be one cop every 50m or so around the entire perimeter — and were a bit worried that we were about to step into some sort of protest (especially since we’d seen a few earlier in the day).

So, I walked up to a policeman in front of the palace and had a conversation that went something along the lines of:

Me: Uh, hi. Is there some sort of special event we’re supposed to know about?

Cop: Where are you from?

Me: Umm, America.

Cop: And do you know where your president is tonight?

Me: He’s in Buckingham Palace, isn’t he?

Cop: *laughs*

I felt a bit insulted that he was implying I was just another dumb American, when in actuality I was an American who had just gotten off a plane from Australia and who honestly doesn’t care where her country’s president chooses to have dinner parties.

I was surprised that I ended up getting these photos — I honestly thought one of the many police would deem me a threat and try to make me erase all my photos, but none did!

Here are a few other photos from that evening:

Posted under England, Photo of the Week with the tags buckingham palace, london, long exposure, night lights, night photography

About Kristin
I'm Kristin, a Texan born to an American father and English mother. I've been living in Australia since 2008. My first plane flight was when I was three weeks old and I've been hooked ever since. I never feel quite right unless I have a plane ticket (to anywhere, whether it's Sydney or Sweden) booked in my name. You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook.
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2 Responses to Photo of the Week: Buckingham Palace (Where a Cop Laughed at Me)

Deb July 31, 2012 at 2:34 pm Reply

Gorgeous photographs. It’s funny isn’t it that sometimes security can be a bit issue when trying to get photos. I went to some dodgy countries where people get very wary of you taking photos of any government buildings!!!

Deb
- Kristin August 9, 2012 at 2:54 pm Reply
  
  Thanks Deb! It is interesting how — especially in the UK — the cops can be really touchy about taking photos of certain buildings. Somehow, I think that if I was trying to get covert photos for some secret operation, I wouldn’t be wielding such a large and obvious camera! Luckily I’ve never had a confrontation where I’ve been forced to delete photos (which you can recover later on anyway), but I did have to quickly scamper away after realising the guard at the Chinese embassy in Macau was not happy with me snapping away!