Photo of Houses of Parliament

Scenic travel photos of England, Scotland, and Wales

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Featuring our favourite photos from our travels throughout England, Scotland, and Wales. We got up before dawn and stayed out late to photograph the most historic sites and the most stunning scenery in Britain, just for you.

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Houses of Parliament

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Houses of Parliament
London, Greater London, England
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About the photo:

It was the end of a very, very long day walking around London (carrying all my camera gear). Thank goodness I had a new lightweight carbon-fibre tripod! I set up on the south bank of the Thames across from the Houses of Parliament and waited while the sun went down and the sky deepened in colour. I had a long time to wait, as this view faces directly towards the setting sun. A fellow photographer set up his gear a few feet away, and I think we surreptitiously glanced over to see what the other one was doing. He was certainly busy; I stood and waited while the Houses of Parliament became illuminated and night came on, and he clicked away like an Old West cowboy with an itchy trigger finger! I wonder what he saw that I didn't? Anyway, the sky finally get dark enough to make the lights on the Houses of Parliament stand out. What a brilliant sight. I'm not a city person, but I must admit it was stunningly beautiful, and I'm glad I waited for it.

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A note for Mac users

RIGHT-CLICK on the image size you want to use, and select 'Save link As ...' (The exact wording may vary according to your browser). Choose a location on your computer to save the image, 'My Pictures' is a good choice in Windows XP. Other operating systems will have a similar folder. Remember where you saved the image! Now right click on your Desktop.

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Monitor resolution, or 'how can I tell what size image I need to use to fit my monitor?'

While we can't give instructions for every operating system, here's how to determine your monitor resolution in Windows XP and Mac OSX.

Windows XP - right click anywhere on your desktop. A menu will pop up. Choose 'Properties' from the menu. A window with several tabs will pop up. Click on the 'Settings' tab. Look at the numbers under the Screen Resolution slider. That's your current setting.

Mac OSX - click on System Preferences, then Displays, then the Display Tab (should be showing by default). Your current resolution will be highlighted.

Images are set to a gamma of 2.2, which is pretty much industry standard for image display and printing. The only trouble is that Mac monitors generally have a gamma set to 1.8 by default, which means that images MAY appear slightly washed out, or show colours not quite as intended. You can reset your monitor's gamma easily on a Mac. Do a simple search for 'reset gamma Mac' on Google. And in case anyone thinks we're putting Mac users second, let me reassure you that we use both Macs and Windows machines at Britain Express!

Image is © David Ross

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