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A Home of Henry VIII: Hampton Court Palace

I’m trying a new format on this post, since I had so many photos to share. One of my last days in London last October, my mom and I took four of my nephews to visit Hampton Court Palace.

It was such an intriguing place to visit. To think about Henry VIII walking the same hallways we walked was a bit surreal. The palace is an interesting mixture of Tudor style (from Henry VIII’s time there in the 1500’s) and Baroque style from King William III’s rebuild of a large part of the palace in the 1600’s. Throw in a giant maze, capes for the kids, and lots of nooks to explore, and we had ourselves a fun adventure! Some of my favorite sights include tapestries from the 1500’s, an emblem in the wood that should have been removed after the beheading of Anne Boleyn, being in Henry VIII’s kitchen and banquet hall, making it to the middle of the maze, and much more.

Here are some highlights from our visit posted below. Since this is my last post recapping my London trip, I included a few photos at the end of the whole reason I took the trip. It was such a blessing to have two weeks there with my mom, sister, brother-in-law, and their seven children (especially meeting their newest addition!). I hope you’ve enjoyed these posts! Get excited for some upcoming posts of recent photo shoots I’ve had and, of course, some more travel photos!

Posted by jennimansellphotography | August 11, 2016 | Categories: Personal, Travel | Leave a comment

London: The Obligatory Photos

Hello again!

I’m trying to knock out these London posts so I can post more up-to-date photos soon. Most of these photos need little description since they’re the shots everyone gets when in London, so here you go!

Westminster Abbey

Outside Westminster Abbey

On the front of Westminster Abbey

This is the church where I attended Bible Study Fellowship during my trip… conveniently located between Buckingham Palace and Big Ben!

A great place to get fish ‘n chips!

On a work day, I was able to visit the building where my sister’s church meets, St. Botolph’s, Aldersgate, to get photos of the beautiful sanctuary…

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Posted by jennimansellphotography | July 28, 2016 | Categories: Personal, Travel | Tags: Big Ben, London, Westminster Abbey | 2 Comments

Adventures in London, continued…

Good evening, all!

Some of you may have noticed I took a bit of a hiatus from blogging recently. 2015 was a rough year for me and I cut down on a few things, like blogging, to cope. My hope is to get back on track in the next few months so I can share more of my fun travels and recent photo sessions here. I hope you enjoy!

I didn’t quite finish blogging the photos from my trip to London in October of 2015, so the next few posts will be devoted to the fun that I had in England with my mom, sister, and her family.

Here are a few more photos from Windsor Castle and then some bonus photos from around my sister’s home. Stay tuned for Big Ben and Hampton Court Palace soon!

The Queen Victoria statue right outside of Windsor Castle.

Windsor Castle

It was so fun to walk this street again with fond memories of it from our visit when I was eight-years-old.

A shopping area outside the Windsor Castle train station.

It’s been a few months, but I think this is the Paddington train station. 🙂

Sundown on Farm Lane

I loved the evening light hitting the plants outside my sister’s home.

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It was a beautiful evening for a walk with my nieces!

Such a ham.

Twice the fun!

A thistle… pretty close to Scotland.

I love evening light.

Posted by jennimansellphotography | July 21, 2016 | Categories: Personal, Travel | Tags: England, London, Windsor, Windsor Castle | 1 Comment

Doors of Windsor

Hello, my long lost friends! In an effort to be a better teacher and good friend, I’ve cut back on blog posts recently. I do hope to wrap up sharing about my October trip and have quite a few fall family photo sessions to share with you one of these days.

I’ll start small with this little post from our visit to Windsor Castle. I’m a big fan of doors, windows, and entryways. So much so that I took enough pictures at Windsor Castle to warrant a blog post.

Here are some highlights from the largest occupied castle in the world!

I’ll start with this little recreation I attempted. The top photo is from my first visit to Windsor in 1989 with my dad on the left and our family friends, the Welches. The photo below is my nephews coming through the same gate.

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My nephews hanging out with a Windsor Castle guard.

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Posted by jennimansellphotography | January 1, 2016 | Categories: Personal, Travel | Tags: doors, London, windows, Windsor Castle | 2 Comments

Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gardens, and More…

What’s that you say? You’d like to see more phone photography from me? Well, if you insist…

While I usually prefer to only post the best of my best on this blog, I’m sort of using this as my trip log and in turn I am exposing my sometimes poor quality phone photography to you all. I’m assuming you’re not as picky as I am about such things and hopefully appreciate the glimpse of London these pics provide. After this post, I will have legit fancy camera photos to share… get excited! 🙂

We had the privilege of attending a children’s program at the famous Royal Albert Hall with my nephews.

Then we took a walk to Kensington Gardens. Fall sure is beautiful in London!

We stopped briefly to admire Kensington Palace (on right) and then continued on…

Have I mentioned that I love fall?

… to our destination. The Diana, Princess of Wales’ Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens was so well done with lots of fun hidden gems for the kids to discover.

We had an adventurous trip home in the rain, taking many steps deep into the underground to catch the tube then a bus home.

Finally got a sister photo!
The next day Mom and I took the boys to Windsor Castle on the train.

Windsor Castle

Things you don’t see in every McDonalds…

Things you don’t see in every train station (and why small change is helpful here)…

Posted by jennimansellphotography | October 14, 2015 | Categories: Personal, Travel | Tags: Kensington Gardens, Kensington Palace, London, Royal Albert Hall, Windsor Castle | 3 Comments

More of London (from my phone)

Here’s another slightly lazy post much like the last one (from a photography perspective) as I had a few more days where I didn’t have my fancy camera along, but couldn’t resist taking photos anyway. Please excuse the less than stellar phone pic quality. I hope you can see past that to the great sights and experiences I’ve had this week. Here are a couple more days worth of photos and do stay tuned to some better quality posts coming soon!

A run in the rain with my nephews, a foggy day in London town, hanging with my twin nieces, and a trip to the pharmacy with one nephew where my love of Cadbury chocolate was renewed. 🙂

On Tuesday I ventured out on my own to attend Bible Study Fellowship (the lessons are the same all over the world, so I didn’t have to miss a class!). The tube part was easy, while the street part was a bit of a challenge until I bought a map. 🙂

I made some new friends at BSF and went out to a pub for my first Fish & Chips of my trip!

On the wall of the pub.

Before heading home, I went on a walk to see Buckingham Palace.

The front gate and documentation that I was there.

The Victoria Monument across from the palace.

Had to get a selfie with the palace to prove I was there. 🙂

Walking away, toward St. James’s Park

Had a really pretty walk along St. James’s Park before I took the Underground back to my sister’s place.

Posted by jennimansellphotography | October 12, 2015 | Categories: Personal, Travel | Tags: buckingham palace, st. James's park, Westminster Chapel | Leave a comment

A Sunday in London (from an iPhone)

Hi there!

I’m behind on blog posts (story of my life), but wanted to check in from my visit in the UK. Woohoo for Fall Break and a sister who lives in London! I’ve been out a few times without my fancy camera and haven’t had much editing time, so this post won’t have the highest quality of photos, but I figured you all won’t care about that as much as I do.

So here you have my first day in London, as seen from my iPhone. Fancy pics will be coming soon!

I arrived to a wall of welcome signs!

I got to meet my two-week-old niece Sunday morning!

We went to my brother-in-law and sister’s church near St. Paul’s Cathedral Sunday morning.

Apparently this place holds some history to it. 🙂

Church Building

Postman’s Park is right next to the church. I had to get a photo of this squirrel. Last spring, my Dad randomly announced “England squirrels have pointy ears” after the topic of England came up. It cracked me up, so I had to document whether or not English squirrels’ ears are different than American squirrels. I like to imagine that these ears are a bit more pointy, even if they aren’t. 🙂

This memorial display is in Postman’s Park and I found it to be such a beautiful, tragic glimpse into the past.

Here are some samples of the tiles displayed at the memorial. I was struck by the ages of the people who passed away, as well as the graphic descriptions of their passing.

After church, we explored a bit before catching the tube back home.

Nearby is this awesome park created from an old church building’s walls. The garden part is based on where the pews and columns were in the original church building.

Time to visit St. Paul’s Cathedral!

My nephews set this shot up all by themselves!

Mom and I with St. Paul’s behind us. We may or may not have sung a bit of “Feed the Birds” from Mary Poppins as we watched the pigeons on the steps. 🙂

Love the reflection of St. Paul’s in a nearby building.

Of course we had to get a phone booth photo! Many thanks to my mom for capturing the photo of the photo-taking. 🙂

Posted by jennimansellphotography | October 7, 2015 | Categories: Personal, Travel | Tags: Christchurch Greyfriars Garden, G.F. Watts Memorial, London, Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice, Postman's Park, St. Paul's Cathedral | 2 Comments

Addison is Four!

It’s been so fun to watch this little girl grow up! I started photographing her when she was six months old and all of a sudden she is four and has two little siblings! It was lovely spending some time with all three of these children a couple weeks ago. I hope you enjoy these sweet photos of them!

Posted by jennimansellphotography | September 16, 2015 | Categories: Children | Leave a comment

Levi is a big brother!

Hello there!

As with every delayed blog post excuse I write, I’m a bit behind due to that whole full-time teacher thing I do. Nonetheless, I had to share these photos even if they’re a couple months late. When I was home in PA this summer, I had the chance to photograph my friends’ children one morning. You may remember Levi from some of my blog posts over the last couple years. It’s always so fun to look back and see how kids grow from year to year. 🙂 I’m so glad I was able to document this family again, and now with little sister Laurel to join the photos! I hope you enjoy these!

Posted by jennimansellphotography | September 9, 2015 | Categories: Children | Leave a comment

Now there are seven!

I’ve had the privilege of photographing my high school friend’s growing family over the last few years. Two years later, there’s an addition in these photos! While I was home in Pennsylvania a few weeks ago, I had a fun visit out to the farm to do a quick photo shoot of this beautiful crew. Photographing seven is good practice for me as I anticipate time with my sister’s family this fall! I hope you enjoy these few highlights from my time with them!