I have been in love with London’s Natural History Museum in South Kensington ever since I was a small boy and I went on several school and family trips there.
I developed a lifelong facination for Dinosaurs and other creatures as a result! Visiting it more recently, I began to appreciate the magnificent architecture of the building and how well what was a stuffy museum has been updated in recent years. I’ve always loved the great hall and its main resident, “Dippy”.
Now I have my own family and on Wednesday it was my birthday and we decamped for a trip to the NHM. Now it is true that any trip to the NHM would not be the same without a trip to the Dinosaurs…
The mammals exhibit is also worth a look, with the magnificent blue whale model and whale skeletons.
There are also some fantstic displays of reptiles. I wouldn’t fancy getting on the wrong side of this fella…
The real star of the show is the building though. It is magnificent!
Of course places like this are fun for the reaction they induce in the visitors (from wonder to boredom and everything in-between).
An honorary mention must go to my son, Daniel, who not only put up with the trip but throughly enjoyed himself too (here he is preparing to steal one of mummy’s chips…)!
All taken on:
Fujifilm X-Pro1 with 18mm and 35mm lenses
Olympus E-M5 with Voigtlander 17.5mm and Panasonic 12-35mm lenses
As a postscript, I was very impressed with the low light output from the E-M5 + 12-35mm and the quality of the results from the Voigtlander (the entrance and the picture of my son are both from the 17.5mm). While normally I prefer primes to zooms, changing lenses in a large crowd in the dark is neigh on impossible which is where the Panasonic 12-35mm comes into its own. The X-Pro1 continues to amaze me with the quality of its output. If adobe can push an additonal 5% out of the RAW files in the next Lightroom update and the new 18-55mm zoom cuts the mustard I’ll have to seriously consider if I need my G5 or E-P3 anymore, because they aren’t getting a look in at the minute.
sgoldswoblog 
How timely – I have been watching a David Attenbrough program on dinosaurs with my 4 year old, and we’ve made a pact to visit the Natural History Museum next time we return to the UK.
I’m glad to hear you like the X-Pro1 – I have almost abandoned my DSLR since getting my X100 last year, and am eagerly eying up the X-E1.
Glad you liked the post. The X-Pro1’s high ISO abilities came in handy in the NHM.
I think the X-E1 is worth a look. It didn’t excite me because it’s basically a X-Pro1 in a smaller shell with an EVF and a flash, but if you didn’t have an X-Pro1 it might well be a good purchase. For the X system to move on though they really need the new 18-55 zoom (equipped with fast focusing linear motor) to be sharp and quick to autofocus. Whoever it was who decided to use slower focus motors in the primes has probably been marched out of Fujifilm HQ and shot…
Hi! I end up here because I was looking for images of the diplodocus skeleton and what a surprise when I saw your picture! That couple in the image is me and my girlfriend! We were there on vacation and that was one of our best moments together.
Sorry I ask, but do you have any more pictures of that moment? If positive, could you please share them with me? I’d like to surprise her… That meant a lot to us and we didn’t take any photos together.
Thank you so much for cheering me up and I’ll be eternally thankful if you can help me!
Hi there, what a crazy coincidence, I almost didn’t use that shot for my blog, but decided to because I liked the scale you and you girlfriend brought to the Diplodocus (as opposed to the shots I took without people in the foreground). Because the jpegs I processed at the time are huge I’ve uploaded them onto Flickr because it seemed easier than emailing them. You can find (and download) the originals here (just right click on them to save them):
B&W version: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8179/8055108754_568c6358ff_o.jpg
Colour Original: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8209/8222402220_a23309d1fc_o.jpg
Another shot I found: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8345/8222410992_1fb91f8c98_o.jpg
Thank you so much, very nice of you. I’ve been surfing in your blog for a while and I will surely visit it very often since now on!
Glad to be of help and I hope your girlfriend likes them
She loved the surprise, it was very moved. I’ll tell you more: that picture is taken just a moment after I propose to her. If you take a closer look, we are observing the ring I gave to her. That’s why is so important this picture. So once again: thank you so much.
Wow, congratulations, and it’s even more amazing – had I realised that was what was happening I never would have posted the photo in the first place! I’m so dumb, because I can see it now, but I had assumed your girlfriend was looking at her phone…
Would you mind if I reblog this story? It’s such a happy accident (and a lovely story) it deserves telling as an antidote to the bad news that seems to be ever present in modern life. However, no worries if you would prefer I don’t!
Are you kidding? You’re free to do it, we’re so glad you captured that moment. There are some curious things in the proposal. The ring is actually a silvered beetle from the museum shop that I bought that same day. I had memorized the museum map to know where the shops were, and to buy the ring I fooled my girlfriend by telling her that I had to… ejem… go to the WC. xD. Then I waited till being under Dippy to do it. We thought there was a high probability that someone had photographed us. And here you are. Well, this is it for today!
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