Tower of London

I jhimages.co.uk I Facebook I Twitter I Instagram I

I have been looking to get this shot for over a year with the right conditions such as the...

With a bit of imagination one can see this thing taking off. The Shard is a glass-clad skyscraper in Southwark London, standing 309.6 meters high...

London Bridge, London

Tower Hill, London

I jhimages.co.uk I Facebook I Twitter I Instagram I 500px |

This is set up in front of the moat at Tower Hill in London looking towards Tower...

** website | fluidr | follow me on Facebook | Getty Images**

Thank you for your comments, favs and views...:-)

**Don't use this image on any media...

I jhimages.co.uk I Facebook I Twitter I Instagram

The London skyline looking across towards the Shard and the London Bridge area. This was a cool...

These are the beautiful stained-glass windows of the chapel in the Wakefield Tower of the Tower of London. Often, such windows tell a story… these leave more of a question than a story. There is little definable within them apart from stylized leaves and a couple of fleur-de-lis symbols which may have something to do with the Normans who had originally constructed the castle.

Often, my determination for photography takes me to beautiful places to set my camera in front of. And, just as often, my senses are overwhelmed by the exquisiteness that both nature and art can provide. In those moments, I make sure my eye isn't glued to the viewfinder so they will stand out in my mind... for no other reason, that's a good argument for using a tripod. Yet, for all that, such beauty is ephemeral at best, and so I'm given to the realization that I cannot fully participate in it, in large part due to the fallenness of Man… the best I can do is attempt to translate the moment as an image and shuffle back to the issues of life, such as they are. This doesn't mean that I'm resigned to Christian 'fate', however... it renews me to know peace beyond all understanding and shows an enticing glimpse of what awaits us.

This image reminds me of that. For all the beauty of this space, it’s a small part of a small room of a castle with a dark history. That history is history nonetheless and brings us to this point in space and time... and there's purpose in that. Albert Einstein stated that "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once." That should point out that history should do more than tell stories… it should give evidence of what works well for society and what doesn’t. Perhaps you remember this quote most likely due to writer and philosopher George Santayana, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." While many squabble about the truth of that statement, the concern here has my mind going back to 1 Samuel 8 where the children of Israel demand of God a king… and God responds with this question, “Do you truly want a king?” Anywhere in scripture where God asks questions, it’s worth taking note because He’s opening up the assumptions of those He questions. In other words, they needed to back up and rethink their demands of Him, though, in this case, they got what they wanted. It makes me wonder what history and the world would be like if they had rethought their demand. Having gone that direction, however, much of the history of the Tower of London might have been quite different had the English kings and queens taken note of the struggles of another king, Israel’s King David.

During a period of Tudor history here known as the War of the Roses, King Edward IV deposed King Henry VI and imprisoned him in the Tower of London. King Henry was found dead at this very spot on the 21st of May 1471. According to the Historie of the Arrivall of Edward IV, an official chronicle favorable to Edward IV, Henry died of melancholy on hearing news of the Battle of Tewkesbury and his son's death. It is widely suspected, however, that Edward IV, who was re-crowned the morning following Henry's death, had, in fact, ordered his murder… death by “melancholy” likely seldom looks like murder, which happened quite a lot at the Tower of London, mostly at the whim of kings. Many such kings saw their determinations being those also of God, so if any were against those “determinations”, they were considered subversive to both God and Crown and put to death as heretics, often in horrific ways to be made examples of publicly… “Do this and suffer the same fate.” It seems ironic to me to find such beauty within so troubling a time... yet, I'm able to do that now in no less than troubled times.

On another note, as an American, I found it quite mesmerizing to find myself in such perfectly preserved structures much older than America. The oldest structures on American soil, apart from a few native American edifices, are the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico constructed in 1521, and the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine, in St. Augustine, Florida. I’m always blown away by how early civilizations were able to build such soaring and enduring structures.

Addendum: An Irish friend pointed out on Facebook his thoughts about beauty versus fallenness here: "One could spend a month in the Tower and still be mesmerized by its artifacts and history! Beware the whims of Kings and Queens as we Irish can attest! I was at a funeral of a good friend yesterday and the tiny church had wonderful modern stained glass which brought God's light right in to the mourners. These windows had that effect on the worshippers, helping to bring light to their darkness!" Hope is an understanding that can only truly be known by those who are given to faith in God… a bright light in the darkness is often enough reason for hope for those who are in need.

England Tower of London and the blue hour

I jhimages.co.uk I Twitter I

One thing I love about walking around during the evening is the different sights you see. When I was walking around...

White Tower, Tower of London