By the Sea ~ Holkham Beach, North Norfolk
Blame it on my island upbringing, but every now and then, I just need to be by the water.
All images © Amanda Reynolds, 2013
Looking Good Enough to Eat
Last week, I finished my master classes at LSP with Food and Product. Split into two distinct sections with separate instructors, we spent Monday and Tuesday photographing food (and getting very hungry in the process!). We all took turns playing the different roles you would find on set during a food shoot, the client and creative director working together to come up with a vision, the photographer and his/her assistants working with a food stylist to execute that vision. By far, the hardest task (in my opinion at least) is that of the food stylist. Finding the best tomatoes, taking the perfect "bite" out of a cupcake, arranging edamame beans and placing chop sticks just so. Rather than bore you with the details (it can take hours to get one shot just right), I will just share the images we produced, bon appetit!
Our first task was to shoot an image for a magazine cover, you can see the negative space at the top for the masthead, I was the food stylist, picking the "best" tomatoes and arranging them just so. Fun fact, blue tack is a food stylists best friend.
This was a page for a cookbook, I was the client and decided on the square format and over all look. And yes, we got to eat the cupcakes after the shot. And yes, they were delicious.
Our "double page spread" for a cooking magazine, I was the creative director (thankfully, not the food stylist!)
This was our "blog post" and is designed to tell a story or walk the reader through the recipe. I was the photographer on this one. Photographing fish is fun (and I'm not just saying that because I like alliteration...).
While it is a bit painstaking, I really, really enjoyed my tiny dip into the pool of food photography. I am lucky to have many talented cooks in my circle of friends and family and I look forward to many opportunities to keep practicing!
Sadly though, right after this class, this was the only food around me to practice photographing:
No, I didn't run out of funds, rather I seem to have fallen victim to a stomach virus (I swear I didn't eat the sushi after the photo was taken!) and am slowly (very slowly) becoming reacquainted with food.
Before I know it I will be packing my suitcases (already?) and saying farewell to my little Finborough Rd flat and saying Bonjour to an apartment in Paris, where I will spend September. No shortage of food to photograph there!
Day Trip to Dover
A belated post on my day trip to Dover with Mom before she returned home. A two hour train trip from central London, Dover is home to the medieval Dover Castle, a lighthouse dating to the First Century, the famous White Cliffs and a maze of underground tunnels that served as a command center during World War II.
Dover Castle
The over 2,000 year old castle is surrounded by a moat with a drawbridge, and has walls nearly ten feet thick
In addition to being heavily fortified, it has some great views, here the over 1,000 year old Saxon Church, St. Mary-in-Castro, and the Roman pharos lighthouse
The lighthouse was built in the 1st Century by Romans, and is said to be the oldest structure in Britain
No trip to Dover would be complete without catching a glimpse of the famous White Cliffs, which face France across the narrowest part of the English Channel. The clouds rolled in by the time we got there, so the photo really does not do them justice. They are quite stunning.
One of the reasons we visited Dover was to see the medieval underground tunnels that, over the years, have been expanded and adapted. serving as barracks and a strategic command post during World War II.
For any WWII buffs, Operation Dynamo - which involved the evacuation of over 300,000 British and French troops from France following the Battle of Dunkirk - was conceived and executed from the tunnels below Dover Castle. They have since turned the tunnels into an impressive museum that we both really enjoyed.
Did I mention there were a lot of steps involved in our visit to Dover? No? There were. A. LOT. But they were worth it!
Can I take your picture?
A portrait photographer depends upon another person to complete his picture. The subject imagined, which in a sense is me, must be discovered in someone else willing to take part in a fiction he cannot possibly know about. - Richard Avedon
I spent the week before our adventure to Scotland back at LSP studying Portrait Photography. In a way, it was sort of a combination of what I learned in Studio Lighting and Photojournalism, with a lot of new tricks up its sleeve.
This was my fourth course at LSP, meaning I have been making the journey from SW10 to Soho for over a month now, and faces that have become familiar have also become friends. It is comforting to walk through those doors and step into the lift up to the sixth floor (which is really the seventh to us from the states) and know that I will likely bump into a former instructor, ready with a hug and a smile, or a classmate, excited to see that we will be taking another course together. It is very strange that I will be starting my last day time class there tomorrow. It has been a wonderful anchor on the first part of my adventure.
So, armed with the confidence of knowing my way around as well as more than a few of my fellow photo-enthusiasts, I stepped into the class I was most looking forward to, Portrait Photography. I love taking portraits, I love showing someone the photo I just took of them (even though it is kind of a no-no to let the sitter see the back of your camera) and watching their eyes light up and the expression on their face that says "oh, wow, I don't look half bad." The problem is, most people I know (myself included!) do not like having their picture taken! Thank goodness for dogs and babies...and, apparently, sea birds (Pelicans, I'm looking at you, hams, every last one of you).
Once again, as with Studio Lighting, I had the dreaded realization that, if I was going to be practicing on my classmates, they were going to be practicing on me. Cue hair and make-up (lets just say I'd let that slip a bit during my photojournalism week, when I was also rather ill). Did I mention London was having a heat wave? I know most of the States is burning up with heat indexes in DC over 100, and it was "only" in the 90s here (I'm starting to get the hang of the celsius to fahrenheit conversion), but there is a serious lack of Air Conditioning here. Not just in my flat, where, blessedly, it stays relatively cool thanks to being a basement level and it came equipped with a large oscillating fan (which were apparently in very short supply), but many a restaurant and, even, at times, our classroom (remember folks, its on the 7th floor, heat rises...it was uncomfortable). So needless to say, the test portraits of me are not what I'd call "keepers."
My classmate and frequent assignment partner, Alice, was a different story and some of our shoots turned out quite well. Thank you Alice for being such a lovely and fun subject!
One of our assignments was to take 36 portraits of the same subject. In a row. 36. We were encouraged to approach a stranger but were perfectly welcome to use a friend or family member as our subject. While I am getting a bit bolder, I still decided to go with the friend option, knowing that I was meeting my friend Scott that evening for a pub quiz (our team of "Yanks" came in third, not too shabby considering there was more than one question about cricket...). As luck would have it, he brought along a co-worker, Ella, who was willing to let me snap-snap-snap away, technically fulfilling the assignment with both a stranger and a friend (Scott thought he was off the hook, ha!). Here's a very small sample:
It is a very good thing that I came through with some clutch answers during the quiz, because having someone constantly snapping pictures of you is incredibly annoying. But the point of this type of assignment (yes, there's a point or two) is that often if you are commissioned to take a portrait, you will not have much time with the subject, you likely won't know the subject personally (and again, not much time to build a connection or rapport), and you may not have much control over the environment. And also to illustrate (again!) that if you walk away with one great shot out of 36, you have done your job well. Thank you Ella and Scott!
Building on that, our final assignment for this course was to spend two hours with a model on Friday morning, trying to capture a number of emotions: anxiety, happiness, dreaming, in love, sadness, shattered (which means exhausted here), disappointed, surprised, furious. If you take gander at stock images and use any of these as key words, you will get a lot of lovely but somewhat cheesy photos. Our goal was to capture these images without being too obvious (ie, a really wide eyed, mouth agape with hands on either side to show "surprised"). It just so happened that my darling mom arrived on Thursday (if you missed how that happened, in the span of four days, give this post a read), and my instructor suggested that she be my model - after telling her that my mom does not particularly like having her photo taken she answered, even better!
Once my mom realized, to her slight horror, that this would be a bit more involved than me snapping nine photos of her making faces that she thought corresponded to the emotions, she settled in for a grueling morning of having her picture taken over and over and over again. I promised her I wouldn't put too many up, so here are a few of our favorites.
After a week off spent traveling around the UK with my model momma, I head back to Oxford Street tomorrow for my last full-time class, Food & Product. After that I have a couple of evening courses, but it is winding down. I've fallen back in love with photography over the last six weeks - taking photos, analyzing, enjoying them - and rarely leave my flat without my camera (friends and family: you've been warned). [Santa, if you're reading this, I've been pretty good this year, and a 5D Mark III would look lovely under the tree...!]
For any of my former Alliance colleagues who are reading the blog, I took all of these with the 50mm lens I bought using your sweet going away gift (a gift card to B&H, they know me well!).
Swinton Park
After several days of touring Edinburgh and St. Andrews, it was time to wave goodbye to Scotland and head back south. We decided to break up the journey back to London with a stop over at Swinton Park - a beautiful old castle near Ripon that was refurbished and opened as a hotel about ten years ago.
My mom's friend Lynne had visited Swinton Park recently with her husband and recommended it to my mom when she learned of her impromptu trip. When my mom sent me the link, I (being an admitted Downton Abbey fan) was giddy and practically insisted that we work it in to our adventure - and I am so glad that we did!
A spot of tea before we went exploring
Croquet anyone?
After a bit of exploring, it was time for dinner. Swinton Park is a bit of a foodie's paradise, priding themselves on their fine dining restaurant Samuels. Before being seated in the dining room, we enjoyed canapes and a bit of bubbly in the drawing room.
Pre-dinner bubbly in the Drawing Room
Both our dinner and breakfast the next morning were delicious. For our dinners, mom enjoyed a smoked trout starter, guinea fowl and a dessert of poached pears and praline. I was delighted with my rabbit rillettes starter, fresh halibut entree and a wonderful white chocolate mousse with salted caramel ice cream. We both somehow found room the next morning for some of the very best eggs benedict I've ever tasted.
After breakfast, we explored the beautiful walled garden and the aviary, where they keep a number of falcons and owls (separately of course!) and continued to explore the grounds and house on a beautiful day.
The beautiful walled garden, where they grow lovely flowers as well as much of the produce used on site
There was a bit of news happening in London while we were away
Swinton Park is simply lovely. The house, the rooms, the grounds and the food were all wonderful. I am only sorry we were not there a bit longer to take advantage of the activities they offer, especially their cookery school! Perhaps another visit will be in my future...
A Family Affair (or, Mom decides on a whim to visit and we go to Scotland)
Of the many wonderful adjectives one could ascribe to my mother, spontaneous is not one that often comes to mind. But, last Sunday, following Phil Mickelson's victory at the Scottish Open, my mom said that she wanted to see Scotland, so I suggested she come that week and we could go to The Open at Muirfield. To my surprise and absolute delight, she decided to do just that! After arriving on Thursday and attending class with me (and standing in as my model) on Friday (more on that in another post), we boarded a train bound for Edinburgh. (Note: Mom managed to not only navigate the Tube during near rush hour, but she also did it with a suitcase !) Approximately four hours later, we had left the heat wave in London behind and fell into bed in Scotland, getting some well-earned rest before a day at The Open.
Saturday morning, we joined many thousands of other golf fans in making the short journey to Muirfield to watch the world's best compete for the Claret Jug. Unlike most tournaments in the U.S., the Open at Muirfield features 20,000 seats in a number of grandstands set up throughout the course, providing a great view of the action. We settled into the grandstand on the 7th hole (a short par 3 with some very deep bunkers) and saw nearly the whole field (we got there a bit late and missed the first few pairings).
After Tiger and Lee Westwood (on a hot streak at that point!) finished the hole, we decided to walk the course back towards the entrance, giving us the chance to see the likes of Adam Scott, Bubba Watson, Ian Poulter and Phil Mickelson a few more times. It was a great day for golf, and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it!
A bit of advice to any of you thinking of traveling to The Open, while tickets are not difficult to purchase, merchandise is! We put off our stop at the official shop on the grounds until the end of our day and they were very nearly sold out of everything!
On Sunday, we wished the golfers good luck from afar and headed to Edinburgh's Royal Mile to explore Edinburgh Castle. It was a beautiful, bright and cool day and we spent several hours touring all of the exhibits, including the National War Museum and, of course, the Honours of Scotland (the regalia, or crown jewels).
Edinburgh Castle
Views from the Castle
We retired from our touring after a lovely lunch at The Witchery and enjoyed watching Phil's victory from the comfort of our hotel room, with tea and shortbread, of course!
Monday morning we boarded yet another train, this one bound for the home of golf (in keeping with the theme), St. Andrews. While I had been to Edinburgh before, this was both of our first trips to St. Andrews and we picked a great day to do it - just chilly enough to give it the right amount of ambience. We toured the ruins of the Cathedral and Castle - Mom even made her way down to the beach to find a seashell or two - before catching a glimpse of the Old Course and heading back to Edinburgh.
St. Andrews Cathedral ruins
St. Andrews Castle ruins
St. Andrews is getting ready to play host to the Women's British Open
We wound up our trip to Scotland with a visit to Holyroodhouse (in a thunderstorm!) and then back on a train to our next destination, Swinton Park in the north of England.
A (sick) Day in the Life
I spent this week out on the streets of Soho and the South Bank practicing street photography and photojournalism. It was a great class, and one that I was really looking forward to, but just as I was surprised by how much I enjoyed working in the studio last week, I was equally surprised by how anxious I was trying to take stealth street photographs! I did get a few interesting shots in Soho (always a hotbed of interesting people and scenes!) on the first day of class, and found myself getting a bit more comfortable with it as the week progressed.
On Wednesdays, we have the day off from class to do an assignment on our own. This week, our assignment was to document our day in a photo essay, applying the basic structural elements we studied, like establishing shots, detail shots, relationship and portrait shots, while turning the camera on ourself. I went to bed Tuesday unclear about what my day would look like, but woke up with the horrible realization it was not going to look like much because I was sick. As in fever, sore throat, can't believe I have to get out of bed and go to Boots (the pharmacy), oh-dear-me I wore sweatpants in London, sick. I'd like to blame it entirely on some germs picked up on the Tube, but it's probably a combination of public transport, not enough vitamins/exercise and possibly a dose of too much fun. Needless to say, my photo essay was pretty boring...
I managed to make it to class Thursday and Friday despite the bug, and we ended the class with a field trip to Borough Market. Since I already managed to take loads of foodie photos there in June, this time I focused on "street portraits" of the vendors. One thing that I have learned through this whole course is that if you spend a whole day shooting and you come away with one or two shots you really like, it was a successful day. For as instantaneous as digital photography is, it requires an incredible amount of patience! Thankfully, a market like Borough gives you plenty of good excuses to chat with the vendors and ask if they wouldn't mind you poking around with your camera. Some people posed, others went right about with their work as if I wasn't there.
After being out and about so much with class, I am firmly rooted in the flat today in an effort to kick this bug once and for all. Thankfully, I kept my Netflix streaming account active, have plenty of tea and honey, and despite the actual heat wave that has hit London (it's nearly 90 today, though they have been calling it a heatwave once the temps reached 80...) my little garden flat is relatively cool. I feel confident that I will be in fine form to celebrate Bastille Day tomorrow and take on Portraiture on Monday!
Lights, Camera, Action!
It is high time for a photography school update (lest you think all I do is go to concerts and watch tennis). After getting the fundamentals and becoming comfortable shooting in Manual mode in the first week of my course (end enjoying a week off immediately following), I have moved on to more specialized, week-long sessions, ranging from studio lighting to photojournalism/street photography to portraits to food and product. Last week, I completed my Studio Lighting course, and as you might imagine, fitting even the basics of working with professional lighting into one week was intense!
We worked through concepts like Rembrandt lighting and paramount lighting, using different types of light formers (standard reflectors, beauty dishes, soft boxes, snoods, oh my!) and different combinations of key, hair and background lighting. To start, my classmates and I rotated being the Photographer, the Assistant and the Model (I absolutely cringed every time I had to be the "model" - I signed up to be behind the camera, not in front of it!). But by the end of the week, we were working with actual models - though I must say, I think my classmates made excellent models!
Rembrandt lighting with Faye
One of the best things about this class was the way it helped me identify and develop my aesthetic or style as a photographer. I went into the class knowing I liked natural-looking, often monochrome or pastel looking, portraits (Mario Testino's book of portraits of Princess Diana and Richard Avedon's portraits are among my favorites), and this class not only solidified that these are the kind of pictures I want to take, but also taught me how to begin to achieve this style.
"I usually try to make my images look like they just exist, like no effort was put into it." - Mario Testino
I also had a lot of fun experimenting with other styles along the way, including this shoot with my classmate Ian. I wanted a somewhat "film noir" lighting set up, achieved with a standard reflector on a boom stand, held by our amazing co-instructor G (those things are NOT light).
On Thursday and Friday, we brought in the "real" models: Cliff and Soraya. With Cliff, we were instructed to pair up and replicate an image from Rankin's Portraits. My lovely classmate Nathalie and I both zero-ed in on this image of Forest Whitaker and did our best to recreate it with actor / model Cliff:
After trying to recreate the image, we each got a few minutes with Cliff to do some "freestyle" shots, learning to communicate with the model to get the shots we wanted. As you can (hopefully) see, Cliff was great to work with!
On Friday, we met Soraya, an aspiring West End musical theater actress. Having packed an entire suitcase full of outfit options, she was a little horrified when I asked her to stay in the t-shirt she arrived wearing, but once I explained the set-up she was game.
Just like Cliff, Soraya was fabulous to work with. I was pleased and honored that both models seemed very happy with the images I shot, requesting copies to use in their future endeavors.
After spending last week in the studio, hammering out technical details and getting the lighting "just right," I have done a total 180, and am now taking my photojournalism and street photography course. Given that I prefer a natural/ambient lighting aesthetic, I am hopeful that I will be able to apply some of the lighting concepts I learned last week to my efforts this week!
© 2013, Capital Citizenne
It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)
Last night I checked one off the bucket list and saw The Rolling Stones in concert. And not just any concert, but their highly anticipated return to Hyde Park after their landmark show there over 40 years ago. From the weather to the venue to the band (of course), I really can't imagine a more perfect London evening.
From the opening chords of Start Me Up to the final notes of Satisfaction, the energy in the park from on stage and in the crowd was infectious and exhilarating.
The set list was packed full of hits and crowd pleasers, including Beast of Burden, which absolutely made my night.
Not bad for a bunch of guys hovering around 70...
A Capital Citizenne Fourth!
The Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. Not because I embraced living in the nation's capital and enjoyed all of the spectacular fireworks and concerts, no, rather it's because Winston and I usually boarded a flight to Sanibel for "Betty's Annual 4th of July Party." The house I call home happens to have one of the best views of the Sanibel Island fireworks display, and as a result we have had friends and family over to the house to celebrate Independence Day for as long as I can remember. This year, hopping on a flight to Sanibel simply was not an option, but I was determined to make the most of it. I am not one of those tourists who immediately looks for signs of home, in fact I actually avoid them at all costs (after all, I have chosen to come live in a different culture!). But on the 4th, I wanted Americana, I needed it! Mind you, I wasn't so homesick/desperate that I headed for the Golden Arches, but I will openly admit, without shame, that I stood in line (I can't call it queueing in reference to the 4th of July) for half and hour to enjoy the delicacy that is a Five Guys cheeseburger, fries and a Bud heavy. In a stroke of good marketing, both Five Guys and Shake Shack opened their first UK outposts on the 4th (just a few blocks from each other in Covent Garden) - being a DC-based gal, I obviously chose Five Guys.
It was actually quite fun to stand in line with both American Five Guys veterans determined to get a taste of home (including a VERY pregnant Chicagoan living in London for the past four years) and total newbies who were concerned they may have chosen wrong ("should we have gone to Shake Shack instead? will the Little burger be big enough? how many fries do we need" my answers: NO!, yes absolutely, um you can probably share one small order between the three of you...we have portion control issues in the US!)
I have to say, that burger, fries and Bud were exactly what the Dr. ordered (no, not Dr. Who), but the icing on the cake was meeting up with my friend Scott in Borough for an impromptu Independence Day pub crawl. Scott and I went to college together, studied abroad in London on the same program, albeit one year apart, and have both been in DC for many years, but sadly didn't really get to know one another until recently (thank you Jenn!). I still think it is some sort of divine intervention that we both moved to London this summer.
We started at The Globe (aka home to Bridget Jones, she made her blue soup upstairs), then headed towards Borough Market where our "Happy 4th of July" overtures received a decidedly mixed reception...
After a visit to Scott's adorable "local" (where everyone was convinced he was Mitchell from Modern Family) we ended the evening sitting on his amazing deck, where we could hear, if not see, fireworks, toasting to being two Americans, trying our best (again) at life in London.
(PS, everyone should be so lucky to have Scott for a friend, foreign country or not.)
Strolling Along the South Bank
After getting sucked into the black hole that is watching Wimbledon for the past few days, my camera and I headed to the other side of the Thames for a day of people watching, photographing and eating on the South Bank. First stop of the day was Borough Market. I've always enjoyed visiting London's many wonderful and eclectic markets, from Portobello Road to Camden Town, but had never made the trip to Borough. My dear friend and fellow recent-Londoner Scott alerted me to the area as he is going to be calling it home very soon, and a classmate of mine in photography school -- who happens to be a very clever food blogger -- gave me the great and helpful tip to visit the market on Thursday to beat (some of) the crowds.
While the markets I mentioned earlier are an eclectic mix of antiques, handcrafts, arts and food, Borough Market is primarily about the food. Stall after glorious stall of food, featuring everything from English cheeses and charcuterie to more varieties of mushrooms than I have ever seen, cases of savory pies, and loads of fresh breads, seafood, produce and the most incredible looking meringues!
I smartly decided to eschew the leftovers in my fridge in favor of a market lunch, and after a few laps, I decided on a duck confit sandwich, topped off with a very dainty "scoop" of salted caramel goat's milk ice cream. Not really a fan of goat cheese myself (cue the shocked cries of "but goat cheese is sooo good, I love it" - I've tried it a million times, you can have all of mine) I was offered a sample, and it.was.good. So good!
After the market, I made my way back to the Tate Modern. The TM is a pretty divisive museum, much like modern art itself, you either like it or you don't. After an Art History class that focused on the art of the 1960s, that put the artistic movements in the historical and political context of the times, I became something of a fan, and especially a fan of the Tate Modern. The space is a converted industrial park and showcases works by the likes of Mondrian, Flavin, Ellsworth Kelly and a fantastic collection of William Eggleston photographs. I also get a kick out of eavesdropping on other visitors, hearing a lot of "why is this art, I could do that" or just giggles of bewilderment.
a felt sculpture by Robert Morris
One of the biggest luxuries I have afforded myself this trip is time; I don't have to do the whole museum in one visit, because I can come back (did I mention they are free, thanks London!). So after spending an hour wandering the fourth floor, I called it a day (to be honest, the museum was also quickly filling up with school children and getting very crowded!).
Rather than cross the river via Millenium Bridge or Blackfriars, I chose to walk the Thames Path down to Westminster, taking in the sights and sounds of the South Bank along the way. It's a vibrant river front with loads of street performers and people everywhere you look.
And just as it started to drizzle I was back over the river and on my way home.
© 2013, Capital Citizenne
Breakfast (and lunch, and tea) at Wimbledon
For as long as I can remember, I have spent the last week in June and the first week of July relatively glued to the television, watching tennis matches broadcast from the All England Lawn Tennis Club. When I studied in London, I always meant to take the short tube ride from South Kensington to Wimbledon to check out the museum and grounds, but I never did make the trip. When I realized that I would in fact be living in London during the Championships, I scoured the internet looking for a way in to one of my bucket list sporting events. What I learned was, A. I was way too late for the lottery, B. the resale market for tickets resembled something like a black market for organs, with asking (and receiving) prices in the thousands of dollars, and thankfully, C. there are thousands of tickets available nearly every day to would-be spectators who are willing to "queue" for the opportunity.
What is The Queue? Having experienced it, I would define it as the largest display of patience, en masse, I can ever imagine. It's also one of the best traditions in sports; I can't think of another event on the level of Wimbledon where a spectator can show up on the day of (granted, very, very, very early on the day of) and pay face value for a ticket. No scalping, no price gouging, just a keen interest and a willingness to adhere to the "Queue Code of Conduct."
Which brings me to this morning...very early this morning (some of you back in the States were probably awake when I was waking up!) After the alarm went off, I did a quick scan of the weather (chilly and windy, but no rain forecast) and a Twitter check (The Queue was already long, but not impossibly so) and got myself on the Tube by 5:45. Thankfully, I live just a few stops away (and thankfully everyone on the Tube knew where they were going, note: the best stop for queueing is Southfields, NOT Wimbledon or Wimbledon Park, thank you fellow Tube-rides/Queuers/tennis fans!).
I arrived at The Queue (yes, they give it proper noun status here) around 6:30 and was given my Guide to Queueing and my Queue Card. As you can see, I was number 3,350. At 6:30 AM! Within an hour, I would say our numbers had easily doubled if not tripled, and soon enough they were actually discouraging people from coming to join The Queue. Andy Murray was scheduled to play on Centre Court, and it seemed nearly everyone in GB wanted to be a part of the start of what they hope is finally his year.
After a few cold hours of waiting, I emerged from The Queue with a Grounds ticket, giving me access to the grounds and any matches not happening on Centre Court or Courts 1 and 2 (so, none of the matches that make it to TV!)
I had plenty of time in The Queue to plot my day, and smartly purchased a special edition newspaper with the schedule of play and court assignments (though I primarily purchased it because they were offering it with a fleece blanket that would keep me warm and dry on the grass...and a chocolate bar that, admittedly, served as breakfast!). But before I got down to the business of tennis, it was already time for lunch, which at Wimbledon must include Strawberries and Cream!
Then I headed to Court 14, which was scheduled for an American double feature. The first match featured American Vania King vs. France's Alize Cornet. The match did not go in King's favor, but it was great to watch.
Up next was a star from last year's Championships - and not only for having played the longest match in the tournament's history - the USA's John Isner. Isner took on Evgeny Donskoy and while Donskoy never took a set, they did play two tie breaks and it was a very exciting match. Seeing Isner's serve in person is something to behold - I did feel for the judges who frequently had to make a call and simultaneously duck for their life!
After Isner's victory, I treated myself to a Pimm's No. 1 and headed up to Henman Hill, better known these days as Murray Mound. Adjacent to Court 1, the Hill/Mound has a giant screen that broadcasts matches from the show courts. I arrived to see the beginning of what turned into the biggest upset of the day (Steve Darcis beating Rafa Nadal!) and settled in for the first set of Andy Murray v. Benjamin Becker. It was a great atmosphere to watch tennis, even if it was on a giant screen rather than in person. I can see why so many people queue just to park themselves on the Hill with a picnic basket (fun note: spectators are welcome to bring food into the grounds and many of them do.)
All in all, it was a wonderful and exciting day, and one that I honestly never thought I'd experience! I may even be tempted to get up with the dawn and join The Queue again later this week!