Two fellow photographers and I skipped down to London for some social photography.
This blog post lists the locations we visited and the experience of photographing them.
Baker Street underground station
The main attraction here is some moody lighting and an old fashioned vibe.
I took the following shot as I liked the lighting and shadows.
Reflections
It started to rain so we knew there would be reflections – the image below needs no explanation.
Blackfriars Railway Station
The next images is one of my favourites of the trip, making the best use of the wide view of the fisheye lens, it’s a shot of St Paul’s from underneath Blackfriars bridge.
Tate Modern
We wandered up to the Tate Modern as it’s a well-known location for photo opportunities.
The big hall was hindered by displays of old decorating sheets… er, oh, sorry, I mean art!
The viewing area a few floors up was closed for maintenance but on the way up I spotted this window – no competition winner but interesting.
Next, we were at ‘that’ staircase. The one photographers recognise as it’s been shot lots of times.
I walked up the staircase and shot down to get something different.
Millennium Bridge
Next up was a stop at Millennium bridge and some multiple exposure shots.
One of these is shown below, but if I’m honest, I didn’t like any images that I grabbed here. I feel this scene needs a tripod to ensure a still skyline/background and then capture the people blurry to show motion.
Without a tripod, the shot just looks like a terrible capture has been taken, I.e. Camera shake!
We walked over the bridge towards St Paul’s Cathedral.
St. Pauls
On the way up to St Paul’s, we spotted its reflection in a puddle on the pavement.
One New Change Shopping Mall
Not that far away was a shopping mall where you can get a shot of the mall with a reflection of St Paul’s.
Lloyds Building
Next up was the Lloyd’s bank building which has been on my bucket list for some time.
Shot below with the fisheye lens, it’s quite a striking structure.
Apparently, the building costs quite a lot to maintain as much of the inner workings (e.g. service pipes) are mounted on the outside which means they are exposed to the elements.
I grabbed a few shots of this building noting that with the fisheye lens, it grabs a lot of the surrounding structures filling the sky, which I think makes for a much more interesting image.
Leadenhall Market
We walked through Leadenhall Market to capture the stunning ceiling.
Canary Wharf
We made our way to Adams Plaza Bridge which is a tunnel lit up by a pattern of lights across all the walls and ceiling of a tunnel along the bridge.
The colourful contemporary art installation is courtesy of artist Camille Walala.
The French artist is known for her signature style of joyful colours, playful shapes and geometric patterns and she’s no stranger to decorating urban landscapes with her creative eye.
Camille has large scale installations located all over the world, from Hong Kong, to New York, to Mauritius.
This location is quite a sight and very enjoyable to photograph – it also was perfect to a fisheye lens.
I fired off quite a few shots here with some from the side of the tunnel too.
The colours change and revolve which is interesting.
Mono versions look cool too and a fellow photographer won a round of POTY last year submitting one. If that weren’t the case, I would have been tempted to put one in.
As you reach the end of the tunnel, you enter a shopping centre and turning around looking back provides an interesting view.
I’ve seen this view on social media a few times and following one particular image I had remembered, decided to tone it a blueish colour.
Jubilee Park and Bank Street
Outside Bank Street on Jubilee Park, I was drawn to this steel teardrop by the artist Richard Hudson.
Hudson says of his style of art:
“What I attempt to capture, to enclose, as a kind of homage, is a form around which on every surface it is possible to trace a continuous line.”
Docklands
We then found ourselves at Docklands and I got another slightly different perspective of the skyline.
It really strikes you just how many flats there are in these towers and how much they might cost.
One of my fellow photographers said one block was just being started when he visited last year and is now completed and occupied.
The Shard
We made our way back to London Bridge and wandered down riverside so that we could shoot The Shard.
The Shard, also referred to as the Shard London Bridge and formerly London Bridge Tower, is a pyramid-shaped 72-storey mixed-use development supertall skyscraper, designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, in Southwark, London, that forms part of The Shard Quarter development.
Standing 309.6 metres (1,016 feet) high, The Shard is the tallest building in the United Kingdom, and the seventh-tallest building in Europe.
It is also the second-tallest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom, after the concrete tower of the Emley Moor transmitting station.
The Shard replaced Southwark Towers, a 24-storey office block built on the site in 1975.
As we wandered along the riverbank, it started to rain so we looked for somewhere we may be able to get a reflection.
I got the shot below and at this point I had reached my lot in terms of photography and physical effort!
There would be one more shot.
Done and dusted
And that was a wrap!
28,000 steps walked and back to Liverpool Street we went.
A great day out was had, loads of locations visited, and plenty of keepers in the bag too.
Onwards and upwards…