On Friday 25th February I went into London to meet with three Bracknell and three Farnborough club members for an evening photo shoot around starting at Tower Bridge with Steve Hedges.
The plan for the photo shoot was to wait for the Tower of London to be in the last few minutes of the blue hour. Then we were to quickly(!) walk over Tower Bridge for shots up the Thames. Then we would pause for some light trail photography before making our way into the City for the rest of the evening.
Whitehall
Earlier in the afternoon, three of us went to Westminster and outside the MoD building joined the myriad of press photographers. There was a small area set aside for the press to watch the then small anti-war demonstration taking place.
Downing Street had rather more armed officers behind the gates than usual. They were watching the throng of demonstrators and tourists. One of the police officers around the press, told us that they expected the demonstration to grow and to be quite a crowd by late afternoon.
London Assembly Building
Then we headed back down to London Bridge station on the Jubilee Line. From there we went onto Queen’s Walk, alongside the Thames, and joined the crowds.
In the plaza at the side of the London Assembly Building (looking very sad with its dirty windows) we looked down the pedestrian precinct towards the Shard.
This is a location worth another visit perhaps in the evening to take advantage of the leading lines of dark bricks laid along the precinct towards the Shard.
Queens Walk
Our meeting place was the Starbucks on Shad Thames. As it was now 4 pm, I grabbed a toasted sandwich to keep me going for the evening. Once everyone arrived we had a briefing from Steve about the evening and what was planned for our Tower Bridge images.
This part of the Thames Walk was very busy with tourists and we took advantage of some street photography before we settled down with tripods.
I did approach this German couple and explained that his rucksack was completely unzipped with all the rest of his gear hanging out. After a few moments they both came back after checking the rucksack to say thanks.
Once my camera was on the tripod on the wall I used my iPhone to take picture’s of passers-by. This small group spent a lot of time posing and taking each other’s pictures .
Tower Bridge
While we waited for the perfect time Steve challenged us to take a dynamic image of Tower Bridge.
Once we were setup on tripods, it became a matter of waiting for the light.
Our line of tripods drew lots of interest from passers by. The questions ranged from: Why are you here? Who are you? Was the bridge opening? What was happening for so many photographers to be here?
The image of Tower Bridge that we waited for
Before we left we had enough time to take some long exposure images looking up the Thames and across to the Tower of London.
Views of the River Thames from Tower Bridge
To catch the light it was indeed a dash up and then over Tower Bridge to the North side’s observation space. There were probably good places to stop on the bridge itself but after Steve pointed out how they shook it was clear that cars and people would be shaking our tripods too much. Next to us on the wall was the editor of Photography News, Will Cheung. The observation space was busy both with photographers and tourists taking in the views up the Thames.
Light trails on Tower Hill
A more relaxed walk took us to a bus stop on Tower Hill opposite the Tower of London to try our hand at light trails.
Worrying about traffic is normally the highest priority this close to a busy road. But for this location we had to cross a cycle lane to get to a narrow strip of pavement by the road. It is very clear that London cyclists do not take prisoners or slow down for pedestrians. Given that the majority of bikes had no lights this part of the evening was definitely the most dangerous!
The Walkie Talkie
Our next stop was at the side of the Walkie Talkie using a wide angle lens to shoot up the side of the building. Just like on Queen’s Walk by Tower Bridge our group were the subject of much curiosity by passers-by.
In the City of London around the Lloyds Building
This was our last location for the evening and just like the views of the Shard earlier in the day is now a location I will be visiting again in the evening.
We were visited by a couple of security guards who stood back from us and asked what we were doing. A quick explanation that we were a group of camera club photographers was enough to satisfy their curiosity. After chats about taking pictures and why they’d approached us, it was all smiles as they went back inside.
The evening was a great opportunity to capture night images around London. Everyone was helped by Steve. He gave us lots of advice and where needed helped with camera settings. He has to be one of the very few workshop leaders who can help attendees on their Nikon, Sony, Olympus, Canon and even Fuji.