Thames

Shot for the Day (27 September 2019)

| Zapfly

Last weekend, after watching the weather develop for a few days, it looked as though Sunday morning would be interesting with thunderstorms forecast.  I headed down to Tower Bridge, as I knew the light would be aligned with the bridge at dawn.

This was the first image I liked of the morning. The sky was a glorious mixture of red, yellow, orange and grey, opalescent clouds.

The rain held off for most of the time I was by the London Assembly.  Several ladies past me, heading to an early morning gym class along with many joggers running along the Thames.

Above is the last shot I took before the light  was obscured by ran clouds.

Which of these images did you like the most?

Shot for the Day (12 September 2019)

| Zapfly

After a spectacular sunset last Saturday that unfortunately, due to time of year, happen over London Bridge rather than behind The Shard, lead to an impressive blue hour scene.

The clouds slowly gathered around the top of the skyscraper and half moon rising in the sky.

Shot on a Tilt-Shift lens, to straighten the lines of the Shard and surrounding buildings.

Shot for the Day (10 September 2019)

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Decided to try a new project based around London scenery as I do not currently have much opportunity to get out of town very often. Last Saturday evening, I found a wonderful, elevated platform that I had almost completely to myself for a couple of hours at the end of the day.

The scene above was of a tall shop that Tower Bridge opened up for. It came through, did the U-turn shown in this image and then sailed back down river towards the Channel, or is it North Sea?

The reason the boat in this shot looks a little like a toy is because I was using a tilt-shift lens.

Shot for the Day (20 February 2017)

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I am trying to improve my cityscape portfolio, especially of London as it is my home city.  This weekend, I went walking for hours and ended up back at Tower Bridge. The streets were teeming with thousands of tourists and people on half term holiday. After much searching, I found a small platform on the Thames walk, overlooking Tower Bridge and the London Assembly.  The clouds framing the Shard were perfect for a portrait of the scene.

Shot for the Day (05 February 2017)

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Saturday walk along the River Thames and we finally had some clement weather, albeit not balmy.

I was trying out my new 25mm lens with a Firecrest 3.0 HD this weekend.  Not the classic streaking clouds shot but was quite interesting. I have started to do more HDR images (this is not one of them) as I have seem some great YouTube videos on how to combine images subtly.

Shot for the Day (02 August 2016)

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A couple of other extra long exposure shots from last weekend.  This one was taken close to the Millennium Bridge.  As the river was low, I was able to walk down to the beach, to take a lower angle shot of the Thames and Shard. The sun had finally broken through the clod, albeit temporarily, to illuminate the scene and bath the Shard in light.

This next shot was of HMS Belfast, across the Thames, of the Walkie Talkie building with the Gherkin also visible.  As the ship was floating on the river, it tended to bob around, so I diminished the length of the exposure to compensate.  You can see this in comparison to the tub boats in the foreground, which are blurred.

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Shot for the Day (31 July 2016)

| Zapfly

Tower Bridge

This weekend, after gaining inspiration from a couple of YouTube tutorials, I tried my hand at some extra long exposure shots in London.  The weather on Sunday was perfect, with a mixture of sun and cloud.

I walked around Tower Bridge and the London Assembly.  However, it was the view from London Bridge that caught my eye.  The image above is made up of 8 long exposure images stitched together.  Each image was a 90 second exposure.  The whole shot took around 15 minutes, including set up and transition time.

One thing to look out for is battery usage as extreme long exposure shots use up a lot of power, so I recommend carrying spares.

The shot below was my first shot of the day.  Being a film photographer at heart, I used my handheld lightmeter plus Lee Filter Big Stopper app, to deduce the exposure.

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