London at night

buckas

buckas

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Drew
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Headed to London last week for the British Wildlife Photography Awards where I gained a Highly Commended award for one of my images again (http://drewbuckleyphotography.com/bwpa-2014-highly-commended/) - also thought it would be a great opportunity to build up my city shots portfolio! :)

#1 - Nine Forty Six
Big Ben and a nicely timed top deck of a London bus

Nine-Forty-Six-Big-Ben.png


#2 - The Shard
A very impressive building, especially standing at the base of it looking up – it really does reach for the sky! Looks even better at night where it shimmers in the light. Great design.
The-Shard.png


#3 - London Eye, County Hall & Shell Centre
Funny to think I modelled most of those building in 3D many years ago for a computer racing game. Very iconic scene from the London skyline shot from the Embankment.

The-London-Eye.png


#4 - Millennium Bridge – St.Pauls Cathedral
On the first evening wandering around with the camera in London I didn’t bother with lugging the tripod around so resorted the old fashioned way of putting the camera down somewhere (using my phone on it’s side to keep the lens up) and setting the self timer for longer exposures. Here though was a tricky location as the only place to put the camera from a decent enough viewpoint was on top of a railing just big enough to take the camera. Some would look at this as quite scary balancing an expensive camera & lens in such a precarious manner but hey, it’s all insured and…..it worked! Cropped for composition, I love the dynamic range of the 5D Mark 3 which helped me to drag so much detail out of the shadows and highlights out of one RAW image. The stunning starbursts courtesy of the fabulous 24-70 Mk2 lens stopped down

Millennium-Bridge-St.Pauls-Cathedral.png


#5 - Union Jack trails – Big Ben
Love playing around and being creative with the camera when possible and it doesn’t get much more fun than with long exposures! With the help of some London buses, cars, bikes and a helpful police van with it’s lights on here we’ve got the colours of the Union Jack flag together with Big Ben. Couldn’t get more British!

Union-Jack-trails-Big-Ben.png


All images shot with 5D Mark 3, Prints/Canvas available online - http://drewbuckleyphotography.com/london/

Cheers!
 
Thanks guys. Yeh think 4&5 are my faves too, got lucky with weather on our short visit

Cheers
Drew
 
I think 4 and 5 too.
Was over here a couple of weeks ago with no tripod but going back in October for more and will definitely be taking a tripod this time:)
 
All good but the first one is best for me as the others have been done many times before.
 
Done many times before maybe,but few as good as these! Great set-love them all.


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There are so many other locations in London that are worth photographing!! Why do people consistently flock to these locations? (using consistently the same compositions might I add.) If I see a single additional picture of some light trails in front of Big Ben I'm gonna have a breakdown :crying:
 
Anyway.... rant over.
 
Well for some people who don't live in London photographing these landmarks may be the first time they have tried nighttime photography and they go to the well known places to do so.

Just because you know of other locations and think them more suitable or interesting doesn't mean that it has to be done that way. Local knowledge is always an advantage.

It would be like me saying why does everyone that goes to Skomer photograph the puffins when there're far more interesting birds on the island to photograph.
 
Gaz J said:
Well for some people who don't live in London photographing these landmarks may be the first time they have tried nighttime photography and they go to the well known places to do so.

Just because you know of other locations and think them more suitable or interesting doesn't mean that it has to be done that way. Local knowledge is always an advantage.

It would be like me saying why does everyone that goes to Skomer photograph the puffins when there're far more interesting birds on the island to photograph.
Click to expand...

I do see your point, definitely. I guess my argument was about the general overusage of these subjects, not just by this photographer who's quite new to night photography. However, even in the areas shown on this thread, a little bit of exploration and venturing off the beaten track can lead you to some interesting, less photographed locations. For example, places like the Tate Modern and the Southbank Centre, which shouldn't take too much local know-how to find.
 
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