Lost in London

Messages
1,300
Name
Jonny
Edit My Images
No
So I think this is probably my first post in this section (or at least my first in a long, long time)... I shoot motorsport pretty much exclusively so no real idea what im doing when it comes to street. Took a couple of trips to London, Interested to hear what you think of my efforts and whether or not I should just stick to shooting cars where I belong :D

30 St Mary Axe
30 St Mary Axe by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

Ghosts of London
Ghosts of London by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge - An Alternate Perspective by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

The View from the Bottom
London from the Ground by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr


London's Spine
London's Spine by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr


The View from the Top
London from the Shard by Jonny Henchman, on Flickr

Thanks for looking, appreciate any feedback you can offer :)






 
Last edited:
The stand-out image for me is the one taken from the Shard. The headlamp trails and street lights create a really nice effect. And I like the ghost figured on the pedestrian bridge shot - it's just a pity they're not slightly better defined. Keep at it!
 
First and last for me, with a special mention for the unusual take on Tower Bridge and the way you waited to get the boat wake in. The others are fine as well, but I'm just not a big fan of "ghostly figures" I guess.
 
1 and 3 for me - very nice and quite different from the norm. The shard view is a bit too blue for my tastes but I guess that contrasts with the streetlights well.

Too much sky in #4 for me, and while #5 made me look twice to work out what the object in the centre was there is too much dead space in that shot. I think you are onto something with the alignment of the lights and that would be worth doing again to see if the composition could improve with different focal lengths, crops or definition of the ghost people.
 



Brilliant objects opposition in most takes
and tasteful renditions too.
 
Like the first one with the reflection of the Gherkin, not so keen on the others though

Must say having been up the Shard you did very well to get such a decent photo without obvious reflections
 
I like this set a lot. I spend a lot of time photographing in London and I would be pretty happy with these.
The first reflection shot is great and definitely a new take on the Gherkin. The downward shot from Tower Bridge is good too.
I presume it was just tripod and a 10 stop ND for the long exposures?
 
Excellent set :)
 
very impressive set indeed !

I like them all but 1st and last are the real highlights :)
 
The image from the shard, my advice....... print it....... print it BIG :)
 
I like them all except The view from the bottom, which just seems a bit ordinary compared to many of the other wide-angle-upward city pics on here.

With London's Spine the light bulbs change density from above the light to below, and that interferes with how I see the image. Like the line and the 'spike' of the lamp shape.

Happy with Ghosts and the feint shapes + negative space, since everything is pointing toward the focal point of the scene.
 
great set of shots, love tower bridge a unusual angle which to me works
 
The stand-out image for me is the one taken from the Shard. The headlamp trails and street lights create a really nice effect. And I like the ghost figured on the pedestrian bridge shot - it's just a pity they're not slightly better defined. Keep at it!

+1

Lovely shot, with super colours...

Mj
 
The stand-out image for me is the one taken from the Shard. The headlamp trails and street lights create a really nice effect. And I like the ghost figured on the pedestrian bridge shot - it's just a pity they're not slightly better defined. Keep at it!

Thanks very much for the feedback, it was only my second time out using an ND filter so wasnt really sure what the results would be... I'd need to experiment a lot more but as I say its not somthing I usually have a chance to do.

First and last for me, with a special mention for the unusual take on Tower Bridge and the way you waited to get the boat wake in. The others are fine as well, but I'm just not a big fan of "ghostly figures" I guess.

Cheers.. I guess its all be done to death :D but new to me

I like this series. I think the reflection is a clever touch. Technically it's not quite level or perpendicular but it's not far off.

The last is most pleasing

Haha I did my best and tried to do some straightening in post, still I'll chalk that up to experience :) thanks for the feedback

1 and 3 for me - very nice and quite different from the norm. The shard view is a bit too blue for my tastes but I guess that contrasts with the streetlights well.

Too much sky in #4 for me, and while #5 made me look twice to work out what the object in the centre was there is too much dead space in that shot. I think you are onto something with the alignment of the lights and that would be worth doing again to see if the composition could improve with different focal lengths, crops or definition of the ghost people.

Thanks for the feedback, agreed, I think with a better sky it would have worked a little better

Brilliant objects opposition in most takes
and tasteful renditions too.

Thanks Kodiak

Like the first one with the reflection of the Gherkin, not so keen on the others though

Must say having been up the Shard you did very well to get such a decent photo without obvious reflections

Oh well can't win them all :) just a bit of sensible positioning to avoid the reflections, it wasn't too difficult - I was expecting much worse after what I've read in here

I like this set a lot. I spend a lot of time photographing in London and I would be pretty happy with these.
The first reflection shot is great and definitely a new take on the Gherkin. The downward shot from Tower Bridge is good too.
I presume it was just tripod and a 10 stop ND for the long exposures?

Thanks very much, yeah just a tripod and the ND... I do need to get a shutter release and learn how to use bulb mode though - 30s wasn't really long enough for some of these I feel

Excellent set :)

Cheers, much appreciated :)

very impressive set indeed !

I like them all but 1st and last are the real highlights :)

Great, glad you like them, not bad for a noob :D

The image from the shard, my advice....... print it....... print it BIG :)

Haha thanks :D

I like them all except The view from the bottom, which just seems a bit ordinary compared to many of the other wide-angle-upward city pics on here.

With London's Spine the light bulbs change density from above the light to below, and that interferes with how I see the image. Like the line and the 'spike' of the lamp shape.

Happy with Ghosts and the feint shapes + negative space, since everything is pointing toward the focal point of the scene.

Yeah I think on reflection I actually needed to lie on the ground to get more of the buildings in shot, 17mm wasnt quite wide enough for this but I still kinda like it :) in regards to the lights on the spine.. yea thats probably a bit of heavy handed processing on my part... its all new to me :D Thanks for taking the time to comment

great set of shots, love tower bridge a unusual angle which to me works

Thanks very much :)

+1

Lovely shot, with super colours...

Mj

Thanks mate, much appreciate


Thanks again for all the feedback, I wasn't expecting such a (generally) positive response given my complete lack of experience in this area. I appreciate I have much to learn about this architectural/street photography thingamebob :D. Thanks for your time
 
A set to be proud of.
I particularly like the Gherkin reflection. The colours are 'moody' and I don't think that the lights detract too much from the image.
These should be printed and not left to linger on a hard drive somewhere.....
 
A set to be proud of.
I particularly like the Gherkin reflection. The colours are 'moody' and I don't think that the lights detract too much from the image.
These should be printed and not left to linger on a hard drive somewhere.....

Agreed - the Gherkin one just gets better every time I look at it!
 
A set to be proud of.
I particularly like the Gherkin reflection. The colours are 'moody' and I don't think that the lights detract too much from the image.
These should be printed and not left to linger on a hard drive somewhere.....

Thanks very much :) I might look into printing a couple

Agreed - the Gherkin one just gets better every time I look at it!

Haha thank you

All of these are awesome, particularly like the scene looking down from the bridge you'd never get me up there!!

Any one of them would look great framed in some smart London apartment!!

Matt

Thanks so much :) lol shame I live in a grubby flat in Northampton
 
Very nice set
The first & last also the tower bridge looking down are very good IMO.
 
Fairly standard fare, nothing really says look at me, it's not bad though. I feel like I have seen these shots a dozen times before.
 
Fairly standard fare, nothing really says look at me, it's not bad though. I feel like I have seen these shots a dozen times before.

Thanks for taking the time to comment. What would you suggest I do differently next time? I mean it's fair enough to say these are boring, but critique usually involves some kind of route to improvement.
 
Thanks for taking the time to comment. What would you suggest I do differently next time? I mean it's fair enough to say these are boring, but critique usually involves some kind of route to improvement.
Look for angles and POV that haven't been done to death. Break some rules. Be unique.
 
Look for angles and POV that haven't been done to death. Break some rules. Be unique.

That's fair enough, but as I mentioned I very rarely do this sort of photography... the only shots in this set that had outside influence were the one of St. Pauls and the one from the Shard, the rest were my own discoveries, of course most of them will have been done before... they are pictures of some of the most photographed landmarks in the world. I tend not to pour over other people's images prior to going out on an adhoc shoot like this as I'd rather discover the place for myself and try and capture what I saw and felt was interesting.

My understanding of critique is to help someone improve and understand why their pictures are unsuccessful and/or how to develop going forward. It's a bit lazy just to say they've been done before and ergo have less worth as you haven't considered the process behind them or looked at them for what they are. It's also a question of weighing that opinion and determining its worth, your comments remind me of one of my tutors at university, they had a habit of stating they didn't like something without any rationale and then made the students redo the work without any guidance on improvement... having since had the opportunity to judge their own personal work, I can safely disregard any advice I was given by them during that time.

I don't want to be that guy that reacts badly to negative comments and i'm not, constructive critical reviews are the best way to improve.

Thanks again for your opinions
 
Last edited:
I took some photos around Tower Bridge recently. Yours are better.

Must have cost you a bit, going up the Shard and the Tower of Tower Bridge? Having doing it what would you do differently next time. I think I need to have another go. (this means your photos have inspired me;). Can't be bad.
 
A great set but I really liked 3 (or probably found the most interesting from a creative point of view), all really well processed, great work

Thanks very much, really appreciate that :)

:agree: Number 3 for me too! I really like the unusual perspective and I think the composition is very interesting too

Cheers :) #3 was a bit opportunistic between all the folks lying down on the glass floor taking selfies :D

I took some photos around Tower Bridge recently. Yours are better.

Must have cost you a bit, going up the Shard and the Tower of Tower Bridge? Having doing it what would you do differently next time. I think I need to have another go. (this means your photos have inspired me;). Can't be bad.

Ahh I don't know about that, there was a lot of chaff I ditched... I went on two separate occasions about a month apart so the wallet sting was reduced along with a 2 for 1 split ticket :D ...Im sure there are folks much better qualified to give advice shooting from the Shard, but in my humble opinion I'd recommend taking a small sturdy bag or bean bag to use in place of a tripod, actual tripods are forbidden (even tiny mini ones like i tried to get away with)... sit down on the floor in the corner in the middle of a pane of glass, use a wide aperture, set the shutter timer and off you go... I used my coat a few times as a shroud to mask the reflections but didn't find I needed to with the lens right up against the glass, just used my body to block them (dark clothes then I guess), that's it nothing special really :)

Thanks again all for taking the time to comment
 
To be honest, I looked through these thinking "wow". There are some new and unusual compositions, pretty far from the standard fare. In fact I can see how the Motorsport photography has influenced these and it works very well indeed!

Number 1 and number 3 are the stand out ones for me.
 
To be honest, I looked through these thinking "wow". There are some new and unusual compositions, pretty far from the standard fare. In fact I can see how the Motorsport photography has influenced these and it works very well indeed!

Number 1 and number 3 are the stand out ones for me.

Thanks for such positive feedback :) interested to hear what Motorsport influence you can see lol I can't really identify anything in the way I shot myself [emoji1] p.s exceptional (like another level) macro work, stunning!
 
...interested to hear what Motorsport influence you can see lol I can't really identify anything in the way I shot myself [emoji1]

Well to be honest, fast moving cars are far more interesting when they are... well... moving! As such to be a successful Motorsport photographer you have to get a bit creative. Interesting composition, slow shutter speeds and clever use of reflections are "tricks" of the trade I often see when flicking through F1 magazine; and I saw the link with these images here.
.p.s exceptional (like another level) macro work, stunning!
Thankyou, glad you like them :)
 
Last edited:
It's a great set, lovely processing and everything is well seen. #3 is really really good. I love shots with movement in them, you've captured it well with the people and boats etc. #1 also stands out.

:clap:
 
Back
Top