A London Photo Walk Part One | Sunrise

A few weeks ago, I posted on my Weekly Photo blog that I was in a bit of a creative slump. Although I was putting the same amount of effort in, the photos I was taking were often average and my keeper rate was really low. I needed to change things up a bit.

I’ve been enjoying photographing the landscapes and woodlands around Sussex and Surrey over the last year to 18 months but I was sorely missing my regular trips into London. So, with the city now opening up again and, in an attempt to shake free from this state where I lacked creative inspiration, I got up early and caught the first train into the city.

Like many landscape photographers, when I head out with the camera, I tend to take a full camera bag with me. It holds my wide, standard and telephoto zoom lenses, my batteries, filters, tripod, etc. Needless to say, it gets a little heavy and although I don’t normally mind lugging it around with me, I do on occasion like to shed the load, taking just a small camera and lens out with me and that’s exactly what I did for this photo walk.

Armed with my small Fujifilm X-T30 and 23mm f/2 prime lens, I left the train at London Bridge and headed over towards the river, stopping along the way to grab a shot of the view along the walkway, flanked by buildings that frame Tower Bridge at the end.

I spent some time taking pictures around More London Estate using the lines, shapes and even reflections on offer there. The light was just piercing through the thin clouds creating a soft, hazy light, which is right up my street. I personally struggle when the contrast in scenes is too strong and much prefer to photograph in softer light which, if you follow either my urban or natural landscape work, you’ll probably see it as a theme throughout.

Having taken a few photos close to Tower Bridge at More London, a wandered west along the river towards London Bridge which hosts one of my favourite views of this fine city. I can rarely pass this spot without hopping up onto the bridge to take a photo and this was no exception. With this beautiful defused golden light illuminating this iconic view, there was no way I was going to walk on by without taking the photo.

Paying close attention to the position of HMS Belfast in relation to Tower Bridge, I made sure to line it up centrally between the towers to avoid any overlapping, keeping that area clean, ensuring the recognisable silhouette stood out over there in the distance.

I also had a decision to make regarding the exposure. With the bright sun just off to the left of this scene below, I chose to expose for the highlights, allowing them to clip just a little in the brightest area close to the sun rendering the overall photo a little underexposed which I knew could be sorted out later in post. With the sun being the brightest thing you’ll ever see, allowing it to clip (render white in the photo) is ok in my book as long as it looks natural.

With this shot in the bag, I went on my way, continuing along the river towards Tate Modern and the Millennium Bridge.

I spent some time taking some pictures of the various views to be had from Bankside, just in front of the famous Tate Modern Museum. With the sun rising quickly, I was conscious that the light may soon become too harsh so I upped my pace a little, crossing the Millennium Bridge towards St Paul’s Cathedral as I continued to find and photograph the various compositions, some classic, others unique (to me) as I went.

After crossing the bridge, reaching the north bank of the river, I took advantage of the low tide and went down to the riverside where I took some more photos looking east towards The Shard and all of that gorgeous light.

Finishing up for the morning and part one of this London photo walk, I ended up on Queen Victoria Street which is just along the road from St Paul’s Cathedral. This spot provides a great view of the city near Bank station with 22 Bishopsgate towering in the background.

Along with the photos I took during a sunset walk along the Thames, in part two of this blog, I’ll be sharing how I set up my camera for shoots like this so I can focus on taking pictures rather than camera settings.

Stay tuned!

Trevor.