Museum Ship | Weekly Photo #114
I’ve mentioned before that when I take photos of subjects that look like they have a story to tell, I almost always do a little research to learn more about their history. I say “almost always” as I’ve photographed HMS Belfast numerous times and shared one or two photos of her on this blog but this is the first time I’ve gone to the effort of actually reading up on this Town-class light cruiser’s epic journey, from her launch in 1938, her life in the Royal Navy to eventually docking here, along the Thames in 1971 and seeing out her retirement as a floating war museum.
You may notice I refer to HMS Belfast as “she” or “her”, here’s why: https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/why-do-ships-have-a-gender
HMS Belfast: A very brief history.
After her launch, HMS Belfast was almost immediately thrust into action after the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1939, she was struck by a German mine and was seriously considered being scrapped, however, there was a change of heart and she sat out of the war for 2+ years while receiving extensive repair and upgrades to firepower, radar and armour and off she went again in 1942 to play her part. Involved in operations to escort convoys to the Soviet Union and playing an important role in the Battle of North Cape, arguably her most notable involvement was in the 1944 Operation Overlord where she supported the famous Normandy Landings.
After seeing out the Second World War in the Pacific and later involved in the Korean War in the early ’50s, HMS Belfast was put in reserve in 1963. The warship’s final battle was for her own survival as in 1968 the government decided to scrap the ageing warship. Thankfully, after much negotiation, in 1971 the ship was eventually handed over to the HMS Belfast Trust and moved to this spot along the River Thames and opened up to the public. HMS Belfast became a branch of the Imperial War Museum in 1978 and to this date remains one of the more popular tourist attractions in London.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Belfast
Fujifilm X-T30 | XF18-55mm | 20mm | 3.7 Seconds | f/11 | ISO160
It was a fantastic morning for photography in London. From the moment I got off the train and walked over to More London, I knew there was potential for some nice sunrise cityscapes of London. I spent some time over there photographing Tower Bridge using one of the sculptures that belonged to the “Full Stop” art installation as a foreground. You can see the final result of that photo and more about the art installation here: London “Full Stop”.
Finished at More London, I walked west along the Thames to this spot, which provides a great view of 3 London icons, Tower Bridge, The Tower of London, and HMS Belfast. At this point, the sun had risen and although there was still plenty of cloud about, some sunlight was shining through and lighting up the side of the ship, helping it to stand out amongst the shadows in the foreground and be the main point of interest in the composition.
I was travelling light that morning, with only my Fujifilm X-T30 camera, 18-55mm standard zoom lens and screw-in 10-stop ND filter and my small Manfrotto Pixi tabletop tripod (see all of my camera gear here). I used the 10-stop filter to smooth the water a little and the small tripod rested on the ground to keep the camera steady.
Shooting fully manual as I usually do in these situations, I dialled in the aperture and shutter speed, keeping the exposure as bright as possible to bring out the details in those dark shadows but at the same time being careful not to blow out the highlights (also called exposing to the right or ETTR), I went ahead and took the shot.
Sunrise is by far and away my favourite time to be in London with my camera but during the summer, it gets light long before my train arrives in the city so it will be a few months before I get to experience it once again and I can’t wait!
Until next week.
Trevor
This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.