London Layers | Weekly Photo #33
Over the years, I have taken quite a few photos of this view of the city. I think I’m drawn to it because of the way the scene encompasses a few of London’s great architectural icons, some of which, built centuries apart from each other. I like to capture the essence of London in my cityscapes and with St Paul’s Cathedral and the red London buses crossing the bridge, it leaves the viewer with little doubt as to where the photo was taken.
Fujifilm X-T30 | XF55-200mm | 74mm | 1/300 Second | f/5 | ISO160
Enjoying a cheeky early morning photography session in London before work, I started over on Westminster Bridge while it was still dark where I managed to capture a few shots of the London Eye which was all lit up in a collection of bright, vibrant colours and with a few photos in the bag (which may be featured in a later post) I ventured over to this spot on the Golden Jubilee/Hungerford Bridge to capture this view of the city.
To capture this entire scene and at the same time ensure the main subjects remain prominent, it needs to be captured with a telephoto lens. I don’t mean a huge, expensive 600mm beast of a lens, but one with just enough reach to add the compression needed and pull that background closer to the camera. If taken with a wide lens, the entire scene would be pushed back, rendering the subjects less significant allowing them to get lost in the cityscape. This I wanted to avoid.
With my Fujifilm 55-200mm lens attached to the camera and at a focal length of 74mm, I managed to capture this image just as the sun hit the side of the recently finished 22 Bishopsgate over in the city. Apart from those cool rays of light reflecting off the building, why this photo works for me is that by using the telephoto lens, I was able to create a layered composition of the city. Working backwards from Waterloo Bridge in the foreground (given more prominence by the red buses), the dome of St Paul’s in the mid-ground and the tall skyscrapers in the city making up the background. These layers create a sense of depth and separation which I feel works well in photos of the city with a rather straight-on composition looking down the river like this as it gives the eye somewhere to explore and with any luck, keeping the viewer engaged.
Speak to you 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.