A short photographic journey Damien Jackson
On 9ᵗ� November 2018, four photography buddies, Owen O’Donaghue, Aldo Selvi, Tommy Quilty and myself headed to London for a short photography trip over the weekend. We had planned some iconic places to shoot along the Thames Riverbank and stayed at the ‘luxury’ Ibis hotel in Knightsbridge which turned out to be an ideally centralised location for our planned shoots. We were blessed with fine weather for at least 80% of the weekend and the images on following pages are some of my favourites I captured over that weekend!
Handsome Photographers! :-)
St Paul’s Cathedral and the Millennium Bridge was one of my first targets! Friday evening cleared up after some rain and clouds and produced a little colour. The next challenge was the number of people on that pedestrian bridge on a Friday evening. The solution was along exposure of 2 minutes to help ‘eliminate’ the moving throng of bodies. It generally worked but the crowds were so large the ghostly shadows can still be seen in the very centre of the bridge.
Long exposure of the Cathedral and Millennium Bridge from the riverbank.
The Cathedral taken from the viewing platform on top of the Tate Museum of Modern Art
Mid-morning Saturday lead us to Leadenhall Market. Both shots take around 10am with the place almost deserted. Leadenhall market is a covered market, one of the oldest markets in London dating back to the 14ᵗ� century and is located adjacent to the financial district
The Shard
Sunrise Saturday morning provided plenty of colour and solitude. The Area around the millennium Bridge and St Paul’s was almost deserted apart from a few early morning joggers. This shot of the Shard is taken from Millennium Bridge looking towards the sunrise with London Bridge in the foreground and Tower Bridge in the distance. The Shard is a 95 floor Skyscraper standing at 309.7 metres and is the tallest building in the UK. This is one of my favourite images from the trip!
The Shard
Long exposure from across the Thames The Shard
Long exposure from across the Thames
Long exposure from the viewing tower of the Tate Museum of Modern Art
The Financial District
I’m not a particular fan of architectural photography but the buildings in this area are amazing and well worth an hour or two just wandering and trying to figure out the best angle for a shot!
Financial District at night taken from the viewing tower of the Tate Museum of Modern Art
Canary Wharf
The office blocks and general area around Canary Wharf
Thames Barrier
Built in 1984 to prevent flooding during exceptionally high tides and storms to Greater London
Tower Bridge
Hardly needs a title! This one is deserved! We rose at 5.45am, taxi pre-booked for 6.15am. It was pouring rain, pitch dark and generally miserable. We debated whether to call it a day and go back to bed. Half an hour later we were wandering around in the rain and dark trying to find a composition down river from here to shoot back and have the Shard in the background. All access to the riverbank was privately owned and we couldn’t get an angle on it. Fifteen minutes later the rain stopped and the colour came into the sky as we ran back up river to get the colour in the sky behind the bridge!
London City Hall and Tower Bridge City Hall, located in Southwark on the south bank of the River Thames, opened in July 2002. Tower Bridge is a little older!
Hays Galleria, Southwark, London
A huge area with numerous cafÊs, shops and stalls under a vaulted roof open at the ends. Built in the 1850’s as a shipping wharf.
Office blocks, cafĂŠs, restaurants next to City Hall, Southwark, London
The Tower of London Original built as White Tower in 1078 and then added to in later centuries finally taking in the Wharf extension in 1278. Consists of 12 acres and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
London Underground Also known as ‘The Tube’ our method of transport for the weekend and an excellent one it was too!
This is taken at Canary Wharf station.