A few hours walkabouts in London

A few hours walkabouts in London

I had the a few spare hours in East London, so i took the opportunity to plan a walk / shoot from the Moorgate area through to Tottenham Court Road, where I could pick up the new Elizabeth Line back to Paddington Station. It was a clear and sunny morning which clouded over as the day progressed. I started photographing around the Lloyds building, whihc is great on days with goos sunshine, blie skies and fluffy white clouds. Leadenhall market is nearby and an obvious stop for a ceiling shot or two.

I then headed off to St Dunstan’s in the East, whic is a beautiful amd tranquil gothic ruins of an old church. I was hoping to find some autumn colours, but unfortunatly the season is runing very late this year and everything was still very green. It was busy with poeple eating their lunch, I got a few nice shots but no tthe images I was hoping for. Then it was a brisk walk to Monument, which is a really interesting and challenging location to photograph. It’s a combination of stark angles and large HGV vans parked that make composition difficult. The sky was beginning to cloud over, so I knew that the remainder of my hour would be best served by heading indoors. Next stop was St Pauls Cathedral, I took my familar image from the shopping centre. At some point, i’d like to venture into St Pauls and take some photos from inside this magnificent building. However, that means queues and I didn’t have time for that on this particular day. Had the weather been better, i wold have gone across the millenium bridge, moved around the Tate modern and then onto the OXO building for photographs of the bridges and St Pauls from a distance. However, the light was becoming too flat to make that worth while.
So I pickeed up my walking pace and headed to fleet street, which is a great centre of interior photographic opportunities.
St Dunstan’s in the West (it’s nice to have covered both in the same day) has one of the best ceilings in London. Then a shot of the entrance to the Temple Church path, called Price Henry’s Room. A few photos of Pump Court are always a treat, but the real reason I’m here…Temple Church. It has one of the best interiors in london and I one of my favourite interiors. it used to be very hit or miss coming here because it was often closed and only accesible at random times. however, not so anymore, they charge £5 entrance…which means that it’s far more popular with curious visitors and with paid staff on the door. I was only here for a short time…i needed to shoot and go…I didn’t have long left on my hour to the amusement of the receptionist who noticed that I had only dwelt for 5 mins for my £5! Lat stop was a walk to Lincoln’s Inn Chaple Crypt. it’s another favorite location to visit for photographs and it offered me a number of great shots…although it was quite bright and the contrast range awas a challenge.

So that was my hour’s photograph dash across London. If I had longer, I could have visited the British Museum. Had the autumnal colours been present, I could have taken some nice arrangments of leaves from the various parks. I could easily have included the London Eye, National gallery (I’m particularly fond of the Canaletto paintings) and Trefalgar Square, Admiralty arch. Maybe even added a sunset across Westminster. But I was out of time and the weather was’t so favourable.

Gearwise, I used a single camera bodie, I took a selection of easily portable lenses including a 11-24/F4, 24-70/f2.8, 100-400. Because time was short and I had a very specific window of opportunity, I didn’t use a tripod and these photos were all hand held.

Leave a Reply

Close Menu