Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Friday, 2 May 2025
The One With People Coming Out Of A Shadow Under A Bridge
Another street photography favourite, although the pros might have taken it more squarely. I like the way all the lines don't quite line up. And the red bit.
Labels:
London,
photographs
Tuesday, 8 April 2025
Greenland Dock
The station for Greenland Dock is Surrey Quays, but they don't signpost it at the station in case, you know, the wrong kind of people go there. It was one of the first Docklands developments, as the low-rise and human scale (as the architects say) of the buildings shows. It was the first of the London docks to be built (as opposed to riverside wharves) (more details here) and it's pretty darn large. The Royals are larger, but some of the Isle of Dogs docks are smaller. On a sunny day, it's a pleasant place to walk around, with houseboats...
and little feature places as well.
When you get to the Thames, turn right and start walking along the Thames Path towards London Bridge. It's a nice stroll.
Labels:
London,
photographs
Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Charlton House
Most of it is open to the public, but sadly there's no historic furniture, art or decoration there. It's a ten-minute walk up the hill from Charlton station, and worth an amble around the park, a cup of coffee and slice of Victoria cake in the cafe.
Labels:
London,
photographs
Friday, 14 March 2025
Negative Space, London Bridge Station
All the Kool Photographers talk about using "negative space", but I always thought it meant they exposed those part of the picture incorrectly. But this one seems to work.
Tuesday, 11 March 2025
Bleak Mid-Winter Suburbia
It's not enough to get out for a daily walk. The walk needs to be pleasant, or at least neutral, to look at. Hedges on country lanes, with an occasional glimpse across a valley, or perhaps a path across a flat moor, or maybe even along a canal. Not round the outside of an industrial estate. But we make do and carry on.
Labels:
London,
photographs
Friday, 7 March 2025
Friday, 29 November 2024
Highgate Road with Lens Flare
When the light is bright and the air is clear, almost anything is photogenic.
Well, maybe not the entrance to Archway station. Some things can't be made to look pretty.
I took this in the approved style, by holding the camera at arm's length with one hand, framing in the viewer. Came out nice.
Labels:
London,
photographs
Tuesday, 26 November 2024
Hampstead Heath North Side
Until the other day I had never walked on the part of Hampstead Heath that is across Spaniards Lane from the main part of the Heath. Neither are really '"heaths", more like "untended forests" with paths that can turn I've-just-got-a-load-of-mud-on-my-shoes within a couple of steps. The sky was brilliant blue, the sun was brilliant yellow, and it was b****y cold.
I have joined the band of proper grown-up camera-owners, by trading in the 35mm lens I originally bought for the hard-to-obtain 27mm pancake lens that makes the X-E4 almost a pocket camera. It's 40mm-equivalent, which gives just a slightly wider field of view than the 35mm (53mm equivalent) but does not go all fish-eye.
Labels:
London,
photographs
Friday, 22 November 2024
Cuba Street, Isle of Dogs
Cuba Street is a narrow road that runs from the old West India Pier into the Isle of Dogs. This is that view.
It did not look like that when I was using the RiverBus to get there more than thirty years ago. It was all pretty derelict. The cream building on the corner was there then, but it was an old-school pub and I think scruffier. Go to the river end of Cuba Street, and look up what is known in the trade as the Limehouse Reach, and that view has not changed for almost forty years. Which is probably why I find it so restful(!).
Labels:
London,
photographs
Tuesday, 19 November 2024
Friday, 15 November 2024
Canary Wharf - Security
I think the area within the North and South Colonnades, which has the the Underground station in the middle, is patrolled by security officers and may well be owned by the Canary Wharf people, and therefore private land. I was approached by a friendly security officer, who explained that their concern was people taking photographs of entrances to buildings, security camera locations and the like. We parted with a handshake and I carried on.
He meant an entrance like this...
Outside that are I didn't see any security at all. I suspect the use of a tripod within that area requires permission from the Estate management.
He meant an entrance like this...
Outside that are I didn't see any security at all. I suspect the use of a tripod within that area requires permission from the Estate management.
Labels:
London,
photographs
Tuesday, 12 November 2024
Canary Wharf Towers
I went to Canary Wharf the other week. The first developer in there was a Canadian firm called Olympia and York. In Canada, it's so darn cold and the snow is so darn deep that the shopping centres of many larger towns are actually built underground. Not all of them, but certainly Toronto, where O&Y came from. The O&Y buildings have their shops below ground, and may other developers have followed this lead of doing nothing at street level.
Another way of saying this is that there is no "street" at street level in Canary Wharf. "Street" should mean shops, cafes, restaurants, cars, taxis, buses, signs, lights, fly-posted adverts, and so on. At ground level. Flats, offices and light industrial ateliers from the first floor up. There are a few coffee and food trucks and some buses, but that's about it.
The City of London is an industrial estate, but it has a variety of architectural styles and various eateries and drinkeries at street level - while Cheapside and Princes Street / Moorgate have actual recognisable retail outlets. But Canary Wharf is just a collection of high towers with some "architectural" gimmicks that only ever looked decorative in the architect's sketches. Metal-and-glass is metal-and-glass no matter how you angle it - it does not have the texture of stone or brick.
Labels:
London,
photographs
Friday, 1 November 2024
Tuesday, 29 October 2024
Friday, 25 October 2024
Tuesday, 22 October 2024
The One With Reflections In The Window
Labels:
London,
photographs
Tuesday, 15 October 2024
Monday, 9 September 2024
Portland Hardware
Yet another one of my dead-pan photographs. What's notable about this is the amount of detail inside the store by tweaking various shadow / brightness / contrast variables. The original does not look that clear.
Labels:
London,
photographs
Tuesday, 3 September 2024
Friday, 30 August 2024
The Steps With A Turn Picture (Maryon Park)

Time to play catch-up again. I came down with a god-awful cold at the end of August, and have been recovering ever since.
Labels:
London,
photographs
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