The Long and Short of it

A short post of long exposures. Over the last few months I have gradually been upgrading my Cokin filters to Lee filters, including getting a Big Stopper (10 Stop ND Filter) instead of the B & W Circular 10 Stop ND filter I have had for a while. The B & W filter is great, but I got frustrated with it when I also needed to use a grad; the Lee square filters are much better for this. Anyway I had been itching to try the new set-up and popped into London one weekend. I didn't make it into the city until mid afternoon, but headed straight for Tower 42 where my office is.

My normal Bleeding London Camera is a Fuji X100S, which I love, but for these long shots I was using my trusty Nikon D7100 with a Sigma 10-20mm lens for the long exposure images. The two Tower 42 shots below were taken with the Lee Big Stopper (10 Stop ND ) and a 2 or 3 stop Hitech ND filter. The exposure times were about four and five minutes.

The next shot is of the Willis Building taken on the corner of Lime Street and Fenchurch Avenue. This shot made use of the Big Stopper and a 2 or 3 Stop graduated ND filter to try and balance out the sky on the right.

I then headed towards the area near the Tower of London to photograph a couple of streets that I had been down several times but found them really dull and had struggled for inspiration. This time I did at least think of something to photograph, though not very interesting, and I left thinking I had go the shots in the bag. Unfortunately I had left the camera in manual focus and so the shots were out of focus. By the time I realised I couldnt be bothered to go back, but at least I had finally managed to think of something to shoot.

I did realise my mistake in time to get on more shot before heading home. Lower Thames Street turns into Byward Street right on the edge of the city, a fact that I had  not realised several weeks ago when I photographed Lower Thames Street, but now had to go back to finish things off. As I mentioned, Byward Street is right on the boundary of the City and the shot below is actually one of the city boundary markers.

After that I headed to Tower Hill tube station and made my way home.

The times they are a changing

Most of the shots around this post are taken around Fenchurch Street, though not Fenchurch Street itself as I have already shot that street.

Starting with Star Alley, the two shots below were taken outside a small traditional cafe, where you get served bacon butties and tea in random mugs, such as the Micky Mouse one in the picture below. I chatted to the guy in the first picture for a few a few minutes and he told me that the Cafe where he goes for his usual morning cuppa was closing down soon. The owner came out and spoke to me for a few minutes as well; he told me how rents were being put high so as to push them out, and probably build a new office block, no doubt with a Starbucks or Costa Coffee. Its a little sad; there is so much character in the city, but it is slowly being knocked down and replaced with shiny new buildings that they have to put a sun shade over to stop them reflecting the sun down on to the streets and melting cars.

Star Alley is just off Mark Lane, seen below in fairly poor image.

The following shot is from Dunsters Court, a private courtyard and home to the Clothworkers company.

The other side of Mark Lane is London Street, where the main entrance to Fenchurch Street Station is located. Just off he is a small Alley called New London Street.

Over to the other side of Fenchurch Street now and to Fenchurch Avenue; the building on the left is the Willis building.

Connecting her to Fenchurch Street is Billiter Square, a quite unattractive square which leads to a little alley leading to Hogarth Court.

The final shot of this post is about 5 minutes walk away on Batholomew Lane. Shown is the side of the Bank of England and the entrance to the Bank of England Museum, with perhaps the largest doors in the city.