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 idea of my own project

I decided that it might be a good idea, to start my own Bleeding London related project - to photograph every single street in the Square Mile. This seemed like a fun but daunting project. Not only does the city cover a fair distance, but there are a lot of streets and many many tiny little alleys all of which would have to be photographed, and photographed reasonably well - If I was going to do this project, then I would try to get some good images, and not just dash from street to street taking record shots.

As you can see from the image below, the Square Mile is not square in shape. Its also actually a bit bigger than a square mile at 1.12 square miles.

Even at this scale, it can be seen that there are a lot of streets to photograph. No roads though! Not a single road exists in the City, though technically there is half a road. For a bit more info, see this post at the Londonist.

I take my little fuji X100s with me to work every day and usually get in a little early, so should have opportunities for getting a few shots before I start work. The next two shots were from the first of such occasions and taken from a pedestrian bridge across Wormwood Street. The first shows the reflection of Tower 42 in another building, whilst the second, shows just a little of Wormwood Street - on the other side of the crossroads it turns into London Wall.

I also took another picture of Tower 42 (where I work).

Later on I managed a couple of other shots of small side roads/alleys. Austin Friars was an Augustinian friary from the 13th Century to the 16th Century. The site of the friary is enclosed by the streets Austin Friars and Old Broad Street. The only Friary building remaining is the Dutch Church, though this was rebuilt after being bombed in the second world war.

Also just off Old Broad Street is Adams Court, which connects to Threadneedle Street.

And another shot taken outside Tower 42. I have a few here, but I was rather taken by the shadows across the pavement.

On Friday I took my bigger camera, a Nikon D7100, and tripod into work, to take a few pictures after work. I wanted to get a few long exposure shots of London Bridge and the Shard, but the weather wasn't ideal for this as their was no wind, so the clouds were fairly static.I am pretty happy with this shot though.

The next shot was taken on the bridge itself. The sun was getting low and casting long shadows of the commuters crossing over to London Bridge station.

I then ventured south of the river and out of the square mile! At this point I was still thinking of just contributing to the Bleeding London project; I think I had the idea of photographing every street in the square mile on the way home that evening. More London Place near City Hall has some very striking buildings and I have taken a few nice shots here before, but looking up provides a different view altogether.

At the other end of More London Place I saw this great reflection in the front of an office building. I love the South Bank area, but now that I am photographing the entire square mile, I don't think I will be venturing there again for a while.

First Shots

I worked in the City before, on St. Mary Axe, right opposite where the Gherkin is now. For several years until March,I had a nice easy 30 minute drive against the traffic. But now I find myself commuting into London again, and paying an extortionate amount of money to stand up in a train every day. I have been keen on street photography for a while, but not very confident doing it. Just before starting my new job I treated myself to a Fuji X100s ( a lovely camera) with the aim of doing more street photography and getting more confident at it. I might even have the confidence one day to ask people if I can take their picture.

My first walkabout shots at lunchtime were taken before I knew about the "Bleeding London" Project but, the project is open to any picture taken after March the 7th, so they count.

My first shot was taken outside my office, Tower 42, on Old Broad Street. The building was previously known as the NatWest tower and was the headquarters of the National Westminster bank. Its quite an iconic building in London, and was its tallest building prior to One Canada Square in Canary Wharf.

The following shot is also taken by Tower 42, from one of the little walkways that goes about street level.

The following picture is taken on Lime Street, outside the Willis building (with Lloyds of London out of picture to the right). I don't anything about this "art" installation but will endeavour to find out.

Round the corner is Leadenhall Street, with the "Cheesegrater" building as it is fondly known. I remember being perplexed by the demolition of the previous building on this site - it was demolished from the bottom up (more information on wikipedia if you are interested).