It's a little tour of London that I invite you to take in this article. It was during the summer of 2017 that my wife and I took a trip to the south of England. Easily accessible by Eurostar, boat or plane, you'll be in England or London in no time. For those who love Anglo-Saxon countries, England is full of charm!
Before you leave
As a photographer, I'd obviously organised our schedule to a certain extent, so that we'd be in the right places at the right times! (I'll be doing an article on the subject soon). My aim was to do the eastern half of the Channel coast (for my project) where there's a lot to see, London and Stonehenge. To do this, we decided to leave by car and cross the Channel by boat. The idea was to be able to go everywhere and move around easily in the plains and hedged farmland, without the time constraints of transport. We rented a house in Marden in Kent, near Maidstone, not far from London.
London
We had a date with London on a Sunday. My aim was to take photos of Tower Bridge at sunset during the golden hour, as well as with the moon on another spot on London Bridge. And even more, with a few photos of Westminster Palace at night, to use the Westminster Bridge lighting with a night sky. The timing was pretty tight, I'd planned for a 2.5 hour window!
As an exception to the rule, we went to London by train, as we already knew how difficult it was to get around and didn't want to waste time in traffic jams! Arriving at Charing Cross Station was perfect, right in the centre and right in the middle of my objectives.
The only snag, and a rather huge one, was the World Athletics Championships! 😳 Oops I'd missed the news in my calculation! A good lesson because it meant 11 to 12km of walking that wasn't planned by dint of detours, roadblocks etc.... And our feet were on fire the next day 😭, but when you've got a goal you don't give up ✌️!
Capturing London
The timing, the position of the sun and the moon were all calculated, and the shooting spots were also located on the map and GPS, so as to maximise the chances of coming back with some great photos! As you can see below, here's the photo taken at 8.30pm, 8.45pm for the Tower Brige, from the Marina des Docks in St Katharine.
Once the capture was complete, we set off again fairly quickly to be on time for the next rendezvous point, this time for the lunar version. Always on foot, of course. As photographers, you don't want to miss an opportunity like this shot from the City.
Afterwards, we walked along the banks of the Thames, where the atmosphere was really great, right alongside all the modern architecture!
Afterwards, we walked along the banks of the Thames, where the atmosphere was really great, right alongside all the modern architecture!
9.20pm 9.30pm on London Bridge, completely opposite to the first spot, to get the moon on blue hour next to Tower Bridge! (thanks to Photopillsthe application with which I was able to calculate all this perfectly)
Finally we arrived just in time! We took a few moments to frame it and it was in the box!
Now it was off to Westminster Bridge, where I'd planned to take a night shot of the British Parliament! It was back to walking for another hour or so. But it was on the way back! Luckily, I didn't want to miss the last train! I only had a few minutes for this last shot, which you can see in the image on the front page of this article (above) or in the photo on the right. in my dedicated gallery. With the image recorded, all we had to do was get back to Charing Cross Station to catch the train on time!
The return
Phew, here we are! Sitting down at last, tired as we are, it took all of 5 minutes! It's been a hell of a day of walking and catching people as they make their way through the crowds of supporters, the barriers everywhere, the television installations and the athletes on the run! It's going to be a memorable day in every sense of the word! 🤪
Just one more hour on the train, before we're back at our rented accommodation in the Kent countryside!
As part of our discovery of the South East of England, the second major stopover was the Channel coast. I'll see you in the next article: the white cliffs of England. In the meantime, I invite you to visit the gallery on England.
We look forward to seeing you soon,
David
