London Scenes

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April was a low profile month, blog-wise, but it’s been a little hectic in the real world, mostly involving travel.  However, a short trip to London and then to Oxford afforded some photo opportunities.

2016 April 02 copy

Approaching Storm, Westminister Bridge

Westminster Bridge was nearby and afforded an opportunity to capture some images in cloudy weather.

(Technical Data: Nikon D810 handheld with 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, extended to 32mm. 7 Exposures bracketed at ISO 400 and post- processed using the Photoshop HDR tool)

That evening, the twilight blue provided a nice counterpoint for the illuminated London Eye, a 443-foot-high Ferris wheel, erected in 1999.  The lines were long, our time was short, and so we opted for the ground-level view.  The building to the right is London County Hall which served as the city of London’s seat of government through most of the 20th century.  It now houses a variety of tourist attractions and an upscale hotel.

One of the problems in these evening shots was the fact that important elements of the scene were in motion (such as the Ferris wheel) which meant that a short exposure was necessary.

2016 April 06

London Eye at Night

(Technical Data: Nikon D810 on tripod with 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, extended to 24mm; Three exposures  1/15th sec. @ f/2.8, ISO 800; three images photomerged)

The Elizabeth Tower, better known as “Big Ben” was renamed in honor of Queen Elizabeth in 2012 to mark the occasion of her diamond jubilee.  Here the motion problem was the presence of numerous pedestrians walking by me.

2016 April 07

Elizabeth Tower (“Big Ben”) and Parliament Building

(Technical Data: Nikon D810 on tripod with 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, extended to 24mm; Eleven exposures  1/15th sec. @ f/6.3, ISO 800; eleven images photomerged)

 

2016 April 03A

Moon and Elizabeth Tower

Those who know me will not be surprised to see the moon included in a twilight shot.  Since the vantage point was in a traffic lane, I decided that setting up a tripod would be unwise.

(Technical Data: Nikon D810 handheld with 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, extended to 70mm; Exposure 1/8th sec. @ f/2.8, ISO 400; two images photomerged)

The Monument commemorating the Battle of Britain is relatively new, constructed in 2005.   It honors the heroic World War II air campaign during the summer and fall of 1940 that prevented the German Luftwaffe from gaining air superiority, making a land invasion impossible.   It was the first defeat for the Germans and marked a turning point in the war.  It is located on the Victoria Embankment a short walk from the Westminster Bridge.

2016 April 04

Battle of Britain Monument at Night

Again, the movement of the London Eye (red semi-circle in the background) required a fast shutter speed.

(Technical Data: Nikon D810 on tripod with 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, extended to 24mm. Exposure: 1/50th secs. @ f/2.8, ISO 3200)

 Getting up before dawn is far more difficult when your body clock believes it is 1:00 AM, but the plan for the next morning was driven by visions of a rising sun striking the Parliament building across the bridge from our hotel.  As the image below shows, however, Mother Nature had other plans that day.

2016 April 05

Early Morning Rain, Westminister Bridge

(Technical Data: Nikon D810 on tripod with 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, extended to 45mm. Exposure: 2 secs. @ f/16, ISO 200)

So, before my camera got too soaked, I headed back for breakfast and a taxi ride to the train station.

Keep Shooting…..

16 thoughts on “London Scenes”

  6. Fantastic shots Robin. ELEVIN images photomerged?? Did you do vertical and horizontal? I’ve not yet done vertical + horizontal, only horizontal. It came out great! I really love the large architecture shots. I need to do more! My favorite is the black and white and the last one. That last one with the glow on the wet pavement and the glow from the clock face is wonderful!

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    • Thanks, Laura. Sorry for the slow response to your comment but I’ve been traveling again. This time to NYC and a few of those images will be out tomorrow. But anyway, the 11 images were done with vertical orientation. I was quite close to the building and 24mm was my widest lens so there was still a need to do 2-3 rows. The reason that the image has a more vertical orientation is that there was a lot of scaffolding for renovation work on the Parliament building off to the left. So I left that out. I think the most I’ve merged in a single picture was about 20 of a DC memorial. In that case I wanted to eliminate all the tourists strolling through the scene so I took small sections in bite-sized chunks, so to speak.

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      Reply ↓

      • No worries Robin. Thanks for letting me know. I really need to try this out at home because I sure would love to do multiple rows! 20???? WOW! I think my computer would crash. lol

        Liked by 1 person

      • Yes, 20 or more can be a challenge for the computer;-) I usually start with the merge tool in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) before doing anything else to them. That puts less strain on the computer since I normally open my RAW files in Photoshop as 16-bit images. If the ACR version doesn’t work out, I revert to the standard PS CC Photomerge process which sometimes has a better result.

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