Shall we get all the boring stuff out the way? This was shot on a D3300 from a focal length of 18 mm (which is the smallest on the lens). The camera was set to aperture mode, F-stop 5, with an exposure time of 1/800 seconds. The ISO was set to 100 (broad daylight, what else?) with an exposure of +1.7 bias. Oh, and no flash. I had to set the bias so high, because you can see the sun behind Big Ben, and otherwise that was all you was going to see! The colour picture was edited later, with the vibrancy being turned up using Photoshop Express (which is free from the Microsoft Store!) I had to enhance to vibrancy, because the blueness of the sky seemed washed out, and on such a lovely day, that kinda seemed a shame.
I made a black and white edit because monochrome always seems ‘cleaner’ to me. If I’ve snapped a really drab, grey building, you’re not going to be distracted by someone who wandered into the frame, wearing a bright red top. Monochrome is also a visual metaphor for the age of London, the city being founded in 50 AD. ‘London’ comes from the Celtic word ‘Londinios’, which means ‘place of the bold one.’ Not sure if we can apply that to our current leaders, but hey! We truly live in an historic city, and what better symbolises that than black and white?!
I’ve shot Big Ben loads, but it’s a bit of a cliche when it comes to London photography. All the tourists snap it up, and I hate seeing it all over insta. But I love this angle. It was awesome to get the shot from the other side of the river, framed by the Westminster Bridge. I love the reflection you always get from the Thames, but on a bright day it can be hard to snap, hence the edit.
When I took the shot, I new I wanted a ‘sharp’ picture, and if you look at the shot, there are no curves apart from the archways under the bridge. Everything is direct, and even the reflection of the suns rays fall straight from one side of the river to the other. I love the little flare you can see in the bottom right of the shot, total accident.
For me, this sums up the order of London. I’m not talking about the London lifestyle, or politics, but the city itself. London is always just as it always was. It’s reassuring, constant. Everything has its orders, its ‘straight lines.’ And of course, Parliament represents the beauty of our city’s democracy, its freedom.
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