Another Nice Morning!!

Hello again all. Another lovely day here in London (although COLD) so I got out early and headed into town to see what I could get with a wide-angle lens. Not quite my natural habitat but I thought I would post a handful and see what you thought. I must confess being in town and having read so much recently I was concerned that I might get approached by a policeman or similar but all was quiet from that point of view.

All shots were taken with the Sigma 10-20mm

First up, a view I get every day on my way to work - One of the King's College buildings from the concrete underpass by the IMAX in Waterloo. I often think about the mixture of stark new(ish) concrete and the older building above. Not sure this has quite worked with the big black areas but there we go - I rather like it. It was very dark and maybe an HDR approach may have been better (if only i'd had a tripod...):



St Pauls and the Millenium Bridge from Bankside:



The London Eye - a real magnet for tourists (understandably):



The Tate Modern at Bankside:



and finally... Hayes Galleria on the South Bank of the Thames at London Bridge:



Hope you like them:. Grateful for any thoughts on these

Best Regards

Mat W

Lovely set. Not to sure on first one but loving the rest.

The first one is an interesting idea but I don't think it works (a problem I often suffer from ). I really like the second one but am tempted to cheat and clone out the cranes. The third one I love! Great alternative viewpoint. The last two suffer from what I called the "intermediate converging verticals problem" which is the converging verticals are not not so dramatic to be decidedly deliberate and therefore forgivable, but in evidence enough to be distracting. The BW conversions are spot on though, and the exposure on the last one excellent too. Just an idea, in the last one I would try getting really close to the statue thingy so it dominates the foreground then tilt the camera up so the roofing forms a frame around it. Might work, might not!

BTW If you can take the pictures quickly (the K20 can take bracketed images with one shutter press) you do not need a tripod for HDR as Photomatix will align the images.

best wishes, Kris.

Thanks Emma and Kris. I know what you mean about the converging verticals... sometimes I love them and sometimes not... I have noticed that I tend to use the 10-20 more at the 20mm end I think than the 10, which I guess looks less radical (although obviously not for these shots). I've been trying more and more B/W conversions and they can be quite rewarding I think when I get them right. I like the idea for the picture in Hayes Galleria - I'm sure I'll be back in that neck of the woods soon... It's great to be able to wander through london on a beautiful morning with a camera and find it mostly deserted...

Regards

Mat W

The second one is in a class of its own (in my opinion). There's nothing wrong with the others but that shot of St Paul's and the bridge would make a lovely print.

I love London: it's a wonderful city to visit and photograph.

Well done!

Andrew

What time did you walk round Mat? Everytime i go its always busy. Only takes me 15min to get there

I actually quite like the cranes in shot

I got into Waterloo about 0815, and wandered around until about 1030... By that time the place had filled up a fair bit, especially around the London Eye, but further down the river towards Bankside was still pretty clear. There were a few other people around with their cameras (same idea as me I guess). And a jogger every couple of hundred yards

I've just been playing with some more shots and here's another i rather like of HMS Belfast - which really reminds me of being a young lad - the BEST place to have a day out if you're under ten (and probably pretty cool still I expect...)



Regards

Mat

P.S. Thanks Andrew - you're right about London I think. I just wish I had more spare time to dedicate to ambling about... One day...

Regards

Mat

Thanks I going to try that I got a weekend off coming up at end of month(a very rare occasion)

Nice shot of Belfast. A piece of trivia for you. On what are the guns of HMS Belfast trained?

Answers on a postcard please.... (and sorry to hijack your thread ).

K.

Matt,

The Millenium bridge is my favorite of them all, I do like the eye pic though, a small criticism (very small) is it could've done with a little bit more room at the bottom.

The more I look at pictures taken on a wide angle lens, the more I want one.

Regards
PaulM

..............Tell me about it

Nice set! I particularly like the bridge shot, nice one

Thanks again everyone - Kris, you're going to have to put me out of my misery... I was pondering last night and I reckon the guns are pointing North ish and their range must be 10-20 miles, so that narrows it down to a couple of hundred square miles...

Mat W