Buckingham Palace - Night

A few more night shots from my stint in London over the summer... these from around the Mall in general, and Buckingham Palace in particular. All Pentax K1ii, DFA 15-30, DFA 24-70, PLM 55-300.

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All thoughts and comments very welcome as ever... have one final set (ICM/Multiple Exposures) which I'll post in a bit...

Best

A great example of tasteful photography.

Best regards

No.2 is a real winner, everything about it is Superb!

No.4 is simple, subtle lighting well handled and the composition is superb.

No.9 is really nicely handled too - the highlights aren't over-blown and there is still shadow detail visible, felt a little HarryPotter-Esque

The simplicity of the majority of the images is a key strength, along with your usual good eye for composition and handling of the lighting.

Only one minor criticism/suggestion - cropping off the barriers at the bottom of No.1 may improve the overall photo (subjective) :

Can't wait for the next set Bill

#1 , #2 and #9 are superb, excellent shooting

A splendid selection of high quality photography.

No 2 for me please Bill.

But you knew that already !

Another great set Bill.

Impressed that you managed to take such shots without hordes of tourists in view. Normally plenty of people around at any hour.

Image No.2 ...my favourite as well. Supported by No.9 and No.4 in that order.

Great stuff, well done.

Side note, but I'm always in awe of the shutter speed control to get shots like #8 That's something i need to get better at.

Tripod ?

I was going to say no.2 but then I got to no.9!

2 - Really like the symmetry and the way the flags draw your eye into the scene.

9 - Love this, The street lights heading off to an offset vanishing point and the light star bursts.

Also 7 - Love the colours and the clever use of water as a foreground

Top notch!

I like all these, no one is a favourite. As Lennybloke mentions it is a shame about the barriers in front of the palace although I think cropping would put the building too low in the frame but maybe an inverted graduated filter in lightroom to reduce the exposure in the foreground would give the barriers less prominence. The raised viewpoint works well.

This and the previous series you posted are telling me to get out after dark some more, Bill. The stunner for me in this set is 8 - you've captured the streaming water at just the right shutter speed, as stated by Richard above, and the curved lines of light reflecting off the fountain rims bring just the right amount of focus and material detail to the image, in contrast with the aforementioned (slightly undefined) stream. I also like the visually strong statement of 11 (your stronger than usual use of colours work quite well here), as well as the delicate curtain drapings contrasting with the rigid column grooves in 4. As for 1, I think the barriers bring just the right amount of 'out of placeness' to the image - an understated visual pendant to the Pistols' 'Anarchy in the U.K.' - stated in a gentlemanly manner.

Superb set, No.2 is a brilliant and reflects all you need to know about The Mall.

3,4,5,7 & 8 are my other favourites.

Rick

Thanks Gary, John, Chris, John, Peter, Karlo, Gareth, Nigel, Rob, Serge, Rick for thoughts re these...

John L and Rob, yes, interesting re the barriers... funnily enough, my first thought when I was there was to frame them out, but as you say Rob it put the Palace just a tad too tight to the bottom of the frame, and I was at the highest point I could get the camera, and as far back as I could go... so I thought I'd make them part of the composition instead... quite like how it's turned out, in that it helps tell the tourist story, but without them actually being there... context I suppose... also they're a bit random and dishevelled, which is the diametric opposite to pretty much everything on the other side of the fence, and I liked that too (in a virtue out of a necessity kind of a way)... but will def have another look... and will have a look at a grad too Rob... hadn't thought of that...

Karlo, yes, you're right... even at this time of night (11.30pmish), there's plenty of tourists coming and going... but managed to find a break between groups, and the odd person that was walking through frame got lost in the long exposure (30 secs or so)...

Interesting re 2... went back two nights after I took this to have another look, to find they'd taken all the flags down... so was very lucky... must have been a summer thing... one of those reminders to get it while you can, you never know what's going to change and when...

Rich and Serge... yes, was trying to find a way to incorporate the moving water somehow... as always with these things, a fair amount of trial and error involved... but particularly liked how the light bounced off it and through it from a certain angle... very slow moving, so much longer shutter speed than I'd usually use for this kind of shot... 2 secs all up I think... vs say 1/8 sec ish on a fast moving stretch of water in a rapid in a stream, say...

Serge... 11 was one of the more unusual things I've come across in a while (a grass fronted bar)... but found it tricky processing it to make it look as striking as it was... work in progress I suspect... have become quite fond of night time shooting... don't last as long at this time of night, but great fun...

Cheers all...

Best

Bill