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All Aboard the City Tour- Pentax User
I love our big cities. There’s so much to see and photograph and because it is a city, all the photographic subjects are within a relatively small area and therefore you can cram so much into one day. Great transport links usually means it’s easy to travel around as well, but you often find you can see all the sights by foot with ease.
Of all the cities in the world, London is still one of my favourites and a place I return to again and again. For this trip, I wanted to see just how wide a variety of shots I could achieve in a dawn to dusk shoot. Even though this is a trip to our capital, the same techniques apply to any major city that I have visited, both in Europe and here in the UK, be it Birmingham or Berlin and illustrates how to make the most of a day trip.
First and foremost, I try to avoid the summer months, preferring spring or autumn for several reasons. First of all, it means you can arrive at dawn and leave just after dark without feeling totally exhausted due to the shorter days, as well as being a lot cooler, without the intense heat of a summer’s day. There also tends to be less people about, especially other tourists, which also make it less stressful getting shots.
Being a weekend, I was able to take the car into the capital and park free of charge on one of the parking meters (another advantage to take into consideration) and started off at Westminster, just as the sun was rising. Instead of my usual heavy tripod, I use a lightweight model for these trips, fitted with a ball and socket head. It’s less sturdy than my heavier one, but more than suitable and certainly less aggro to carry around for a whole day. I also try to limit myself to just 2 or 3 lenses to save weight, so zoom lenses are very useful. A wide angle to standard zoom combined with a telephoto means that most focal lengths will be covered and in turn cover most eventualities. The Pentax DA 18-55mm and DA 50-200mm zoom lenses are perfect choices if you have them. The DA 18-250mm could be the choice for a one lens only system, covering all the most useful focal lengths you will probably need. One of the Optio compacts are also a great addition to take along, even if you using an SLR, for those quick, unexpected shots that can occur.
I began to photograph the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben from all angles as the first rays of sun hit the building. This early morning light is wonderful, especially for historic buildings, as its gives a lovely warm glow and colour that suit older buildings to a tee. I then headed into Green Park, where there are a wide variety of subjects to shoot. The flowerbeds were just starting to look their best on this spring morning and this park has a wonderful display of tulips. If you have room in your camera bag, then a macro lens is a worthy addition for such subjects, but if not, your zoom lens should get you close enough to fill the frame with some flower heads. From the bridge over the lake there is a fantastic view of Buckingham Palace and I found the wildlife were up early as well. Most big cities offer the sanctuary of an area of parkland in contrast to the buildings and other sites and add variety to your pictures. You can usually get an alternative view of the city from these parks as well. Leaving St James’, I headed up the Mall to Trafalgar Square. This famous London landmark has the lot. There’s the wonderful fountains, attractive buildings, Nelson’s Column and great views down Whitehall back to Big Ben. After shooting some of the main views, I switched to a telephoto and tried some candids of the tourists. The pigeons still gather here and make good shots as they flock down for tit bits. The balconies in front of the Portrait Gallery are ideal to get views down to the people in the square and photograph unobtrusively.
Piccadilly Circus was my next location, but not the easiest place to shoot successfully, so I decided to shoot some iconic shots with the buses, using some slow shutter speed techniques. I try to find subjects that sum up a city in one shot and any of the iconic symbols like the red telephone box, the London taxi or the now rare traditional London bus are great ways to symbolise London. This is where the tripod was worth bringing and I set up next to the railings and used a variety of shutter speeds from 1/60sec - 1/4sec on shutter priority, as the buses came towards me.
In the mood to shoot some more candids, I headed for Covent Garden. However, not long after I arrived, the cloud started to build up and soon the sun had disappeared. This was expected, but the forecast the night before said it would clear again later in the afternoon, so I did some shots of the colourful items for sale on the stalls, then after a quick bite to eat, I caught the Underground to the British Museum.
Whether in a big city, or out in the landscape, I always have a back up plan ready in case the weather turns nasty. In a city, heading indoors is an option and there are many places that allow indoor photography. You may not be able to use a tripod, but if you use a higher ISO rating you can successfully shoot interiors without having to resort to flash. The Great Hall in the British Museum is a great location for dull days, but I like any museum, as it often offers the chance to take yet more candid shots of people looking at the exhibits. I often use the black and white setting for these types of pictures and you can remain anonymous (always useful for candids), as you look like you are photographing the exhibits rather than catching those interesting pictures of the other visitors. An Optio compact comes into it’s own in these situations.
It was now mid-afternoon and outside as forecast, the sun was breaking through the cloud again. I guess they do get it right sometimes! I wanted to head across to the river, so I got back on the Underground and up towards Tower Bridge.
City hall is a fairly new building on this developing part of the Thames and this weekend it was open to the public. Not luck, but some careful planning and web searching leading up to the trip. This is a great building to photograph both inside and out, but the best part is that it has a viewing platform at the top. This gives you unique and superb views of London and Tower Bridge and the kind of location you should
certainly look out for in any city. Getting to a higher level gives you a new and often panoramic view of things and gives a totally different perspective from street level.
One of London’s most famous landmarks is Tower Bridge and once back at street level I decided to shoot from on the bridge itself. Not looking down river however, but instead looking up. With the wide zoom fitted, I got some great shots of the foreboding towers soaring up against the now, blue sky.
With those shots in the bag, I took time out for another break and to review some of my images of the day. The sun would be setting very soon and so I was getting ready to set up for a night shot of Tower Bridge from the north side. I know from experience that the bridge is beautifully lit up at night, but its worth doing the research in advance to find buildings or bridges in your chosen city that are floodlit at night, as so many are. Tower Bridge at night is a peach, beautifully lit with a backdrop of the setting sun and a fountain as the perfect foreground interest. My technique for night shots is to take a reading from the brightest part of the floodlit building and use this reading as the first exposure. I then bracket my shots by overexposing from this reading in half stops and see which one balances the brightly lit building with the more shadowy areas. You can use this technique by shooting on full manual mode or by using the exposure compensation button if working on automatic. If you are using an Optio compact and are unsure about calculating night shots, then the Night Scene program setting should be able to give pretty good results. Even with this mode, you need to put the camera on a tripod or find a wall to balance the camera on.
As the sky turned black, my day was over and I got back on the tube to Westminster where the car was. I was happy with my days work and was pleased with the variety of shots I got. Shooting a city is very different to shooting a rural landscape, but I love doing both and the urban landscape throws up so many possibilities that I can never wait to visit another one. I think I will try Manchester next, as there’s Exchange Square, the University, the canal, the footy stadiums……..can't wait!
© Craig Roberts
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