Rainy Night in London

davewuk (55)adminin LongExposurePhotos • 5 years ago

While growing up in the British countryside I often heard how much people "hated London" - too dirty, too crowded, too expensive, people are rude and so on. This mentality never sat well with me, and as soon as I was able to I got the hell out of my little country town and headed to the Big Smoke. I spent my 20's and 30's working and living there and basically had a great time before starting a family and heading back to quieter pastures.

These days when I visit London I'm looking for what I can't get back in that little country town - great food, great entertainment and of course great photography opportunities. So when we booked a weekend in the city a few weeks before Christmas I was really looking forward to getting the camera out and shooting some night time long exposures from my favourite spot - Waterloo Bridge.

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This particular bridge has spectacular views from each side, taking in the City of London and Canary Wharf in the east and the South Bank and Westminster to the west. In ideal conditions you can't fail to get a good shot.

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Unfortunately, on the evening in question conditions were far less than ideal. It was raining heavily and I spent most of my time hiding under the bridge trying to keep the camera dry. In the end I ventured up top and risked my camera and lens (neither of which are waterproof!) to get one singles shot, feeling that if I didn't do so my trip would have been wasted.

Thankfully my equipment survived its ordeal and the one single shot, in my opinion, was well worth it. Let me know what you think!

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The final shot in this collection was taken from a park in Greenwich near the Cutty Sark and show the lights of Canary Wharf reflecting off the Thames. I have many more photos from that day which will feature in a future post.