Shooting Stars

Night Shots

This shot was taken at around 11PM in Woolwich, standing on the Woolwich Ferry approach road [map] (that's why it looks like I'm in the middle of the river) looking west. It is the only vantage point where you can get a clear view in a single shot of three of London's most well known modern day landmarks; The Thames Barrier, The Millennium Dome and Canary Wharf, all in alignment with each other. Because of that this is a unique vantage point, one which I have not seen exploited by other photographers.

In this wide angle shot the land marks can be seen in the centre left. An enlargement may help. I didn't have a zoom lens with me long enough to get that shot with any real resolution but I'll make sure I return with a better equipped camera bag.

As for this shot, the lighting is fantastic and even though I could only manage a 30 second exposure (also due to the lack of right equipment, lessons to be learnt I think!) anything longer probably would have just caused the lights to flare. The lighting is enhanced somewhat by overlaying two 30 second exposures on top of one another. The odd circular glows to the right of the image are satellite dishes at the British Telecom communications centre where there are fifty or more huge dishes pointing skyward. The shooting star...? Well it's not really a star it's a plane going into land at London's City Airport, just behind the two chimneys of The Tate and Lyle sugar refinery, the gap in the trail is the time difference between the two exposures. :-)

Hope you are enjoying the night shots, more tomorrow. Have a good weekend.

Canon EOS 20D - 30s F9 ISO-100 10mm

Friday 20th January, 2006