Canary Wharf in the Wind and Rain

Last week a photographer friend and I went for one of our regular trips up to London and for a change we visited Canary Wharf, our usual spots have been South Bank and British Museum.

Weather wise it was an awful day but we arrived early in expectation of finding something worthwhile.

Of course Canary Wharf is all about business and commerce so the usual shots of businessmen and women had to be taken.

 You can see how awful the weather was. However we did see some sunshine, we persevered and had to take a couple of obligatory shots of the clocks.

Buskers around London are very good these days and these two were no exception. Not only did they play excellent music but also, for a few pence, they were happy for us to take pictures of them for as long as we wished.

My favourite shots are those candid pic which seem to happen from nowhere. You need to be in the right place at the right time with the right equipment and then, along with a bit of luck you get the chance of capturing something a bit different.

Finally the architecture of the area.

FISH EYE FUN

Monitary Christmas gifts and a good deal from 'thestickman' on the Four Thirds User forum meant I was able to purchase the Zuiko 8mm fish eye lens. I am already enjoying the possibilities of this lens, which really is much more than a gimmick.

On Tuesday my daughter and I took a trip to London to visit an exhibition at the V&A and to go to the theatre. I took along my camera with the fish eye attached to make myself try out the lens.

We used the underground and I was able to use my camera without any questions from 'the powers that be'. I am told that provided you are 'passing through' there should be no problems taking hand held, non flash photographs. My experience has shown this to be true, as I have never been stopped or questioned when using my camera on the underground network, perhaps it's a case of work fast so they can't catch you!

This was a grab shot as I got off the train and turned around, looking for a picture. This is as taken, apart from a RAW conversion and a bit of sharpening and is pretty well a classic fish eye shot. I must admit I rather like the effect with this type of image and of course the walking man had no idea he was in the picture!


We then moved into the V&A. I walked around for a while taking lots of 'so what' pictures, I think you will know what I mean, if not I am sure Richard will come along soon and explain :)

I was heading towards my meeting point, to join my daughter for lunch, when I suddenly saw this man sink to his knees in front of the statue, well it had to be taken. I realised that my fish eye was not the most appropriate lens for this pic, however it did enable me to get the shot unnoticed. It required some cropping afterwards and I converted to mono, adding a slight sepia effect, to remove the distracting colours and thus keeping the eye focused on the man and the statue.