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On Sunday I went up to London to photograph the Thames South Bank between the Millenium Bridge and London Bridge at night. Those bridges and the two in between, Southwark Bridge and Cannon Street Station railway bridge have all had illuminations installed during the summer. That was the primary reason to go, to see how they looked.

The other evening, I attended a short talk by the owner of the company contracted to undertake the work. When submitting the request for planning permision, everything had to be documented. That included details of the light sequencing, which change colour under computer control according to a pre-progrmmed sequence. The exception is the Millenium Bridge which has only white lights which are set to come on in turn so it looks as though the light is travelling across the structure. Installing the equipment was specialised work as it involved dangling from ropes and the company had to train its staff to do it. Apparently they found that young lads were keen to take on the challenge.

The shot below is of Southwark Bridge. Rather than rely on a tripod for the shoot, I opted to use two fast prime lenses with 35 mm and 85 mm full frame equivalent focal lengths and shot at f/2 once it got dark. I limited the maximum ISO to 1600 and relied on image stabilisation to counter the ensuing slow shutter speeds. It worked well and I only had to discard one shot due to lack of sharpness. Fortunately, I had taken two at the location, so nothing was lost.

Hi Mike,
Lovely colourful image.
You and your camera have done well.
How safe is it to walk along there at night alone?
I guess, best to go there at night as a group.
Thanks for sharing.
Iggy

Iggy wrote:Lovely colourful image.
You and your camera have done well.

Thanks, Iggy.

Iggy wrote:How safe is it to walk along there at night alone?
I guess, best to go there at night as a group.

This shot was taken at around 5:30. Although I did meet with a group, we all went our separate ways once the shoot started at around 15:45 (approximately 20 minutes before sunset). While I did occasionally see other members of the party, I was more or less on my own for most of the time until the finish at 18:00. At this time of year, it is not necessary to stay out late to get shots at night. There were plenty of people about and I did not witness anything untoward. Provided one is sensible and sticks to the well frequented areas by the river, I would guess that it is as safe as anywhere can be in London.

There is no reason why the club cannot organise its own outing if that is what people want. Maybe best to do it soon as it will probably get colder as winter progresses.

Thanks for the detail.
I guess if the club goes out, then every on gets the same images on such a shoot.

Iggy wrote:I guess if the club goes out, then every on gets the same images on such a shoot.

You think? My experience is that while there will be some similarities, there will also be shots which only one person has got. Two photographers can stand right next to each other and still come away with different results.

I would add that I do not attend such events to get images and the social aspect is equally, if not more, important. Anything worthwhile which I obtain is always a bonus.

Iggy wrote:How safe is it to walk along there at night alone?

The UK police website provides crime stats by type and area, and - although location is approximated to help victim anonymity - looking at robberies within 1 mile of South Bank does suggest they are more likely to occur away from the river.

Mike wrote:Two photographers can stand right next to each other and still come away with different results.

I'd go further and say that - even in the unlikely event of three photographers all going out with functionality identical lenses - and all taking photos only at designated spots, not only would there be fewer duplicates than one might expect, but after each of them picked their top three shots, I would expect nine objectively different images.

Thanks Mike and Peter for your helpful comments.
I am not sure if and when I can visit the bridges.
For the bridges and other ideas Check out: https://illuminatedriver.london/
Southwark Bridge appears to be best illuminated.
iggy