A Londoner's Photo Blog

I shoot digital photos with a Nikon D610

What is the best place to shoot a sunset in London? Part One.

A cyclist and walker look over London from Greenwich Hill. 300mm f11 ISO100 1/15s.

A fair warning, I like to put in as little effort as possible to shoot at sunset so choosing the location means it should be easy for me to walk to or get public transport to. Old Greenwich of course has the DLR so getting there from my area is quick. Of course if you want to take your time you could walk there via the foot tunnel which is always interesting. I don’t recommend walking up the hill via the Observatory path though unless you’re fit. Take the road path, it’s gentler.

Here’s a shot from February 2019, before the mighty 22 Bishopgate was finished and it looks chilly. While you can shoot The City from Greenwich Hill you’ll definitely need a long lens. This shot was taken at 300mm so it’s really at the limit of my kit. Most people will come and shoot the Canary Wharf skyline which requires less extreme kit.

The technique is a mix between cityscape and street. Line up a interesting view and wait for an interesting foreground to fill it. One person right in the middle of the shot would have been my preference but two people up and down the hill also worked nicely. At f11 everything should be sharp even if you can’t see it due to the haze. The hardest part for such a long lens is keeping the camera still and steady. I use a timer to ensure I don’t shake it myself but don’t make the delay too long or your subject might move out of shot!

For the edit I may have made the colour temperature a little warmer than it actually was but you can see from the highlights that it was a very red sunset so my artistic license is intact! I don’t do a lot of editing on such shots but it was important to have nice vertical lines for the architectural subject and distortion correction and vertical correction in Lightroom can help with that.

Come back soon for more East London based sunset photography tips or feel free to peruse my Insta: https://www.instagram.com/xirfan/ for other types of shots taken in Greenwich. Sunrise is definitely a common theme for this Royal Park, especially in the Autumn.

Just a note on the post script, I’m not doing these series in any order of preference!

Götheborg of Sweden at South Quay Canary Wharf London

The Sail Ship Götheborg of Sweden shot on a Nikon D610 at 50mm f4 1/50s at ISO 800

Götheborg of Sweden visited London in Early August so I went to take a look. For a change of view I shot this photo from across the Quay and framed it in the plentiful vegetation provided by Wood Wharf. Two of the web sources you can use to find out about interesting ships visiting London are:

1) Ian Visits https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/

Which is a great source for many London events and

2) Tower Bridge’s Bridge Lift Times page https://www.towerbridge.org.uk/lift-times

Surprisingly a simple page like this can list interesting events weeks in advance.

You will need to do your own research but that’s part of the fun. One tip I will give you is; if there’s a bridge lift for a vessel with no name listed, that is likely to be a naval/military vessel.

Knowing about these ships in advance allows you to plan a fun visit to view these ships with family and friends or simply give you the opportunity to plan photos when the good light is fleeting at sunrise or sunset.