Canary Wharf Reflections | Weekly Photo #41
This is another one of those fantastic views of London that is rapidly changing. I recently returned to this spot over on the Isle of Dogs and found a handful of new buildings have appeared in a relatively short period of time, changing the composition you can see here. I don’t claim to be a documentary photographer in the traditional sense, far from it in fact, but I do think my photos are in their own creative way documenting the city skyline and over the years will show just how much London has changed.
Fujifilm X-T10 | XF10-24mm | 10mm | 7 Seconds | f/9 | ISO200
This week’s photo is one from the 2017 archives. I remember this day well as it was my first outing with my then, recently purchased Fujifilm XF10-24mm lens and was looking for a location to put this wide-angle through its paces. I decided to head to Blackwall Basin as it provides a great view of the buildings over at Canary Wharf and if you are lucky, some beautiful reflections too. This spot can be a little difficult to find but for those local to London looking to try and take the same photo, you need to head over to the east side of the Isle of Dogs and head toward Blackwall Basin. Here is a link to the location in Google Maps.
On my first visit to this spot, I didn’t have a wide enough lens that could capture the view in one frame so I ended up taking a series of photos and stitching them together. With this new lens, I was now able to capture the entire vista in a single image so off I went to have another go. My aim for this photo was to use the lens to capture the epic buildings and their reflections in the water to provide some foreground interest but on the day, it was a bit windy and the water had a few ripples across the surface so I ended up using a 10-stop ND filter to slow the shutter enough to smooth the water and remove the ripples. The end result was a nice smooth surface but the reflections lacked the clarity I was after. You win some, you lose some I guess.
I’ve never visited this location at sunrise before and with the sun rising from the east and behind this vantage point, the scene will be illuminated from the front which could make a cracking image so it’s definitely on the list for a future shoot when the current round of building work is complete.
Have a great week and given the current situation, I wish you all good health.
Trevor
This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.