Sunburst at More London | Weekly Photo #47
What makes this whole lockdown experience just about bearable is the nice weather we’ve had in the UK throughout April. Just getting out for a walk in the sunshine each day is a welcome relief from the hours we have to stay indoors and if it was cold and wet outside, I suspect the whole mood would change and patience would be wearing a lot thinner than it is already.
With the nice weather comes some beautiful sunsets and I will often be caught staring out of the window longingly like a pet waiting to be let outside just to go and explorer and experience the great outdoors once again. Thankfully, over the last few years, I have taken advantage of as many opportunities as possible to head out and photograph this special time of day and it gives me some comfort to look back on these photos and appreciate some of the sunsets I have been fortunate to capture.
Fujifilm X-T30 | XF18-55mm | 18mm | 1/90th Sec | f/13 | ISO160
Without any new landscape or cityscape photos in the last 5 weeks, I continue to mix in a bit more of my previous work into these Weekly Photo stories. This shot of London was taken early last year during what was a glorious springtime evening. I had spent a few hours trying to make the most of photographing a clear, blue sky day in the city by looking for strong shadows and harsh light with little real success and as I wandered along the Thames I was keeping my fingers crossed that some interest in the sky would appear during the golden hour.
As it was nearing 6pm, I hadn’t yet settled on a composition and time was running out. The sun was starting to dip close to the horizon and the golden hour was in full swing. As I crossed Tower Bridge, I managed to get into position to capture this classic view of the Shard behind More London and City Hall just in time before the sun dipped out of view behind the buildings.
Normally, when capturing photos looking directly at the sun to create this starburst effect, I will take a number of photos to get the very best from the scene. For instance, I will bracket the shots and merge them in Lightroom later to recover some shadow detail as when shooting directly into the sun, with only one exposure, those buildings would almost certainly be rendered as a silhouette. Also, I will take an image with a smaller aperture (larger f number) to maximise the sunburst effect which would result in extra-long light streaks and add more wow factor to the final image.
Unfortunately, as I arrived the sun was disappearing fast and I had no time to take all of the different photos I mentioned above so, instead, I set the camera to bracket mode, the aperture to f/13 and just began shooting. Although I do feel with a bit more time on location, this photo could have been even better, I’m still really happy with how it turned out.
This photo is also included in my recently updated London Sunrise and Sunset gallery.
I do hope this nice weather continues here in the UK and wherever you’re reading this article from, I hope you are managing to find some positives throughout your day to help get you through these crazy times.
Stay safe, stay inspired.
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.