South Bank Tower (under Construction)

Had to upload via the Blip 'basic uploader' as the normal one just wasn't working, despite six attempts. So, no being able to crop (or even see) the thumbnail.

Nice orange sunset, but that wasn't enough. Needed to fill the frame with lots of detail. Here, I liked the how the latest sky-scraping construction, the South Bank Tower, seems to be getting built by the silhouetted cranes.

The Thames, now, is of course a leisure river, rather than a commercial or shipping one. But from this angle, all the bits and pieces in the foreground bring back some of that activity that built this so very international city.

I used my standard 50mm Nikkor (f1.4) lens at about its optimum aperture, with as slow an iso as possible, to get as much sheer sharpness and tonal range as possible. If you've lugged a tripod around and are using it correctly, heck with the shutter speed (3 secs).

Go LARGE

You may have wanted to crop out the very far lamp - and possibly the very top one too. But, as this scene is so closely framed by the lens, then these very small elements help with an impression of the image bleeding out beyond them.

Thanks to all for the great comments etc on Luke and I's shenanigans over previous two Blips. It was good to include him and I know he liked them both himself too.

I had a headachy tiredness for much of the day. Luke, a newly qualified lawyer is back at work of course and so London became rather less appealing for me today. Here, it costs money to even do nothing!! So, I may return in the next day or two. It's been great but it's always highly bipolar for me, lunging between absolutely great and driving me crazy. I know Londoners will echo that!