Busy Millennium Bridge

This afternoon I visited the Oxo Gallery in London, where there was a show of photography called Vision 9 - work by nine photographers producing landscapes - or, to be more precise, "contemporary photography inspired by the landscape".   There was an intriguingly wide range of photographic styles, from conventional landscapes, stunning seascapes, and more creative interpretations through to abstract images constructed from details in the landscape.

There seems to be a definite current fashion for "Intentional Camera Movement" (ICM) and multiple exposures.  One photographer, Valda Bailey,  had produced abstracts from detailed patterns on the hulls of rotting boats, overlaying multiple images in camera to produce fascinating designs which reflected her origins as a painter.  The prints, on a  beautiful textured matt art paper, were mounted on distressed copper sheet which reflected the nature of the images, the whole framed in a slate finish profile. Quite stunning.

As my friend and I left the gallery we wandered around with our cameras, and soon decided to experiment with multiple exposures ourselves.  I have only tried this a couple of times before (here and here)  with limited success.  This shot, of the Millennium Bridge crossing the Thames between the Tate Modern and St Paul's Cathedral, was a multiple exposure combined in camera, then combined in Photoshop with the image of St Paul's from one of the single exposures to add some sharpness and a focal point to that part of the image (plus some tonal and colour adjustments).

This technique clearly requires some skill, plus careful choice of subject matter.