What's new
July 15th - 2019
Added a couple of infrared panoramas.The first is a straightforward view to the West, looking down the Thames towards the city and the Shard. The second is from one of my favourite places; Limehouse basin. This was taken with a filter at 660nm. This is encroaching on the visible so the colours produced are a little different from previous panoramas.
May 25th - 2019
I have put three new infrared panoramas on the site. I have created a new category under the images menu - Infrared. The panoramas were taken in London so could have been added to the London images and the new images selection. Instead I have just put the images under Infrared. There are too few images at the moment to require further organisation.
I find that panoramas suggest something a bit more than reality. Infrared accentuates that other worldlyness. The three panoramas were taken on a cloudless day, which makes them even more unusual, at least for London. If one examines the photos carefully there are many plane trails, more than seems reasonable. The third panorama reminds me strongly of the style of a 1950's science fiction book cover.
May 10th - 2019
No new panoramas today but two new sections to the site. There is now a menu choice under cameras on colour calibration The main news though, is that I have started to take infra-red photographs, see here. I will be putting up infra red panoramas soon.
April 15th - 2019
I’ve been wandering around the city again and come up with four vertical panoramas. I’m a sucker for the slightly larger than life nature of some places in the new developments. A couple of the images (London 041, London 042) feature enticing stairways to who knows what. In reality probably just another bank, but that’s not the impression I get. London 043 is another shot of a canyon flanked this time by the shard. The familiar buses seem out of place. Finally London 044 is another dockland decorative crane. The ship in the distance doesn’t work either; it’s a non moving hotel.
February 22nd - 2019
Thought that I would try a bit of night time photography around London. Panoramas on busy streets have their problems. If you leave software to stitch the images you end up with people with no heads, half cars etc. Which shot is used for any point on the panorama must therefore be chosen by hand. It’s quite an interesting job though if, like me, you are interested in images.
The first panorama is of Regent Street (London 039) on a typically cold and damp evening. The billboard in Piccadilly circus is now very dramatic since its upgrade. The second panorama is of the Seven Dials (London 040) area of Covent garden. It’s nice to see mounted police with no guns and accepted by everyone.
February 5th - 2019
Came across a photographer I should have noticed sooner. Henk Van Rensbergen. He even does panoramas http://www.henkvanrensbergen.com/gal/panoramic/ He specielises in photographs of abandoned places. I did see some of his earlier black and white pictures but wasn't that interested. I've now seen his colour pictures and I'm very impressed. He has a small cheap book out (ISBN-13:978-9401434775) called, not unexpectedly "Abandoned places". The photos aren't much bigger than a postcard but most of the photographs are brilliant. There is one other book that is easily available that is larger, Called "Abandoned places - the photograpers collection" (ISBN-13:978-9401418072). The photos are mostly around A4 size. His earlier books, he did a trio, are very hard and expensive to come by. His photos make my (London 037) look pale in comparison.
February 1st - 2019
Plenty updates but they are all technical. I'm now using a new development machine and have updated software. This should not have any visible affect on the site. I have also removed the Google analytic software. Google searches are now very commercially based. I have no adverts, don't pay for adwords etc. The result is that this site and other sites run by individual photographers don't get reported in searches at all. The final straw was an e-mail from Google telling me that sites would get extra ranking points for support for mobile devices. This site is not one you would use on the move. Now back to the photography.
September 5th - 2017
I've added a couple more pictures. The first is one taken two years ago of Bass Rock from North Berwick (Scotland 014). What looks like snow on Bass rock is actually gannets. On the print you can see individual birds around the top of the rock.
The second image is of the Excel exhibition centre in London. Yet more boats.(London 038) The boat on the right is now a static hotel. The only thing that remains from fifty years ago in this area is the actual dock.
September 4th - 2017
Walking around the Excel exhibition centre I spotted an old ship that had been placed on the shore on a slight pedestal. I’m always interested in the strange so I went to the other side of the dock to get as close as possible and maybe take some pictures. As usual I couldn’t get very close because of fences and a security guard, so I attempted to take photos through the fence. Much to my surprise the security guard called me over and invited me in to take the photos. This is really unusual. I often get harassed by private “security” guards, even when attempting to take photos from a public thoroughfare. That security guard made my day and resulted in this panorama.
The ship is the S.S.Robin (London 037) and is apparently the oldest surviving sea going commercial steam ship. There was an attempt to make it into a tourist attraction a couple of years ago, but something must have gone wrong. The out of the water steam ship and the dilapidated Spillers flour building definitely have that slightly surreal, bigger than life feel.
July 21st - 2017
It's been a long time since the last update to this blog. There really isn't enough interest in these panoramic photos to keep up the ability to print and deliver then in a short time so this site is going non-commercial. I have removed all the prices. If you are interested in having prints made they can be made for between £100 and £400 for the very large panoramas, and of course if you are interested in anything e-mail me. The large panoramas really are large, up to six feet in length. I will be adding further pictures as time goes on. I take these photos because I want to, not to make money.
Sept 4th - 2014
The East end of London feels like a bit of a new world, even in the most mundane of circumstances. Some of the special places feel positively magical London 034 is one of those places. Sheltered under a bridge over the river Lea the water appears to glow and you would swear that things will somehow be different on the other side.
The second new panorama is from the centre of Canary Wharf of one of the now ornamental cranes. They look like they are about to stride off, but are now just decoration. The final picture is a much more mundane view of Tower bridge, now surrounded by new developments.
June 6th - 2014
My ramblings through docklands continue. This area of town seems to me to be slightly larger than life. The sky is a bit too blue, the buildings a little beyond reasonable. The feeling was accentuated by some of the sights. In the middle of Canary wharf a very large, very flash boat was manoeuvering.
It's called the Kamalya and nobody seems to know who owns it or what it's doing in central London. Apparently there is no one on board but crew and catering. Boat is registered in the Cayman Islands. Too bad I'm not a novelist; it would make the basis of a good story.
If that wasn't enough going back down the side of the Thames what should come by but a galleon in full sail.
Not a pirate, but a German training ship called "Alexander Von Humbolt II". You really don't know what's around the next corner.
I think the pictures added London 31 London 32 and London 33 have a bit of this larger than life characteristic.
April 25th - 2014
Continuing my wanderings around East London. There has been a huge surge in the building of expensive flats around the Thames and the various "basins" which used to be purely industrial. This has left a strange mixture of smart flats, luxurious
boats, and (pseudo) Victorian lighting, among many other anomalies. See above. This has resulted in some beautiful areas to live, despite the strange mixtures and contradictions. Two of the new pictures are of Limehouse basin; formerly a heavy industrial area but now a residential area with access to parks, restaurants etc. London 028, and London 029.
The other new panorama London - 030 is not connected. It's of a building a few hundred metres North of Kings Cross station which to me looks like a glacier or iceberg. The vertical panorama turned out to be very difficult to do. The front of the building uses curved glass producing multiple reflections of each cloud, and to make matters worse the clouds were moving fast, so that even taking the multiple exposures as fast as possible, images did not match exactly. Automatic stitching was completely defeated by this combination, so the images had to be matched and stitched by hand. This would be a picture that would be much easier to do with a rotating lens film camera like this.
March 7th - 2014
I've been taking photos in the city. The area gets more dramatic by the week as new skyscrapers are erected. I've been trying to take a decent panorama of the Lloyds building, but it is now so hemmed in by other buildings that the below is the best I can do.
Definitely not a panorama, its almost perfectly square! I did take a picture of "Tower 42" London - 026 which goes some way to show its manga like appearance. Equally I have a new picture of the "Walkie Talkie" London - 025 bending over an old alley and church. It really does overhang, it's not just an illusion. Finally there is a view of a hoarding outside the O2 building. London - 027 Even new buildings can be profoundly depressing. You can also get to the images via "The Images/New" or "The Images/London".
