The ICON at The O2

After a week of hot and sunny weather, today was the worst day for a photography outing to London as it rained all day. We could not have picked a worse day for it, but to be fair when we decided on the date the forecast was showing a sunny day with some clouds - not the persistent rain we had all day!

It was the first time I have been in a train since last June and it felt Covid safe with people sitting far apart and the carriages were quite empty. The tube was another story, many people were not wearing masks, one young couple who were not wearing masks, came and sat right next to me so I told them to move further away, and then went on to be ticket dodgers who jumped over the exit gates with the station staff shouting hopelessly after them. 

I met my friend Helen at North Greenwich station as she had planned a shoot in the area which included the new art art installation. Helen is an incredible award winning photographer and actually features in the latest edition of the Amateur Photographer magazine, and her image of a staircase is on the front cover. (And yet she still doesn’t believe she is a great photographer) The area is absolutely brilliant for photography with all the new buildings going up, with wonderful lines and shapes of modern architecture. It is the new designated creative design area of London. So far it’s still not that well known amongst photographers as a great photography location, most people tend to go one stop further on the tube to Canary Wharf but I can highly recommend this location.

As it was pouring with rain we spent the first hour and a half photographing inside the ICON shopping outlet at The O2, it has an incredible ceiling that is similar to the Oculus in New York, which is my blip today. We then braved going out in the rain to shoot the art installation, we obviously could not get the sunny reflections as planned but got some wet reflections instead (see extra). In need of food and drying off we found a place for lunch, then after lunch we went back out in the rain and photographed until we were too wet and soggy to carry on! We will have to go back in better weather.

It was a great day of photography despite the weather - there is always a shot to be had regardless of the circumstances! It was also great to see my friend again and learn some good tips from her.

I still have many photos to edit but quickly chose this one for Blipfoto. Tomorrow it is sunshine once again!