London in long exposure

Last night we both thoroughly enjoyed the opera Don Pasquale, it was lovely to be seeing an opera again. Pretty Yende, the soprano, was delightful in her role and it was very light hearted and amusing with a very modern and cleverly designed set. It was fun to walk from the opera back to our nearby accommodation instead of having to drive all the way home, and London was bustling and seems back to it’s pre-Covid self.

This morning I was up early - too early for breakfast which was only served from 8am but I had brought some muesli and oat milk from home so that sorted that problem. Then off to catch the tube to get across to the city.

I met the photography group in the city - there were only 4 people on the workshop plus the leader Jay Vulture. He specialises in long exposure black and white fine art photography. We started off by taking photos of The Shard, and slowly worked our way out to the east of London.. Today was all about long exposure photography, using a 16 stop ND filter (10 stop stacked with a 6 stop) to get really long exposures. We went to a few locations throughout the day, either walking, going by bus or using the Uber boat on the river. The tubes were very busy. We had a delicious lunch at a pub in Rotherhithe ( a prawn pad Thai for me) and had some coffee stops too, so while it was a long day the pace was not too hectic. When you are taking long exposure images, some which were 8 minutes long, it takes time so you don't go home with numerous photos, rather a few carefully executed ones. This image was from one of the locations today, it is almost straight out the camera and is about a 4 minute exposure.

We ended the day at the Thames Barrier. Then it was another bus ride and tube journey back to Waterloo station, where I found that my train home was not running as the timetable said it would be. I had to get a train to Surbiton and then a (rather expensive) taxi home, so I only got home at about 8.30pm. Gavin was already out at the retirement function for his colleague (a private box at Royal Albert Hall to see Eric Clapton in concert). I won’t see Gavin until Tuesday night as I will be asleep by the time he gets home and tomorrow is another early start for me. Gavin goes away on a work strategy session tomorrow afternoon until Tuesday.

It was a very enjoyable day and I learned a lot today about calculating the right exposures with a 16 stop filter. Tomorrow we are also meeting early, at 8am so I have another very early start. We will spend the morning taking photos and then the entire afternoon editing photos learning Jay's technique for black and white photos.