24 Hours of London 2015 – 10th/11th Hours – Aboard the Eye

A summary of my time aboard the London Eye during my 24-hour photowalk in Central London last June. [A link to previous parts of my writeup can be found here]

As I’d mentioned in the last time – it was an insane rush to get to the London Eye pod which I’d prebooked with Advanced Photography Magazine , and made it with five minutes to go.  In the pod were 25 of us photographers which made for a very tight fit with not a lot of space to work with. Another factor which made things more difficult was the whole matter was that rain from earlier had settled on the top of the pods , obstructing the view from the pod. I needed to be exactly perpendicular to the surface to avoid reflections even with a polariser fitted – and ended up needing to use some wider then optimal apertures on the 85mm particularly to “declutter” the view. Very tricky with a lot of ducking and diving.

In hindsight I’m happy with the views which I’d got at the end (particularly looking above Charing Cross station)- but it probably isn’t something I’d be looking to repeat again. Needing to be at the Eye really put a constraint on our positioning for the whole photowalk – and also in future I’d be more interested in finding our own path (in particular I’d hoped to do work near Greenwich and Canary Wharf) rather than a pre-staged opp where a lot of photographers will get similar solutions to problems.

Heading off the eye there was some lovely dusk scenes around County Hall with the rain leading to some interesting views from the puddles which had formed. Martin had managed to get something to eat , giving me more time to play around with some slow pans – this is what I’d do when I was bored.

Things however were due to make a turn for the worse as soon as Martin had returned , leading to a moment where I’d considered if I was unable to continue further with the photowalk. Thankfully I’d managed to rejoin but I did end up “skipping” an hour or so effectively in Wandsworth!