This Evening Panorama over Paddington and Edgware Road I shot on top of a crane when commissioned to provide some visuals in early 2020 to simulate the views from the roof terraces of a new building, the construction of which had just started. This was besides St Mary’s hospital and Paddington railway and underground station, in west London. The building is Paddington Square designed by renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano.

This panorama encapsulates many of the buildings along the bustling Edgware Road, including the Water Gardens residential, the Paddington Basin canalside development at lower left, St Mary’s Hospital immediately in front and then beyond over the rooftops of the Portman Estate west of Edgware Rd and Marylebone east of it. In the distance can be seen many of the skyscrapers of The City

This panoramic view I captured in late January 2020, just a few weeks before the Covid lockdown.

The winter air was fresh and clear, it had rained before which helps to remove the dust particles from the atmosphere. The sunset colours were evocative, and as the last embers of the evening light fell, I was confronted with this softly beautiful twilight scene. I have never climbed a crane before, and it was quite a harrowing experience, not least carrying my large camera bag and tripod. Up there at the level of the eventual roof terraces, about 15 stories up, it was absolutely enthralling to have such a clear, unobstructed view over the rooftops!

The platform is very stable thankfully, but every time the crane operator moved the crane, for several minutes afterwards it swayed, which not only made long exposure photography impossible, but it was quite an unnerving experience too.

This panorama is an ultra high resolution digital composite image, created by stitching together 10 individual photographs to create a highly detailed wide panoramic view.