Evening Panorama with Victoria Embankment, Blackfriars Bridge, St Pauls and The City. This for me is one of the greatest views of London. Within this one panoramic scene are included many of the features that make this great city. The River Thames with the Victoria Embankment, Blackfriars Bridge, one of the most beautiful of the many bridges, the iconic Baroque masterpiece of St Paul’s, and the gleaming modernity of The City skyscrapers.

This panoramic view I captured on the 27th October 2023. It is an update from the same viewpoint as one of my best selling images, which I captured 11 years ago, almost to the day. See it here

The clear air of a fresh autumn evening create fabulous conditions for photography. Like many if not all of my panoramas, I had planned this view for some time, and I waited for the right evening. This day it had rained quite a lot earlier, which is critically important to clear out the dust from the atmosphere. By afternoon the clouds had begun to clear, so I packed my camera bag and tripod and headed out. I was almost singing with joy as I walked from the underground station to my location, knowing the evening colours could be just perfect.

Of course capturing the right moment is equally important to selecting a good composition. As I had plenty of time, I experimented with two lenses, My Nikon Z 70-200mm zoom, regarded as one of the sharpest lenses ever made, and an older but equally sharp Nikon 85mm tilt shift lens which allows for precise alignment of the horizon without introducing any perspective distortions. I eventually chose the latter lens as the focal length I thought worked best was around 85mm in any case, and by a small amount of shifting of the lens I could remove a little bit of the water in the foreground, and include a bit more sky, thereby allowing the buildings to breathe a bit more.

This is one of my favourite views of London, it has an scintillating mix of historical and contemporary buildings, and the geometry of the composition with the majestic dome of St Paul’s cathedral acting as a central fulcrum is in perfect harmony. The 98% moon had risen an hour or so before and was just out of shot at right, but it helped illuminate the scene in any case with its silvery light.

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.