Wembley Stadium Panorama

I had the idea for photographing this Wembley Stadium Panorama with the graceful arch illuminated against the evening sky for quite a while. England’s iconic national stadium has been here since the 1920s, but the original was torn down and rebuilt from 2003 into the present state of the art building.  The surrounding area has evolved into a new city, with a range of tall buildings and a shopping centre, built by visionary developers Quintain.

Planning this shot was not easy, as it involved many moving factors. Firstly, of course an evening during which the arch would be illuminated, which is not always the case as many events – not least football matches – are held during the day. Secondly, I needed an evening of at least dry if not clear conditions. And lastly, and of course most importantly, arranging with the security of the building on whose roof I stood, a convenient time and date to coincide with an event, so as to have the arch illuminated.

On the 21st June 2024 the event was the Taylor Swift concert, part of her Eras Tour. This being the longest day of the year, meant that I had a long wait for the dusk to arrive and the light to be just right. The day had been wonderfully clear and sunny, but as afternoon rolled slowly into evening, the clouds rolled in too. I had therefore a very nervous wait as clouds thickened, and it even briefly started to rain, but luckily I managed to get my shot. The clear sky I had hoped for was not to be, but in a way I think the more turbulent sky makes for a more powerful image.

I could just about hear the music from the concert above the noise of London evening traffic. It was fun to be there, all alone, in the dark, when just a kilometre away tens of thousands of fans were enjoying an evening with their favourite musical superstar. The arch continually changed colour, but I think the most evocative was this pink colour.

This panorama I captured with an 85mm tilt shift lens, shooting 11 separate images to create this highly detailed but very wide panorama of Wembley Stadium and the surrounding buildings of Wembley Park.

The ever-changing skyline of London I find to be a captivating subject to photograph and I will never tire of shooting it. I endeavour to capture not just a sterile view of static elements, but fluid moments captured in time, a living, breathing, working city, populated with real people in all of the multitudes of streets, houses and windows cascading across the vast foreground to the distant skyscrapers in the centre.