Architecture and Landscape Photographer Surrey London | RAMYAD Photography

Trafalgar Square is a great meeting place, many local attractions nearby, with a good set of steps to chill and soak up the London atmosphere. They have got rid of the majority of pigeons and you can always find people frolicking along the fountains or sipping on a drink and people watching.

Info from wikipedia:

Nelson’s Column is a monument in Trafalgar Square in central London built to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson, who died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The monument was constructed between 1840 and 1843 to a design by William Railton at a cost of £47,000. It is a column of the Corinthian order built from Dartmoor granite. The Craigleith sandstone statue of Nelson is by E. H. Baily and the four bronze lions on the base, added in 1867, were designed by Sir Edwin Landseer.

The pedestal is decorated with four bronze relief panels, each 18 feet square,cast from captured French guns. They depict the Battle of Cape St Vincent, the Battle of the Nile, the Battle of Copenhagen and the Death of Nelson at Trafalgar. The sculptors were Musgrave Watson, William F Woodington, John Ternouth and John Edward Carew respectively.

A traditional silhouette, where the light source is very strong and directly behind, would black out the foreground element however I wanted to maintain some detail. With careful exposure, I was lucky on this day as the sky was quite clear of clouds and very blue. I followed the shadow of the column along the ground until I was standing on the shadow of his head. This set the sun directly in front of him. As I walked up and down the shadow line taking different compositions, I was spotted doing this and a couple of people followed me. I helped them get a decent photo too.

St Paul’s Cathedral is an immediately recognisable building and is part of the classic skyline of London. It has recently undergone a cleaning and refurbishment of its façade to remove all the grime and muck that has settled on its exterior, from the heavy London Traffic.

Here is a brief introduction from wikipedia:

St Paul’s Cathedral is a Church of England cathedral dedicated to Paul the Apostle. It sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the seat of the Bishop of London and the mother church of the Diocese of London.

The present building dates from the 17th century and was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. It is generally reckoned to be London’s fifth St Paul’s Cathedral, all having been built on the same site since AD 604. The cathedral is one of London’s most famous and most recognisable sights. At 365 feet (111m) high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1962, and its dome is also among the highest in the world.

I like this photograph as it uses some traditional compositing techniques, primarily framing and rule of thirds. The sun was a little too strong at this time of day, however any later and the surrounding foliage of the frame would have been too dark. The dark clouds tell of the weather to come, which is a great British past time, talking about the weather.