Photography Challenge 2: Night Photography–London at night

Photography challenge this time proved to be very challenging. Reason, you may ask? Oh well, nothing more than poor old fate, I guess. For some reason, every time I tried taking my camera out this time, it snowed, sleeted and rained HEAVILY. The temperatures were sub-zero most of the time, which meant condensation on the lens, ruining any chance of taking a “Night” photograph (the lights looks awful if there is condensation on your lens).

Long story short. I had few very clear shots in mind when I set out to do this challenge. I did manage to capture a few despite all the adverse condition but not all the different ideas I had in mind. I will try them out some time later.

Anyway, without further ado, here are my shots for the Night Photography challenge:



Since I have been complaining about the weather, here is a picture showing the extent of snow. And yes, its a night time picture (see the street light in the background?). Don’t be fooled by the brightness of snow.

This is a picture of Piccadilly Circus (circus here refers to circle and not an actual circus) at night time. This is basically a junction of roads with neon lights (like time square in New York). And yeah, it is one of the posh place in London. It is part of London’s West End (It has now become the most expensive location in the world in which to rent office space, just FYI).

This picture has been inspired by +Trey Ratcliff’s picture of Piccadilly circus. Not as majestic as his work, but I did imagine this to be a night picture unlike his.

The next image is of the famous Regent street. It is a nice (read expensive) shopping place. This is a picture taken from the Piccadilly circus (yes, it is in West End). Interesting fact about Regent street: Every building in Regent Street is protected as a Listed Building, at least Grade II status, and together they form the Regent Street Conservation Area (from Wikipedia).



Last, but not in any means least, this is Buckingham Palace at night. The picture didn’t come out the way I would have liked. Partly due to the reason that it started to rain at this point and my camera lens had started to form a layer of condensation (see the street lights). Some day, I will get a better shot than this.
That’s all for tonight. For the people interested in visiting London at some point, here is my little map showing the relative position of the Buckingham Palace and Piccadilly circus from my last stop during my last trip around London. (I have these maps for my reference. I would like to take my friends around London without getting lost as I tend to do more often than not.):



I ended my trip at Westminster bridge (Big Ben and House of Parliament). Buckingham Palace is about 5 min walk from there and Piccadilly circus would be about 10-15 min more. That is, if you can get there without getting lost.