Not a good night for photography

Tuesday night after dark, I went out to take photographs for the Digital Camera Review's Canon Forum Mini Challenge - shots to be taken between dusk and dawn.

I started at the Royal National Theatre foyer. There is live music there every night to entertain the audiences before they go to see plays in the three theatres.



The Theatre is on the South Bank, next to Waterloo Bridge. When I got onto the bridge I realised I had made a big mistake. The wind was gusting so strong I couldn't use a tripod. I had to cling on to the railings to prevent myself and camera being blown into the river.

Looking east from the bridge, St Paul's Cathedral can be seen together with the office lights in the City of London.

Looking west, you can see the Queen Mary, which is permanently moored there - I think its a bar and restaurant, though on Tuesday it was closed. In the distance you can see the London Eye Wheel and on the right the Houses of Parliament.

Walking north, I was glad to get off the bridge and stand in the entrance to Somerset House.

Parts of Somerset House date from the eighteenth century. Though the east wing shown in the photograph dates from the 1830's.

The building has a long and interesting history with a varied usage.


By now I was feeling cold and windswept, so I decided to go home, passing on the way The Royal Courts of Justice.

I saw these railings, when taking a short cut through Milford Lane, which is in spiting distance of the Temple Church, made famous by Dan Brown in his book the Da Vinci Code.

Walking along the Victoria Embankment, I came across these workers, doing preparation work before resurfacing one of the road lanes.


I was glad to leave them to finish their work and hurry home to get warm.

Photographic gadgets test report & review

Last week I wrote about the difficulties encountered using a camera tripod around London.

Someone posted on Digital Camera Review
a suggestion to use string to stabilise a camera when taking a long exposure shot.

YesBut has had his boffins' working on the suggestion. And here are the results.

Rather than just using one length of string stretching taught from the tripod socket to the ground. The string 'A''A''A' is wrapped around the waist, threaded through the waist band and secured tightly to the camera wrist strap and pulled tight over the lens.

This image stabilization system retains the tripod configuration, providing longitudinal and lateral constraint - while allowing the user to pan the camera.

YesBut's boffins, the geniuses they are have come up with other world beating pieces of technology.

Firstly the piece of string marked 'B'. Unfortunately the top end of the string is out of view. It is tied to a Global Positioning System satellite - or rather it will be as soon as they overcome some minor difficulties. In addition to giving the exact location a photograph is taken, it can also be used to dry cloths. The boffins assure me it will be available for general release after July.

You buy a shoulder bag or haversack and it cost £5, may be £10 or £15. Sew a couple of straps inside, call it a camera equipment bag and multiply the price by a factor of 5 or 10 . YesBut's boffins reassure me they will not set exorbitant prices for their new range of purposely designed photographers clothing.

The Photographers Pullover incorporates unique ventilation ports 'C', these will ensure photographers arms are maintained within an optimum temperature range irrespective of camera settings.

They have also designed a photographers wo0lly hat 'D'. Naturally a SRL woolly cap will cost more than a point & shoot cap. Also the price must naturally reflect the model of SRL used.