Up and down the City Road

In recent years I've been "up and down the City Road" many times. However, it wasn't until recently that I discovered it is the very same City Road that features in the children's nursery rhyme, "Pop Goes The Weasel". The Eagle pub is round the corner that is below the two new towers on the left of the photograph, on a bit and on the right near the top of the street named Shepherdess Walk. The character in the nursery rhyme wouldn't recognise City Road today, nor would he encounter many shepherdesses. On our recent visit I quickly snapped this shot because it seemed to represent everything that is London in the evening rush hour.


photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

The march of the towers

In London towers are proliferating. During the past few years I have particularly noticed the march northwards from the City. Three have been built in the past few years in the City Road/Old Street area, a location where Islington meets Shoreditch and Farringdon. The most recent is the rightmost building above - the Atlas Building - a structure that is over 400 feet tall and towers over its neighbours. None of these enhance their location, dwarfing as they do the earlier streetscape. And, by the look of them, none of the other nearly completed blocks do much for the area either.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

The value of blur

Many photographers aspire to the sharpest photograph that they can achieve, seeking lenses and bodies that deliver the most minute details. There is a place for sharpness and detail, but there is also a place for blur. There are situations and subjects where his can deliver interest whether it is deliberately sought by de-focus, caused by an obscuring layer or is induced by movement. This shot, taken through the slightly smeared windscreen of a moving car on City Road, London, has qualities I like that a sharp exposure of the subject would lack.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10