Hazy London view

Whether you are an analogue or a digital photographer you will probably know about and use filters with your camera. I loved a red filter with black and white photography to produce high contrast skies. I'm also partial to a vignette and a neutral density filter, and I've used polarising filters for decades. But sometimes I think weather is the best filter of all. Shooting against the light (contre jour) gives great silhouettes and contrast. Snow gives strong emphasis to line in a scene and fog mutes colour and gives the effect of layers of different shades. Haze offers some of the same qualities as fog, but less so. This photograph of Tower Bridge taken from London Bridge has muted colours and objects become less definite with distance. The distant towers of Canary Wharf are depicted almost as if painted by a water colourist.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

A view from Tower Bridge

I've taken a few photographs from Tower Bridge, the iconic structure that crosses the River Thames in London near the Tower of London. None of them have been anything special. Today's isn't either though it does have two qualities that I like. Firstly, it's one of those contre jour shots that features very little in the way of colour. In fact, it is almost monochrome.That is only partly due to the materials that feature in the Shard, the London Assembly building and the ridiculously named "More London" office blocks. Secondly it wouldn't be much of a composition without that handily placed large, dark cloud filling the empty sky to the left of the Shard.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100