My work required quite a bit of travel. Depending on the volume of travel, I was either fortunate or cursed to be able to visit a number of cities around the world.
When I knew in advance that I would have a few hours of down time during a trip I packed my camera and a couple of lenses in hopes of adding to my collection of travel photos. I would grab a few shots around sunrise, between meetings, before dinner or during after-dinner walks.
It’s not the optimal way to photograph cities. I would prefer to scout a site, determine the best angles for photography and the time of day with the best sun position for lighting, then return at that time. But I had to make the “between meetings” technique work.
London is a city I visited a number of times on business. Its many iconic locations — Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the stoic guards — provide opportunities to capture recognizable travel shots during quick walks in the city.
Unfortunately, many of my trips were during late winter so I had few blue-sky days for shooting. If I was lucky I would get a day with some broken clouds and a bit of blue sky peaking through. But I’ve seen mostly gray, overcast skies behind Big Ben. Not the image I’d prefer, but it’s the best I could get.
My typical photo kit when I’m on business travel includes one camera body (I’m currently using the Canon EOS 7D) and two lenses – the Canon EF-S 10-22 for ultra-wide zoom capability and the Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L for standard to short telephoto zoom capability. I’ll occasionally pack the Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8L for telephoto capability if I think I’ll need the reach and don’t mind hauling some extra weight.
Credits:
All photos and text © Copyright - Pat D. Hemlepp. All rights reserved.