We met in the morning, with "The Tower Bridge Experience" being the first stop for most of us, although one or two decided that the high walkways weren't for them and waited for us down below. I always find Tower Bridge is more photogenic at night, so although my first picture is of Tower Bridge, it was actually one of the last pictures I took that day. I have shuffled around quite a few of the pictures which follow so as to give a guided tour around the area we covered, but if you want a better idea of how we actually did it on the day, click here
As I enjoy my evening photography, I took quite a lot of pictures of a floodlit Tower Bridge. Here is the final picture I took that day: a close-up shot of the high walkways.
From the west walkway, you look down towards where HMS Belfast is moored. There were some rather more work-a-day boats moored down there as well.
From the east walkway, you can look towards Docklands and Canary Wharf, but the weather didn't make pictures of buildings in the distance very attractive, so I concentrated on Butlers Wharf, which is alongside Tower Bridge. The picture on the left was taken later in the day from the north side of the river.
In the south tower of Tower Bridge, a number of sculptures of Victorian working men have been installed in the roofspace.
I particularly liked this sculpture of a man using a hammer. It seems to work equally well as a colour picture or a monochrome one, and I haven't decided yet which way I will use it in next season's club competitions, but I'm pretty sure that this is a picture that will get used one way or another.
After we had finished looking at the high walkways, we descended into the engine room, where there is a display of how the bridge lifting mechanism used to work when it was steam powered. Here is a boiler exhibit.
I was fascinated by the animated figures of Victorian workmen discussing a visit of Edward, Prince of Wales. I tried using the lighting of the exhibit, and I tried using flash. Neither particularly satisfied me, but you may be able to make out the cat and the mug on the floor by the workman.
In a corner of the gift shop, I found this waxwork figure sitting in a booth. I'm not quite sure what his function was!
Most of the pictures I took within St.Katharine Docks were taken at twilight, but the one on the left is a daytime shot. A twilight rendition of the building behind the ship appears on the right.
I think this is one of my most successful twilight pictures of the day. When I took it, there was a line of three of us with cameras on tripods pointing at this building: myself, Stephen, and a photographer who had no connection with Bromley Camera Club!
This picture is taken from the dock basin behind the building in the last picture.
The picture on the right is as near as I could get to the shot that I had hoped to take that day. The exact vantage point I wanted is now occupied by a large sailing vessel!
The picture on the left is a close-up view of some of the boats at their mooring in the dock basin.
These two pictures are looking across the dock to some of the apartment buildings. The top of Thomas More Square can be seen behind the dock buildings.
Earlier in the afternoon, we left the dock area and walked across to Thomas More Square, and then looked back at the other side of the dockside apartment buildings. Here is some of the detail from those buildings.
I took some close-up pictures of Thomas More Square as I was interested in the reflections. I got warned off by a security guard just as I was really getting going, though, and will have to go back another day once I have a photography permit!
After being warned off Thomas More Square, we walked up Leman Street and along Prescot Street, and eventually ended up at Minories, where there is a building with orange reflective windows. It is surrounded by interesting buildings which make even more interesting reflections. These pictures were taken before we went back into St.Katharine Docks for our twilight photography session.
