Gallery of framed London prints taken from the air.
I won a competition — nothing to do with photography, I hasten to add. The prize was a helicopter trip, and they kindly agreed I could use the flight to take photographs of London from the air. It was tremendous fun, and because the prints I made look so different from my other work I decided to create a separate gallery called
As I know film best, I took two cameras with me. My medium format camera, which I would use to shoot black-and-white Ilford 400 ISO, and my Canon A-1, loaded with Fuji Velvia colour slide film. It was a beautiful day with plenty of fluffy clouds; we got down low for some strong panoramics and climbed nice and high for shots like the one in the picture above.
We got down low to enable me to take the image above, which gives a stronger perspective and sense of scale. You can see it here in the gallery. I love this print for its contrast — plenty of subtle greys, with deep blacks and bright whites sitting at either end of the spectrum. I have this print hanging in my office.
I was incredibly lucky with the weather. I managed to capture the streaks of sunlight in the black and white shot on the left, and later I was treated to the most stunning sunset. Both of these images needed just the right amount of cloud cover to make them work. You can see the black and white one here. You can see the colour print here.