Photography from the Emirates Air Line
Having shared photos from both the Shard and the Sky Garden at the Walkie-Talkie, Iet me encourage you to take advantage of the fabulous views afforded by the Emirates Air Line. Opened in June 2012, it’s a cable car that spans the Thames between the Royal Docks and North Greenwich.
From it you get unforgettable views of the O2 Arena (formerly the Millennium Dome) and Canary Wharf to the west, the Thames Barrage at Woolwich, London City Airport and the whole of east London. I made the round-trip a couple of weeks ago in the early evening. The skies were overcast and dusk was yet to fall, so the light wasn’t great and my most striking image was a high-contrast conversion to black-and-white:
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My other images are in colour and intended to show you what’s possible. I took the photo above shortly after my ride started from Royal Victoria Dock and that’s where you get the best view of the Arena separated from Canary Wharf by the sweep of the Thames; this is the colour version:
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Further across the river, the former tends to eclipse the latter:
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Here’s a close-up:
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The cable cars themselves lend interest to views in either direction. This is looking back towards the south-west (Greenwich Royal Naval College is just distinguishable beyond the gasometer):
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And this is the noth-easterly view over the Royal Docks, towards Newham:
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I would be the first to say that the view would have been much better an hour later when the city lights were coming on (I finished my evening near Canary Wharf, capturing said skyscrapers from closer quarters). Taking useable photos , however, would have been a lot more difficult owning to reflections created by lights inside the cabin; the same would also be true, although not from internal lights, about taking shots on a sunny day. I shot between F5 and F8 to minimise reflection issues but, even then, still had to crop quite a bit to remove such distractions.
Getting to the Air Line is surprisingly easy; it’s just a couple of hundred yards on foot from Royal Victoria DLR station in East London, making it about half-an-hour from the City of London on this service. Alternatively you can take the Jubilee tube line to North Greenwich and start at the Millennium Dome end of the route.
It’s also not as expensive as you’d expect. You get 10 minutes in the air in each direction, for which you pay £9.00 return (or just £6.80 if you have an Oyster card or travelcard). Nor is it as busy as you might expect; I got a cabin to myself in both directions, enabling me to get the best angles without tripping over anybody else.
So if you’re thinking about your next photographic mission in London, take to the Air Line!