Evening photography at the Sky Garden
Last week, I paid another visit to London, taking my camera with me. Late in the afternoon, I went down to the Thames and captured long-exposure shots of the Shard from the north side of the river:

The Shard
Then I paid my second visit to the Sky Garden (my first was earlier this year, when sunset was before 6pm). Here’s what it looks like inside:

Interior of the Sky Garden
Last time I was unable to take any photos across the city because of all the reflections from interior lights, but this time I came prepared.
As with virtually all indoor visitor attractions nowadays, tripods aren’t allowed, so I didn’t even bother getting mine out. Instead, I cradled my camera on scrunched-up bubble wrap atop a low window-sill. Exposure-bracketing combined with my camera’s self-timer yielded a series of shots that I could combine using Lightroom’s new HDR feature, and manual exposure-blending in Photoshop. Unfortunately, the skies failed to clear, as I had hoped. Even so, as dusk fell and the city lights came on, I secured a series of memorable shots westwards across the London skyline and, before I packed up to catch my train, eastwards towards Canary Wharf.

The start of dusk in London

The lights start to come on in London

Night falls over St. Paul’s Cathedral

Night falls over Canary Wharf