Canary Wharf at night

Tuesday, January 22nd 2016

When I met Tigger from work this evening, she announced that she wished to go to Canary Wharf to photograph the Winter lights before they disappeared. Not having had an intimation of this plan, I did not have my camera with me. The choice before me, therefore, was either to take no photos or to use my mobile’s camera. As I have mentioned before, we have the iPhone 6 and while Tigger uses hers a lot for photography (and seems to have got to grips with it pretty well), I rarely use mine for that purpose. Still, needs must when the devil drives.

Not having my camera, neither did I have my geotagger for locating the photos. Happily, I had the GPS turned on and the phone’s camera dutifully inserted the latitude and longitude of each photo in its EXIF data. I couldn’t produce a map showing our path but I could at least locate each scene.

With my camera, I use the viewfinder whenever possible but with the phone I had to use the preview screen. This is bad because however steady you think your hands are, they in fact shake. You can perhaps get away with this during daylight when exposures are short and the shake hardly shows up but at light, when light levels are low and exposures long, it is always going to be a factor.

I have straightened a couple of the photos and joined two to make a composite. I also cropped the three pictures of Fantastic Planet slightly. Apart from that I haven’t edited the photos at all.

The above two were taken in W. India Avenue, looking towards Cabot Square.

Fantastic Planet
Amanda Parer

This huge inflatable ‘sculpture’ by Amanda Parer was in Westferry Garden.

Westferry Garden and surroundings

This compposite of two photos was taken from the west of Westferry Garden, looking east across the garden. The white glow in the centre of the garden is part of the sculpture Fantastic Planet shown above.

Looking across the Thames

This view across the Thames was taken looking roughly west.

The fountain, Cabot Square

The moon and 1 Canada Square

The building with the pyramidal roof topped by a flashing light to warn off helicopters has become the symbol of Canary Wharf though in reality it is known as 1 Canada Square. Here it seems to be hobnobbing with the moon.

Apple have recently engaged in an advertising campaign to persuade the public of the excellence of the iPhone 6 camera and I have to agree that it is quite good – for a phone camera. In ideal lighting conditions (sunlit exteriors, for example), it produces fairly good results but in less optimum conditions it starts to struggle. To be fair, though, I am not accustomed to using it and not being able to brace the phone against my face, as I would a viewfinder camera, may account for the lack of sharpness. Tigger certainly gets good results with her iPhone 6. Maybe I should ask her for lessons!

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