London Alive Walk: Photogenic London

My interest in photography led me to choose this out of the two walks every British Studies student was asked to take to introduce them to London. The guiding theme structuring this walk was the importance of composition. Professor Noble, the walk leader, led us along Thames past Gabriel's Wharf and the OXO Tower, under Blackfriars Bridge, through the Tate Modern, and across the Millennium Bridge to St. Paul's.

They were gorgeous! They were inspiring! They were nearly impossible to work into well-composed photographs!

I admit it--I was fussing internally over this, trying to apply everything I knew from taking photos back home and not feeling particularly successful.

Then it hit me:

I learned to photograph in the Southwest and West, where compositions include one mountain and sky, one cactus and sky, one interesting building (often a maximum of two stories high) and sky. Here in London, beautiful, tall, intricately detailed buildings crowd together with extremely tall churches, bridges, statues, signs, and telephone booths like they were all trying not to be the last ones out in a game of musical chairs. Not to mention the seven-odd million people (plus tourists).

Time to relearn how to compose.