Oh and the Shard is back in my viewfinder again but this time I'm stood on London Bridge and have captured the rarer sight of our building alongside it too. The sun it making it appear that the Shard has briefly turned into a giant firework.
I think from this angle you can clearly see we're cut from the same cloth as our giant neighbour. We've got the gentle curves whereas he is all sharp pointing so, but we're definitely the same family.
Russian Ukrainian V, multi-brothered J and ZZ have opted for a leaving do in the Oyster Shed, across the river from their former home from home. In fact I did wonder if the location was chosen so they could look back (fondly or otherwise) at where they'd just left.
I realised I'd been here once before back in April 2013. I'm not positive I would have recognised our building as the one we were due to move into one and a half years later. Back then I captured the soft pinks of a sunset but tonight the rain rendered the sunset very unremarkable, but at least the blue hour made the view a little more interesting.
For reasons not entirely understood, ZZ didn't turn up for his leaving do, does that mean he hadn't left?
It's been days since I've photographed that pointy building next door, but I'm on the balcony and the mid evening just after the sun has set and I cannot resist. The warm glow turns our very un-orange building all terracotta, and a perfect counterpoint of the darkening blue sky.
It's been irrational how much I've missed the escalators leading from the Jubilee line tube to our building. They closed them months ago, erected this huge wooden structure around them, and made us go all round the houses to get up to the level of our building. Finally, after me scowling at the closed sign nearly every day, they've painstakingly installed a roof over the escalators and let us back in. The roof is in the style of the etched glass panels on the Shard and The News Building, so the first view of the Shard as you ascend is now partially obscured. But the escalators are back, and I'm almost deliriously delighted about that!
Due to a very late (or more realistically very early) night in the office before the wedding and then the long day of the wedding itself I was in no fit state to attend birthday drinks for L(a). So to make up for that, we arranged to meet for drinks tonight. The Rooftop Café was closed for a private party so we head for the pointy building instead. We start off in the Aqua bar and tantalisingly in the restaurant we can see the beginning of a beautiful sunset. We way too far from the windows and importantly the only bar food on offer was nuts, and we wanted something to eat without a full blown meal. We check out Oblix, which was busy and an entirely different viewpoint. We check out Hutong restaurant as we can't seem to escape ftom the nuts but I wasn't crazy about the menu. After another complete circuit we end up in Hutong bar. I can tantalisingly see the huge golden ball but we're totally sat in the wrong spot for me to train my camera lens in the right direction.
We order the other option on the bar food menu that wasn't nuts. But they've run out do nuts it is. And we choose cocktails. Then there's the important business of birthday presents to be examined. We catch up, read through the book, eat nuts and...just a minute, where are our drinks? The bar isn't busy, but there's no enthusiasm regarding delivering our drinks. I suggest that we leave and try elsewhere. There's no hint of an apology, an explanation or drinks. Finally they arrive, and still no apology for the extensive wait. As an inducement to stay we are relocated to the window and eventually they offer to comp our drinks.
We've missed the sunset and are firmly in the blue hour. This is a view 90 degrees from the sun setting behind Southwark Cathedral and St.Paul's. But the Walkie Talkie building is definitely looking intriguing and the camera slung around my neck can finally come into play. I try a few settings and thought I would look at the handheld night shot option on my Leica again. This is where this creative tool comes into its own. I'm shooting through glass, the light is disappearing and I want some detail from the lights across the other side of the Thames. I'm rather pleased with the final result, missing the sunset was perhaps a good thing after all.
I haven't heard back from Leica regarding my errant dust magnet of a D-Lux so I think I better gather some more evidence and reach out. I have a photo I took on the way to Bruton Place last time, showing the second set of dust blobs, plus the one I took the moment the camera returned from its sojourn from its extended stay at the Leica spa. I had been surprised and gutted to see a third set of four distinct new blurry blobs courtesy of the sensor. It's hard to fathom how it can go from being pristine to full of dust again whilst all wrapped up en route via courier from the workshop. The conclusion drawn by the engineer is that something internally was flaking off and causing these distracting blobs visible when usng smaller apertures.
I wanted to make sure there was no glass possibly adding its own dirty blobs to any images so I thought I'd grab some lunch on the fourteenth floor and nip out onto the balcony for a spot of photography. However all the doors leading to the balcony seem to be locked for some reason.
So I dash downstairs and out onto the plaza for my test images. I look straight up into the sky to capture both the Shard and our building looking very much like they'd fit together, should it be needed. The sun is really shining and it's tricky to see through the viewfinder. I can see the tiny aperture is causing the sun to burst from behind the Shard and curiously everything seems bluer. But it's not until l get back in the lift I realise the white balance is utterly off-whack and the kelvin setting is strangely high.
I decided that the increased blue cool temperature would add an appropriate hue to my sad dust-filled image, as the problem is causing me a degree of desolation. I have cloned out the blobs, hopefully for the very last time, and await Leica's final conclusion. Fingers crossed!
For some curious reason since working almost next door I have only tripped over to the market to grab lunch on a handful of occasions. And often it's a Friday that the thought occurs, and of course that's the busiest day. Well weekday anyway, as Saturday used to be like the Waterloo and City line in rush hour but with nicer smells. I haven't headed to this neck of woods on a weekend for a seriously long time, so I don't know if it's quieter or even more rammed now. But Friday can still bring a lot of visitors shuffling slowly from stall to stall and I have my eye on the prize in the shape of fabulous fresh truffles tortellini courtesy of the Italian pasta stall. As I approach the glass entrance to Borough Market where the live demonstrations take place, I was struck by the reflection of the Shard behind me mingling with the greenery on the inside of the glass-fronted seating area. Yep it's that pointy building again.
The lure of some tasty food with friends has gotten me out of the office at a reasonable time and as a bonus, the sun hasn't set yet. And trust me, that's a rare sight for me. As I cross the road I observe the Green Cross Code, look left, and see the ever-present pointy building peeking out from between our building and the above the hostelries on the other side of London Bridge Street. And the cornflower blue sky with the sun hitting the terracotta bricks at the roof top just compelled me to stop and take a shot. I had to a stand in the middle of the road to get my composition, but luckily I had enough time before a black cab started heading towards me.
So I have continued with my mini project of grabbing my daily photograph in the 300 steps that comprise the journey between my front door and the bus stop each morning. But today’s offering was usurped on arrival at work. I’d been scowling at the eyesore that is currently obliterating the handy escalator that would whisk the weary commuter from the scrum of the Jubilee Line to just outside our front revolving doors. But no, as part of the "let’s really annoy all our passengers" campaign London Bridge station and Thameslink have apparently adopted, for weeks and weeks this escalator has been taken out of service with a vague promise at some unspecified date it will return into use, donning a natty roof.
We moved into our shiny new building at the end of November, we had just over a month of being able to travel from Waterloo via Waterloo East, one stop to London Bridge. You would take the escalator in Waterloo up to the mezzanine level and on arrival at London Bridge, join the crowds walking out the front onto the piazza, narrowly avoiding the buses leaving the bus station. It was slightly akin to a rugby scrum and the curious platform roulette at Waterloo East was a unpredictably annoying, but the alternative route whilst London Bridge Station 2.0 is transforming is much, much worse. Many of those who used to cram into the trains on the one-stop to London Bridge have been forced onto the already very crowded Jubilee line, and that also means three escalators down and three back up two stops later. And this last one of the six is the one we’ve been cruelly denied access to for so long. We’ve also been exposed to the euphemistic term ‘customer easing’ which may imply passengers being relieved of some trouble but actually entails herding us into another part of the station and shutting off the travelator/escalators just to make the whole journey even longer and more tedious. And this morning drama will continue to enfold for another sixteen months, yay! This last leg of the commute is horrible but the final straw is this perfectly good escalator that is lurking behind an elaborately constructed hoarding.
As I shot it another vexed glance, I looked up and realised that if you stand just so on a certain spot the Shard appears to fit quite neatly into what was called the Baby Shard before we made it our home. I am most intrigued to know whether this particular quirk was something that Renzo Piano had in mind when he designed the two buildings. But whether intended or not it certainly makes a striking image and perhaps demonstrated our sibling similarities despite the obvious disparity of stature. A Shard/News Building jigsaw puzzle if you will.
Wow it's windy today. I nipped out on to the fourteenth floor balcony to look at the cityscape around us, the trains, the commuters, the roof top gardens and the life below us. The gulls seem to be out in force and enjoying catching the wind beneath their wings circling The Shard above me. I've noticed that if I position myself just so I could capture a striking image of a plane on the Heathrow flight path reflected on the shiny plane (see what I did there?) If I can keep my dancing get hair out of my eyes I might be able to take some photos, sadly I missed the homonymic (first time I've ever uttered that word!) but I managed this instead. For some reason despite the blue, blue sky the scene appears a little gothic, some sort of portence of doom but fortunately it's just birds and a photographer enjoying a blustery Spring late aftetnoon.
So I'm kind of combining two common themes to my photography today, The Shard and a sunset. I certainly have never been even close to capturing The Shard silhouetted against a dramatic pink and ochre sky but as a small compensation I can aim for the sunset reflected in it shiny slope. I particularly like the effect of the sky swirling about Southwark Cathedral, maybe a touch of Turner there, or more likely Monet.
I was languishing in the office on Friday night and noticed a Facebook status saying that m(A) and his lovely, and incredibly intelligent wife K, were enjoying a date night in Oblix in the Shard next door. I promised to wave and they suggested instead that I swung by. Hmmm, I had a new silk party dress arrive today by courier that I could christen, and I have some fabulous emergency sparkly shoes tucked away in my the cupboard. I've been assured that despite it being date-night, I'm not really crashing an intimate dinner á deux, so decision made...I could go to the ball, or bar even!
There's an impressive queue snaking outside the foot of the Shard but pleasingly I could flash my Project News card and jump the queue...sweet! I had been looking forward to seeing if that would work, and it does.
M(A) and K had commented that Oblix was like being transported back into the bar in Ally McBeal, and I could see exactly what they meant. There was something about the vibe with the female singer crooning a soft jazzy number, and the bar full of be-suited patrons in the vaguely American glass, and dark wood styled bar. It was almost as if a dancing baby would materialise and Vonda Shepherd would start warbling at any moment. I always found the dancing baby rather creepy, so was pleased that it didn't. You're facing a different direction that when dining at Aqua Shard so naturally I was compelled to try and capture this view. When we'd finished our drinks we debated leaving and heading for our respective homes, or perhaps heading to Hutong and having one more for the road. The lure of checking out the Asian stylings of another bar won over a sensible early night, so we opted for delicious cocktails and yet another view. We found a table but it was alarmingly close to the incongruously loud DJ so we hustled ourselves to a tiny cubby hole, at the farthest end of the bar, pressed against the glass and enjoyed another view. From our cosy vantage point we could overlook the HMS Belfast, Tower Bridge, the curve of the mayor's 'egg', the greeny glow of the Tower of London, the twinkling lights of the city and on the horizon, the towers of Canary Wharf. When it was time to leave again, it was very much Saturday already. I noticed that the timestamp on this photo was nearly 1am, so the decision regarding how to get home was made for me, Uber.
We're having a lovely evening of wine tasting and fabulous cheeses in one of our private dining rooms. I've been dying to check out our stylish dining facilities but no client yet has been worthy of such lavishing. I haven't got my camera around my neck sadly, but when I have to return to my desk to change into some more comfortable shoes, I can address that. The world below us is a mass of coloured lights, the railway, the track lights snaking into the distance and those in the city and docklands. I'm trying to turn off as many lights as possible to eliminate the dreaded reflections but I still don't really like the photos . Perhaps it's time to shake it up a bit by injecting a bit of intentional camera movement to the scene. As usual the Shard is dominating the picture and I love how it looks like an impressionist brushstroke rendered in ICM. London Bridge Station below being toiled on by men in high-vis jackets gives off an eerie green glow. The lights around Tower Bridge and further on into Canary Wharf twinkle in the dark. Yet another view from our building, but at least it's a different take.
I've mentioned previously the curious compulsion of our nearest neighbour and it is seemingly not abating. We are so close, that if you are on the London Bridge Station side of the building, the enormity of the Shard makes it impossible to ignore and you are forced to first look at it, and then look up. I don't know why but I have to see the point.
It was the same with Freida, the incredibly feisty octanagarian who lived downstairs, she liked to sit in the window and watch the world going by. Oh woe betide any of us who on leaving didn't turn back and wave. She certainly wouldn't take in your parcels, you were entirely persona non grata. The cocky guy in the basement flat bore the brunt of her righteous indignation for such an offence, no parcels for him! And many years after our unofficial concierge has died, I still always turn round after passing through the gate...just to check.
For some odd reason I'm reminded of that infamous Dr Who episode "don't blink", though to be fair the weeping angels are considerably more terrifying than Freida, or the omnipresent Shard, but there's certainly a mesmerising effect. So here I am at the top of our world staring up and up, but I can't see the distinctive shard of glass top to the structure. So I have to crouch down low and then try again. Not weird behaviour at all!
Another late night in the office and every time I leave I am compelled to look up to our big brother. The Shard is compelling, your eye is drawn to its towering pointiness. There are some annoying trees in the foreground so I have to get closer to eliminate them from my photograph which spoils the angle rather, but it's a fine building at any angle really.
I'm up on the 17th floor, which is as high as our building goes. It's a great spot for someone armed with a camera as you can walk the perimeter of the building, though your way is broken up by the meeting rooms, board rooms and client dining rooms. If they're empty you have a 360 degree view. From one end, on a sunny day you can get some great reflections in one of the sloping sides of the Shard, and today I was compelled to photograph it.
Thought I'd pop out on our blustery balcony On the fourteenth floor with my camera to see if I could get some interesting shots of the pointy, shiny, much taller building next door. I'm feeling somewhat dwarfed by the seventy two (or eighty seven, depending on where you stop counting) floors. I'd been waiting for a bit of sun because I figured it would be more interesting if reflections came into play. Not surprisingly I ended up capturing a rare and rather subtle selfie, but can you spot it?
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