Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Charing Cross escalators

click photo to enlarge
If anyone were to look for favourite formal characteristics in my photographs - compositional themes rather than subjects - I think (hope) they would notice, strong shapes, shadows, reflections and both simple compositions and complex, even confusing, compositions.

Five years ago I came upon a location in London that indulges all those predilections. Charing Cross railway station has escalators that take pedestrian down from the bridge level or up to it from the station below. They are the work of a notable firm of British architects who re-developed the whole station - Terry Farrell and Partners. The big circles, mirror walls reflecting the passing travellers, and the diagonals of the ever-running escalators drew my camera recently for the second time. A late afternoon on a dull day gave more shadow and artificial light to the scene than did the better light of my earlier shot.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen
Photo Title: Charing Cross Station Escalators, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 16mm (32mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f4.1
Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec
ISO:1600
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On