Canoes on the canal

Londoners must be envied - firstly because it's sunny again - check this, it is November :) and then because it has a lot to offer.

Ever heard of Little Venice and all the canals that service Londoners and make for great walks?

Today, was the day to take a closer look! First stop, Little Venice - closest tube station : Warwick Avenue on the Bakerloo Line. A short walk and we are there. Always great to have company!

We find the canal and start walking - lovely colours and lovely reflections on the water - not much traffic on the water - which is a bit of a shame ... and fortunately not many pedestrians either which is a plus point!

But we run into a bit of bother : full bladders and no appropriate facilities in sight ...

We resort to getting off the canal track onto street level and towards Primrose Hill.

ahhhh how lovely is that, relief is near by! The first pub on the corner is where we stop - not for long .. just to do you know what!

Regents Park Road is lovely and had it not been for the urge we would not have seen it!

Back on track, we continue along Regents Canal all the way to Camden Lock. A spot of (late) lunch and back along the canal.

Now it gets exciting - canoes on the canal! See, told you so, lots to do in London!

Time to bond

I don't particularly like wide angle lenses. Anything below a 50mm lens is classified as wide angle. In my view 35mm is, however, a very handy lens to have for interior shots or certain landscape images for example but anything below that really begins to distort an image.

Of course one can get very effective results using a wide angle lens and every serious photographer is bound to have a wide angle lens in his/her camera bag.

I own a very good Canon 17 - 35mm f 2.8L lens but hardly use it for the above mentioned reasons. I always enjoy getting in close to a subject and for that purpose prefer telephoto lenses (anything above 50mm).

But as of late I have been getting on very well with my Canon 50mm f.1.4 lens. I started using it more and more because it is so handy. It's not imposing and people seems to hardly notice it. How often have I worked with my Canon 70-200mm f.2.8L (quite a beast of a lens-heavy and fairly large) and caught the eye of many ...

I usually get approached with a friendly "great camera" to which I smile - it's not the camera they are attracted to, it's the lens ... but anyway bottom line is, attracted they are and I can't move around taking shots as unnoticed as I'd like to :)

Today, however I wanted to choose a location where I could bond a bit with my wide angle zoom.

I decided to go the the city and try my luck on some of the imposing buildings around Bank tube station. As soon as I reached street level I felt overwhelmed. One financial building next to the other and one bigger and more grand than the other. The streets seemed positively narrow compared to the heights (and widths) of the surrounding constructions.

Where to begin? I take a look through my lens and really don't like what I see. If you want to get the height you inevitably get too much foreground as well as the surroundings ... often coupled with an unpleasant dis figuration.

But hey, I'm here to make friends with my lens and to get to forge a greater understanding for its qualities ;)

So I get on with it and start pointing it at everything in sight ;) my first subject is the Royal Exchange. (Founded in 1565 and first opened by Queen Elizabeth I)

I'm not quite sure what the second encounter represents - but you may have a clue?!

On I went down to The Monument- There, I played around more freely and started to get a feel for what I can do with the lens. The surrounding buildings helped enhance the effect.

Then I moved on to more strange looking buildings - sorry don't know what they are called ... main thing is that I'm still having fun with the lens!

Finally I spot "The Cucumber" from a distance and make my way to it - It has become such a landmark and I have always wanted to see it up close and personal! Pretty impressive to say the least!