Photography Ride

Sunday, 18 April 2010 - 9:00am - 12:30pm

Something a little different, organised by Peter Barlow, this is a competition to test your route planning and observation skills and your London knowledge, with prizes for the best team. The programme is as follows:
Meet at 09.00 on top of the Green Bridge, Mile End Park [map].
Lunch at 12.30 on the South Bank - picnic on the grass if fine, possible retreat to a nearby café if not. Prepared lunch will be available for approx £2-3 (order and pay on the day) or bring your own.
Afterwards make your own way home or cycle back in company to Mile End.
This is graded "Moderate" as, although the ride pace will be easy and distances are quite short, it will include locations in central London (so there may be some busy streets), and groups will need to work out their own route and be self-sufficient. Therefore it's not really suitable for children or novice cyclists.
As well as yourself and your bike bring along a London Cycle Map No. 7 (or A-Z). Also bring a digital camera (or mobile phone with camera) if possible - but if you don't have either just make sure you are in a team with someone who does! The challenge of this event is to find a variety of scenes and locations, not the quality of the photograph, so you don't need anything expensive or exotic.
Note that this is NOT a led ride, you will be riding in small groups of 4-5 people. If you don't have a group to come along with, don't worry you can join up with others on the day.

Ride difficulty:

Moderate

Ride distance:

15 miles

This ride was supposed to be a photography competition. For whatever reason, there were only four of us on that day: Peter, Geoff, Dave and Bob. But because not many riders turned up, we decided to skip the competition part.

Peter gave us a list containing 18 spots to take photos. Dave and I spent about 15 minutes planning a route that would take us round most of the photo locations. Location boundary was between Stratford and Pimlico, with all locations north of the Thames. Several locations were ditched because we couldn't make head or tail out of them. We went off on our way with Peter and Geoff tailing us from time to time.

A quick run down of the places we did:

Northwards to Columbia Rd to find a large "123" sign, which was eventually located on Bethnal Green Road. Then southwest towards St Mary Axe to find the church and the gherkin. Into the City to see the fountains at Somerset House, followed by the red phone boxes opposite Charing Cross station. Off to Trafalgar Square for the 4th Plinth, which currently has a statue of Sir Keith Park on it. Curiously, we didn't see any Number 15 Routemasters until we got lucky and found one hiding in a back lane towards Whitehall. It was then down Whitehall -- the Olympic venue for beach volleyball. Heading towards Westminster and some creative camera positioning to frame Big Ben and Westminster Tube Station in the same picture. A picture of Boudicca near Westminster Bridge and it is back towards Tower Hill along the Embankment. The final photo on this route is the St Katherine's Doc sundial, framed to include Tower Bridge in the background.

At the end of the ride, we rode across Tower Bridge and had a picnic at Potter's Field. All in all, an interesting ride across London with plenty of sunshine and clear skies.

Bob

Pics by Bob

Big Ben and Westminster tube