I've been meaning to get down to Battersea Power Station for quite a while now but it seems that whenever I find the time to make the trip the mood of the day has not been quite right. On a Saturday afternoon in January the weather seemed nicely menacing, it was one of those eerily calm afternoon's when the air is really still.
I began taking photographs from the embankment just beside the busy road. I figured there must be thousands of photographs of the Power Station taken from this perspective so started looking for an alternative. I walked back along the road and saw what looked like a ladder down into the Thames bank, but to get to the ladder I first had to climb over a spiked metal fence then balance along a wall which to the right of me dropped about 20ft straight down into the Thames. Luckily the tide was at its lowest and because of this I realised I could clamber down these ladders and actually take my shots from the riverbed its self.
The ground below was extremely wet, muddy and very slippery, but I carried on and hung around down there long enough until my nerves had calmed and I could begin shooting.
I carefully negotiated the rocks and mud to get to where I wanted to be, which was just on the other side of the railway bridge where the Power Station would be directly in front of me. at this point I was beginning to regret my decision to climb down as I was still a bit shaken from the descent down the old ladder, it had began raining and my jeans and shoes where covered in grey clay plus in front of me was a sewage pipe that I needed to climb over to carry. I figured I'd came this far now so might as well carry on and stay down here for the duration, relax and get some shots I can be proud of.
I tried my hand to a bit of wildlife photography, There was a Swan hanging around, I threw a small rock in the direction of a group of seagulls which where meandering on the river bed about 50 meters away. I thought if I can get them to take flight it might add more drama to the shot. it worked really well, in fact they all flew in a big group and made two circuits across the river, back over my head and then back down into their original spot. I repeated the process a couple of times and shot blind with my wide lens hoping one of the shots will come out as I saw it in my head. the above image came out close, but I really wish I could have captured the birds flying with the swan positioned as it is in the above image.
Shot RAW on Nikon D300s at 15mm.
