click photos to enlarge
On thing that I miss with living in the country, and particularly in the country in a rural county such as Lincolnshire, is the opportunity to photograph modern architecture. It's not that there are no buildings where I live - there are - but they are mainly traditional in style, often relatively old, and usually feature bricks, stone, timber, pantiles, slate and occasionally thatch. Buildings made of glass, steel, concrete and other contemporary, man-made materials are found only in the small cities such as Lincoln or, more sporadically, in the bigger towns.Now I know that there are those who are thinking, "Lucky you, to have such subjects for your camera!", and the fact is I do enjoy photographing old and traditional buildings. But, I enjoy architecture of all periods, and the constructions of today hold just as much interest for me as those of 100, 500 or 1,000 years ago. So, when I visit somewhere such as London I don't ignore the older stuff, but I do photograph rather more of today's offerings.
Today's offering is a cluster of buildings I've never photographed before that goes under the name of the Broadgate Plaza. It is on the edge of the City of London near Liverpool Street Station. The towers were completed in 2009 and are the work of the Chicago firm, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM). As buildings they feature the blue glass and external diagonal bracing that is increasingly common. What caught my eye, and is more unusual, is the "flying buttresses" between the towers, with the glass canopy above. My first (and I think best) photograph was of one of these inclined stainless steel members with their black, granite-clad anchorage points. I include the smaller images to give the main photograph some context.photograph and text (c) T. Boughen
Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 24mm
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/60
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.67 EV
Image Stabilisation: On
