I try to avoid putting my tripod feet in the holes left behind by others, but occasionally, temptation is too strong. The results were recently announced for the 2018 Landscape Photographer of the Year. Among the selected pictures was one by Dave Fieldhouse of Battersea Power Station surrounded by cranes, seen across the rail lines leading in and out of Victoria Station. This is a very well known view, and indeed another version of it appears in my copy of volume 2 of the LPOTY book from 2008 (by Neil Williams).

The cranes around the gutted power station are so striking that I really had to have a go at it myself. One further thing I wanted to have a go at was to get streaks of light from the trains as they passed through: the Fieldhouse version has no passing trains.

The first time I went, I wanted to see if the cranes were still there: I found five people with tripods there already! It looked as though the LPOTY effect was in full force. A couple of weeks later I went back with my own tripod, plus the D810 and 70-200. Fortunately, it was raining, and I had the view to myself.

The picture shown here was taken at 85mm, f/16, ISO 64 and 30sec. I wanted a long exposure to get the train streaks, hence f/16, which has the advantage also of ensuring the picture is sharp front-to-back. The clock on the train shed says 17:15 (this was just after the clocks had changed and the evenings were dark already at this time). Note how some of the streaks actually stop in the middle of the picture: this is the trains being held before entering Victoria (anyone who has taken the train into London knows the frustration of being held just outside the station).

I’ve made an A3 print of this, and it looks spectacular. It is worth clicking on the picture to open it at full size.