I am London photographer who has been capturing the city’s skyline for many years. So, I was delighted to have been commissioned to shoot the new Sky News studio backplate.
Sky News are now based in Westminster. They wanted a background for the LED volume behind the newsreaders. It was vital this reflected their location – right in the UK’s political centre. The background was to be dynamic – with small animations visible to viewers. Importantly, the scene would also change with the seasons and the time of day.
Sky’s first requirement was for a winter image. This would show the view exactly how it appears in winter, with the trees bare and a wintry sky. I shot from the medieval tower at the Garden Museum near Lambeth Bridge. I was on location to capture different times of day – from sunrise (a fairly civilised start time in winter – unlike the summer shoot!) to daytime and sunset.
Having waited all day for the right light conditions with a glimpse of winter sun, there was a moment where I captured this very pink light – made so by a Saharan dust cloud over London. When I came to work on the images I’d captured throughout the day, this very pink image revealed another oddity – two foxes right up on a graffitied rooftop. You can see them hanging out in the crop from a much bigger image below.
Here you can see the new winter background in a video from Trevor Phillips’ Sunday Morning show.
One of the thrills as a London photographer is to document the ever-changing skyline. So, for me to do so, and for it to be seen by millions of people daily is a real privilege.
To view more of my work as a London photographer, please visit the gigapixel portfolio here.