Listed Buildings To Visit And Photograph

If you want to take a daily walk or a free tour of your area of the city where you are living or visiting, look at a map and find the historic buildings nearby. You might pick historic buildings in your nearest high street, or old buildings in the countryside or down leafy side streets.

Map Search
My family did a search in north west London and we were amazed at the number of listed buildings. A great opportunity for a walk and some photography.

St Anselm's Church, Hatch End.
Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Timing Your Trip
If your primary aim is fresh air and free of noise, you might choose to walk early in the morning. A late uncle of mine used to travel the world and take photos (actually colour slides - I still have them) of temples and buildings around the world at dawn.

You might also try gardens and parks with the morning dew. Carry a plastic bag like a dog poop scoop to remove litter from the ground, especially cigarette butts dropped around doorways, for your romantic photos.

Reality Pictures
Other people prefer to show life how it is. They like to reveal that beauty spots are ruined by litter. The french word verite or truth or reality comes to mind. Ralists want to show that third world countries are slums, dumps, poverty stricken, and not the idyllic places of our dreams. I like to take one of each. First the reality, then how it looked after I cleared it.

People Pictures
I also take a place without people and with people. I had an editor who always wanted people in photos. He said people made it interesting.

Local Characters
But you also need the right people. Do you want to show only local people to match the venue. Or tourists enjoying the trip. Or people meeting the locals?

A Chinese magazine might want only Asians. Or they might want only foreigners, because that's what readers aspire to imitate, or because that fits the text. Or because they already have lots of local people and want something different.

Fashions
I found that people in last year's fashions dated a photo. They look untidy with shirts hanging out. They were inelegant. For a fashion magazine the aim would be to include cute characters.

Passers-By
Passers-by are often keen to pose.
They might move and caused blur.

What if you want a natural shot. Even people standing still or slumped can be an anomaly. An amazing number of people shut their eyes, cover part of their faces, glare, stand looking gormless.

Others are in the wrong place with trees and lamp posts growing out of their heads.

They run forward demanding money. Or try to rob you whilst you are taking a photo.

They move hands and wave and cause blur. They move out of shot at the last moment, leaving bits of bodies. You get a disembodied arm or foot as if you are chasing a fugitive.

The solution is to take lots of shots. Choose the best. (This is called bracketing.)

Twilight
I like twilight pictures. I won a competition from Polaroid and a ferry company when we were given Polaroid cameras. I took a statue silhouetted against the still light evening sky.

Angela Lansbury, travel photographer and writer, author and speaker.