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View of the St. Paul's Cathedral in London, England From the rooftop bar of an adjacent building Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved |
Someone, somewhere, once said "the only thing that is certain in life is change."IN THE context of photography, change takes the form of "improvements" by humans, and destruction by humans and by nature (primarily through fire, flood, misuse, and disuse). Prime examples of "human" change include such "improvments" as colorful metal roofs on formerly rustic buildings in rustic settings; the building of roads and of new (often modern) structures that do not blend with the former landscape (and its often Arcadian beauty); and the addition of modern "infrastructure." All of this is - I suppose - in the name of progress.
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Rooftop Viewpoint of St. Paul's Cathedral - London With new "safety" barricades installed Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved |
BUT RECENTLY, I was (rudely in my view) reminded of another phenomena of change by humans. in September, we spent a week in London, England. It is, as an aside, a wonderful city to visit. If you haven't, I highly recommend spending some time there. This was our second, week-long visit there and for the most part, we found new things to do on this trip. We would be spending the majority of our time on of two different couples (both of whom we met aboard cruise ships). We flew in to LHR on Monday morning and our friends, Carol and Rob, from Manchester, England, joined us for a short walk-around, stopping at a few local pubs in Paddington, where we were all staying, and dinner that night. We spent the next 2 1/2 days with them.
Barricades, unfortunately for photographers, often impede visual access to certain scenic views
ONE OF the places we revisited was a splendid view of the central St. Paul's Cathedral and the London skyline. There is a restaurant/bar on the top floor of an adjacent shopping mall, where there is a patio giving a wonderful view of the cathedral dome against the London sky. On a walking tour of London in 2021, our guide took us there. It is freely accessible and there is an elevator to the top. We only went for the view (and for me, the photographs). On this trip - just 4 years later - our "mission" was a bit different. We planned to sit and have drinks at the bar with the view (I don't believe our British friends had been there and it was a bit of a treat to show them someplace we knew). The view is still spectacular. But I was dismayed to see that the "powers that be" had installed a 6 - 8 ft high plexiglass barrier around the entire perimeter of the viewing area! A little post-trip research revealed that in 2023, on two different occasions, people jumped to their death from this viewpoint. As you can see from my 2021 image, it would have been relatively easy to clmb the prior barrier (which is easily visible in the first two images) for this purpose. The low railing was more of a "common sense" warning to visitors who were - presumably - forbidden to go past it. It was, however, easy enough for a photographer to walk up to the railing and exclude it from their photograph. It made for, in my opinion, a much nicer and perhaps more dramatic view of the dome.
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Rooftop View of St. Paul's Cathedral - London, England Copyright Andy Richards 2021 - All Rights Reserved |
THE PLACING of "safety" barriers in strategic spots around the world is becoming a "thing." These barricades, unfortunately for photographers, often impede visual access to certain scenic views. I am not trying to be insensitive here. There are certainly valid arguments for such barriers to prevent accidental falls, etc. I suspect, however, that a much more significant reason for these barriers is because of people who have abused the freedoms we have so long taken for granted, either by taking unreasonable chances around these scene, or in some cases, purposefully jumping off, or fall to their death. When I see these things, my first thought is what a shame it is that this has become necessary in our society! I know that when my parents visited The Grand Canyon, however, most of the popular viewing spots had no safety railings. Today, most of them do. The reason is people. People (and perhaps especially photographers) often take unreasonable risks in places like this. I understand the reasoning behind the safety barriers. Still, I lament the days when things were naturally open to us - when presumably we exercised a modicum of common sense. For those who are not photographers, you might ask: "what's the big deal?" You can still see a wonderful view of the church. The barriers only really come into play when you are trying to make nice photographic images. The way of the (new) world, I suppose. But to me, it is a shame this kind of thing has become necessary.
PERHAPS A bit ironically, we recently returned from a 3-week trip to Europe, the first week spent in London, and then off on a cruise ship from Southampton up into the Norwegian Fjords. My archival process generally takes me some time to complete and I usually don't start writing the blog posts until I have been through all of my images from a trip, so I am just now getting to the post writing process. As readers here know, the blog is as much a "travelog" as it is about the other aspects (technique, gear, musings, etc.). The irony? I leave again in just 2 days, for 10 more days out in the field; this time in my beloved Vermont, which means I will probably be MIA for another couple weeks of posting (at least one). Then I am back for pretty much the balance of 2025, so will work to catch up. In the meantime, I hope you all will get out and enjoy what is shaping up to be a pretty good fall foliage season!