St. Mary's, Gateshead Heritage Centre

Nestled between the Tyne Brige and The Sage building lies the Church of St Mary's which is now also home to a visitors centre. A fact, which until very recently, I was completely unaware of. I pass this way a lot and have noticed the bell tower of the church so thought I'd take a look to see if it would provide an alternative view of The Sage building or the Tyne Bridge. These are two of the most photographed structures in the North East and getting an original angle or composition proves to be very difficult. So, I was a little excited when I took an initial walk around the location and saw a couple of compositions that might work. The image below was the first one I took.

St Mary'sConversion to black and white provides more focus on the composition/framing

The next image comes from one of my best self-learned tips in Photography. 'Look behind you'. Quite often you'll approach location and spot an obvious composition. You'll then spend 5 minutes or more studying the light and deciding on the focal length, getting your tripod into position, finalising the compostion, etc, etc and what you will end up with is an image you're content with. You'll then pack up your gear and head off, only to discover that as you drive away, there's something you didn't spot and you kick yourself! For me, I still prefer the first image but what I like about the image below, is that there is a juxtaposition between the old, weather-worn gravestones and the sleek, architectural lines of a modern, iconic building. Which had I not turned round, I would have missed completely.

In the following image, even at 24mm it just wasn't quite wide enough to get the full width of the building in, so I decided I would go for a panoramic shot. It's made up of 3 frames, stitched together and processed to give a light and airy effect, which is very different from the black and white above. 

The final image I took was from a great view of the Tyne Bridge which I had not seen before. It's on my list to go back and photograph at sunrise as this will provide a nice light on this side of the bridge. Nearly all of the images I see of the Tyne Bridge are taken from the other side so I'm looking forward to getting back there.