Solar Shard

I glanced at my watch as I strode out of the Tube station and through the drizzle into the emerging daylight. The time was one minute before sunrise – but would the clouds cooperate? I was heading once again for Primrose Hill, a popular site for viewing the sun rise over London’s cityscape, which I’d first visited on the winter solstice. This was my fifth visit in four weeks, and I was determined to capture a particular scene, a particular moment, that I’d forecasted one month ago. To get the shot, the sun would need to actually show up, and in rainy London that’s never certain. At home in the pre-dawn darkness, it was raining hard and the forecast was gloomy. I need to make a go/no-go decision 45 minutes before sunrise to reach to Primrose Hill on time. It’s always a gamble. Today I gambled and won.

But let me scroll back a bit. Last month, when I used The Photographer’s Emphemeris (TPE) app to prepare for that winter solstice photo, I noticed the sun would appear to rise close to The Shard, London’s tallest building and one of its most striking skyscrapers. Using the app to step forward in time, day by day, I determined the sun would appear to rise directly behind The Shard two weeks later, on the 6th of January. Cool: I made a note to return then!

(At left, the red pin is Primrose Hill; the yellow/orange lines extending to the southeast show the direction of the sun at sunrise, 8:05am. The Shard is under the word Southwark. At right, zooming into Southwark, we see the sunrise path passing right through the Shard.)

I had a vision for a specific shot, with the sun appearing to perch atop the Shard’s pointed peak. I quickly realized that, of course, when the sun rises directly behind the Shard you will not see the sun at all – it’s hidden behind the base of the Shard and other buildings in the London skyline. The best date would be a few days later, when the sun rises to the left (east) of the Shard, and travels up and westward to reach the peak of the Shard. So I returned on January 10. It was quite cloudy, and the sun never fully appeared, but I could tell it was still too soon for the magic to happen.

After several more cloudy days, January 14 promised to be a cloudless morning. With the temperature hovering around freezing, frost covered the grass and the pavement was slippery as I climbed Primrose Hill once again. Sunrise was due at exactly 8:00am. The sun peeked out of a tiny, distant cloud bank at 8:05am and intersected the Shard at about 8:13am. In a matter of minutes, as it appeared to squeeze through the transparent tips of the Shard, the sun’s golden ball was fully past the Shard by 8:17am. Wow!

Wonderful though that was, it seemed we might have two or three more days with this opportunity. Today, January 16, the pre-dawn rain almost kept me home. But, with faith in the forecast, I pushed through the drizzle and waited for the sun. It was hidden behind deep clouds, and finally appeared after having passed the Shard. I could hear a lion roaring – wait, what? Ah, of course. I remembered the London Zoo is in sight, at the bottom of Primrose Hill, and the lions were happy to see the sun.

Don’t miss the photo gallery for full-res photos, and more photos.

[Update: I went back three more times – on 16th, 19th, and 20th January – just in case there would be another opportunity with the sun slightly higher, resting right on the point of the Shard, but the sun was always behind clouds. On January 20 the sun was trying to peek out above some low clouds, and from the position I could tell that it was too high to have touched the Shard today. But the ambient lighting was illuminating the near face of the Shard well, so it was more clearly visible than in all the backlit shots which included the sun.]