The London Eye. That elegant giant wheel perched on the Thames like it’s posing for a travel brochure. Obviously, it was the crown jewel on my London photo hit list. I was ready. Tripod in tow. Memory card cleared. Batteries charged. Nothing could stop me.
Except… cranes.
Construction cranes. Everywhere.
Apparently, post-pandemic London was in the middle of what I can only describe as a nationwide game of “How Tall Can You Build It?” I swear, every square inch of skyline had a crane arm jutting into the heavens like a steel middle finger aimed at photographers.
I tried to be strategic. I walked along the river, scoping out the best vantage point. And just for fun—or maybe punishment—I started counting the cranes.
Thirty-nine.
THIRTY. NINE. CRANES.
That’s not a skyline. That’s an industrial jungle gym with zero regard for aesthetics.
Still, I was determined. Eventually, I found the angle. The one. A view of the Eye without cranes cluttering the edges. I lifted my camera, hopeful, ecstatic…
And there it was.
Dead center. Smack in the middle of the glorious circle of the London Eye: a single crane. Like a pimple on Mona Lisa. Just swinging gently in the breeze, taunting me.
Did I scream internally? Yes. Did I think about sabotage? I’ll never admit it.
But then, the photographer in me whispered: “Patience, grasshopper.”
I unleashed every Jedi-level sales tactic I had—limited-time offer voice, big dramatic pauses, and even the ol’ “imagine how amazing this will look blown up on the wall” pitch—and somehow convinced my wife that returning at night to photograph the exact same giant wheel was her idea of a good time. To her eternal credit (and my eternal shock), she not only agreed… she was willing to help (carry some stuff).
So we waited.
Trisha and I returned six hours later, under the cover of darkness, with a tripod and a plan. Long exposure. Night sky. One shot clear. One motion blur.
Like a true ride-or-die, she stood there in the dark while I danced around like a caffeinated squirrel, whispering sweet nothings to my camera and muttering about ISO settings like I was decoding the Matrix. True love? No. This was art. Oh, and also definitely true love.
The crane, which had been the cocky star of my earlier shot, was now reduced to a ghostly shadow. Or better yet: irrelevant.
Camera: 1. Crane: 0.
Click. Boom. Magic.
10 Fun Facts About the London Eye (That I Googled While Waiting for Nightfall):
- It’s not a Ferris wheel. It’s the world’s tallest cantilevered observation wheel. Very posh.
- Kate Moss has been on it 25 times, which is both impressive and oddly specific.
- The Eye gets more visitors than the Taj Mahal or the Great Pyramids each year. Less sand, more snacks.
- On a clear day, you can see 40 kilometers—all the way to Windsor Castle (or 27 additional cranes).
- In 2005, it was lit pink to celebrate the UK’s first civil partnership held aboard.
- The 32 capsules represent London’s boroughs and each weighs as much as 1,052,631 pound coins. Why do I now want to count those?
- There’s no capsule 13, because even giant observation wheels respect superstitions.
- Each rotation holds 800 people—that’s like cramming 11 double-decker buses into a wheel in the sky.
- Its predecessor, The Great Wheel, spun from 1895 to 1906. It walked so the London Eye could glide.
- It moves at 26 cm/second—twice as fast as a sprinting tortoise, but still not fast enough to escape photo critique.
Despite my crane-related trauma, London remains one of my favorite cities in the world. The skyline is charming, the food is comforting, and now I know: when the skyline won’t behave, wait until it gets dark.
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