I took this photo on 1 March 2010 as we were leaving the Tate Modern to walk back across the Thames towards St. Paul’s. At first, I just wanted a photo of the bridge itself. But the clouds were so striking that I began to circle the south entrance a bit and started to play with the symmetry of it all.

I was shooting with a Panasonic Lumix GF1 and a Panasonic 20mm pancake lens – a combination that would become one of my favorites. The GF1 is a micro 4/3 format sensor, so the 20mm lens had the 35mm equivalent perspective of a 40mm, which I always felt was the best approximation of my personal field of view. Many people feel the 35mm lens is more accurate, but having worn glasses my whole life, my field of view is just a bit narrower due to the eyeglass frames.

So, I took about ten shots, trying to frame squarely and level, and proceeded to cross the bridge. It was only that evening, when editing the photos in the hotel room, that I noticed every person was walking away from me – there were no faces coming towards me. There are some very small faces in the background, looking out over the river, but the main group of people are all walking away. This is the reason I call the image Exodus.

This image has gone on to become one of my personal favorites. When I look at it I always see new things, such as the way the bridge splits vertically, with some people heading up and towards the dome of St. Paul’s and the fluffy clouds, with others heading down and “into” the water of the Thames.

Perhaps my only frustration is the sensor size on the GF1. With such a small sensor, and “only” 12 megapixels, it doesn’t afford me much cropping space, especially if I want to print large. It can also be a bit noisy at higher ISOs. But the compact size of the body and lens combination, and the overall quality of the photos it produced, make it one of the best early mirrorless cameras, and the perfect travel camera.