Serene Sunday

The title of this post truly reflects the mood of my weekend.

It was a truly glorious Sunday. 

I had arranged to meet my friend and fellow Photographer Elin Robinson for Photowalk. We decided to go to Windsor for the day. We chose a good day because the quality of the light and the weather was perfect.

 I was up early, and I gave myself plenty of time to walk to Paddington Station. 

The journey time to Windsor is just under one hour. When we arrived, my camera was primed and ready. Windsor is a very photogenic place and I was already looking for interesting shots and point of view. I set myself a challenge for the first half of the day and that was to shoot exclusively with my 35mm. This discipline forced me to create the image, zoom with my feet and get maximum impact from this Prime Lens.

Street Photography in Windsor is done given. 

My camera is ready, my mind is primed and my heart is in the flow with the rhythm of the streets. 

No matter where I am, I am ready. 

Images get created and culled as I go along - part of my style is to edit as I go along, I don’t want to spend any more time at my computer then I have to. I was quite happy, towards the end of the day I had amassed about 190 photographs that I was happy keeping on my camera. Some of those images appear in this Blog Post.

There’s a lot of walking to be done in Windsor and by the time we reached the Long Walk inside the main Park I knew this was time for me to bring out my Wide-Angle lens.  I love using this Lens because it calls for creative composition and the intelligent use of foreground interest to create a storytelling composition. My mentor Bryan Peterson inspired me with a love for the wide-angle lens and taught me a really cool and magical technique for achieving maximum depth of field and killer sharpness.

One of the highlights of our day in Windsor was meeting and interacting with some really interesting people. 

I believe great photography involves people.

 It’s the characterisation, the emotion, warmth and humanity that can make an image come alive. 

This is one of the reasons why love interacting with members of the public and hopefully coming away with a great street portrait. 

On Sunday Elin and I met some extraordinary people. 

We met a gang of bikers who were called “The Busy Bee Motor Cycle Club”.  They had rode their bikes all the way from Watford to congregate by the river outside a meeting place for their “Cellar Reunion”. This is a yearly event and we just happened to be there on the day when they arrived. As you can imagine, we enjoyed a great conversation and came away with some really great photographs of them.

These bikers really inspired me with the thought that I too will enjoy my life well as I get older and I will have a deck of cards in one hand and my camera in the other exactly as I am doing now. 

We also met a delightful couple name Jack and June. I was able to capture both of them and only today I posted their photograph to them as I said I would. This couple inspired me with their generosity of spirit and warm conversation.

Finally, I want to thank Mother Nature for the glorious Animal life that make their home along the River Thames as it snakes its way through Windsor. Ducks, Swans, the occasional Dog and Bird life. We share this planet with some extraordinary Animals, their spirit is no different than ours. The only differences is we can speak and communicate through words, Animals communicate through “being in spirit”. I watched my friend Elin interact with animals with astonishment - she has a natural way with this spirit and they open up to her. I have never owned a pet and yet because of my camera, I have now declared myself an Animal lover.

Reflecting on my day in Windsor, I am present to friendship, shared interest, passion. enjoying the moment, celebrating life and connecting with others. Yes, it was a perfect day….a serene Sunday.


Swan Love….on the Lake.

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