Well that’s not strictly true. I travelled down to London last Wednesday morning hoping to arrive in time to do some photography before actually doing a street photography workshop with @ovidiuselaru_ along with friend John, my host. The plan didn’t quite work out as the train stopped at Knebworth (train in front broken down) so we all had to get off, get on another train back north to Stevenage and then head south to arrive at St Pancras. A two hour journey became four.
I gave up ideas of doing anything before the workshop, which was due to start at 4.30pm, and instead headed to Vauxhall where I greeted my hosts, dumped my bags and then crossed the road with John and Fraser to have lunch at Cafe Parco in Vauxhall Park.
We then headed up to Kings Cross to meet our tutor. The 8 hour workshop was very good though initially we couldn’t work out whether we were supposed to stay close to Selaru or not. Eventually we managed to suss each other out and we actually learnt a great deal – particularly about light, shadow, negative space and composition. We walked a fair way and took the tube twice, eventually landing up at Canary Wharf for some night photography.
On the following day I was supposed to have it almost completely set aside for practising what I’d learnt on the workshop but there were various hold ups and a meeting to be had with Speakers Trust in Borough Market at 3pm so I didn’t really get going until gone 4pm. By that time I was getting pretty knackered but I visited Tate Modern and then walked back to Vauxhall along the Thames capturing a few shots along the way.
On Friday there was the reason I was in London – a day long Speakers Trust gathering of trainers in Lambeth, 30 mins from Vauxhall. That took most of the day and while I’d planned to do a photowalk back to Kings Cross I was accompanied most of the way with a fellow trainer so only managed one photo.
All in all it was great though and I’m very much looking forward to going down again soon. With my new senior railcard I get a 30% discount so perhaps a cheap day trip – early start, late finish – might be an option next month.
But for now here’s a selection of images from my time in London.
