My trip to Kew was unexpected to say the least. It had been somewhere I had recently been thinking about going and with summer well advanced I knew it likely to be busy and colourful. However it is also somewhere that takes quite some time to get to and I had always thought that there was little else around that attracted me to the area. Really it was just on my mental list of places to investigate online before committing to going.
What ended up happening was outside interference from my mother after my mild rant on the Friday morning about costs of visiting Paris for the day and all the other places I was thinking about going to. Next thing I know I am putting my camera battery on charge for a brief period and getting ready to go out. I was hardly prepared, the camera didn't gain enough charge for a photographic adventure with no worries about running out of power halfway through the day and I had no idea what to expect.
Soon enough we are on a train to Richmond and then onto Kew. Now as I have said before I don't usually like going on these kind of outings with other people, If you are going to come with me it has to work one of two ways. Either the trip is primarily one of fun (for whatever reason) and my photography is secondary to that or you realise that I am going to be doing all sorts of strange and unexplained things, I'm probably not going to be all that accepting of stopping to rest a lot (I just don't, I'm completely impatient and always looking for that next shot) and I will more than likely keep going until I, the sun or my camera is completely exhausted.
So bearing this in mind I was a little cautious about going to Kew with a parental unit, especially one with arthritic knees and one that doesn't share my passion for what I do. She quite likes plants however so that was a bonus, as was the credit card (I hadn't realised how expensive Kew was to get into) It was also handy that Kew has some well defined and obvious places to get good photos and it's not so big so as to get around in a few hours. So I set myself to work on principle one and take it as a fun day out. Although my mother is quite used to some of the more unusual antics required in getting particular shots as my father is also a photographer and he is probably worse than I. My dad will often stop immediately if he sees a potential photo, although his can be almost anything from macro shots of insects to wide angle landscape shots. I tend to see mine a little before I get to them and a shoot fast unlike my father who may see a shot but have to wait until everything is right. As I have explained before I generally don't have that luxury or in fact want. The last time I was waiting for a shot I was trying to get sunlight on the Houses of Parliament (sunlight being probably the only thing I will wait for) and standing there on Westminster bridge with a camera just means you end up experiencing the cameras of every tourist that walks past. I think in the 10 minutes I was there I was asked 5 times. And yes of course I took them all, even one that stole a moment of sunshine that should have been mine!
But back to Kew, it was a very nice day but I realised quickly that my camera just didn't have enough charge to last me all day so I had to be quite restrictive in what I took. No more photographs from inside the plant houses or close ups of waterfowl as they would never be paintings. A shame since I'm not just about postcard style shots and it did steal that sense of photographic abandon that I relish. The place overall had a pretty calm air about it. You wouldn't have thought you were anywhere near London certainly but it was much as I expected. Doesn't mean I didn't have a good time, it was excellent ,but the most exciting part?
Just chucking myself on a train and going, no planning, little or no expectations, reckless adventure!
No comments:
Post a Comment