London during the Autumn season is an absolute beauty.
I have family and friends from other countries who constantly ask me when is the best time to visit London and I always give the same answer: AUTUMN SEASON.
Why? Autumn in London is quite simply beautiful. The summer is gone, although somedays will feel just as sunny and warm, but with crispy winds and electric grey skies. Fallen leaves are boasting their age by changing from red to yellow and into a vintage brown from one day to another. These are the colours which I love the most, and which most inspire me to go out and practice photography.
On that note, Toby and I woke up on an autumn Sunday morning and looked at each other… “What shall we do today?”. I looked outside the window in my room and all the leaves had dropped from the trees in my garden. There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky – my perfect kind of day!
I persuaded him to be my photography student for the day as I’ve always wanted to teach someone how to photograph. In a way, I’m constantly learning myself and I wanted to give someone the chance to fall in love with it as much I am.
Another reason is because Toby takes the most ri-dic photos of me. HAHA. Honestly, it’s kind of sad when you’re a photographer and you always take amazing photos of your partner, or your friends and family… These photos end up being their profile pictures on Facebook, and on the walls of their houses. But when it comes to your turn to be in front of the camera, the person taking the photo (if they are not a photographer, or are not passionate about photography) will literally not even look through the finder. They just want to press the ‘whatever button’, and get done with it.
Toby and I have travelled to many amazing places from China, to Italy, Brazil and Indonesia. We would sometimes find ourselves in the most picturesque spots; in a garden with majestic wild Elephants bathing each other with the Sun setting into a crystal clear lake… I ask Toby to take a photo of me to hold all this beauty in the background, and he will take my camera with one hand, point it at me and press the button without giving it a moment of tenderness. I’d look the screen – excited to see the shot – and yep… he managed to blur me out and focus on a random rubbish bin behind me… “Thanks, I guess?”.
We should take time to look through the camera finder. We should take time to find THE right moment. We should always take time to find the best light. That’s what makes photographs great.
So, I tried teaching Toby that and we had a blast. At first, he did look at my heavy DSLR camera as if it was an alien. We hit the manual mode and went in search of the best light in Wandsworth Park. That morning glow we used as a backlight source was stunning, and he finally saw that. He understood how strikingly elegant and yet magnificently bold images can be if you just feel the moment and surrender to it!
Here are a few shots we experimented together. 🙂
