One of my hobbies has always been photography. Growing up I have always asked my Baba to gift me camera’s. I do have a few old camera’s still stashed away in a drawer at my Mum’s place back in India.
I really started exploring my way with a point and shoot camera during my college days in Mumbai. I even made a bit of pocket money selling prints from the photos that developed from film. I do wish I had continued with experimenting and developing my own film but I do plan to get into that soon!
After moving to London, I used small cameras for a while until my darling husband gifted me my first ever DSLR Camera. Armed with my Canon, I have travelled to various destinations all over the world and photographed my way through lot of foodie events, food festivals, cooking demos with leading chefs and even managed to do some paid work. Some of my most exciting meet-up’s in London have been with budding photography enthusiats and I have found some long-lasting friendships thanks to this shared passion too.
On my first visit to Mumbai after I moved to London, I went on a photo walk in the evening with my friend A who is a talented photographer himself. I love vibrant colours and open markets and India has these in abundance.The photograph below won me an prize for an online contest in India. It means the essence of Diwali for me. I was born and raised in Mumbai and for me the festival of lights Diwali is one of the best times of the year.
This photo of a flowering tea is somethig I would set-up to play around with different elements and use them to photograph food and drinks at home. I love collecting photography props. Yes, I am that crazy woman who will swoon over cool finds in charity shops and carboot sales 🙂
But like many of my hobbies, this has moved to the back burner now. Time to get behind the lens again.
And what better day to make this decision than on World Photo Day – August 19th!
A while back when Maplin invited me to join in with a select group of bloggers and freelancer for a Photo Walk through Central London, I was beyond excited!
We met up with talented professional photographer Kay Ford at Covent Garden and walked through to Neal’s Yard and then Chinatown. Kaye shared some of her top tips on clicking photos in busy areas like Central London with lots of people milling about. I loved the tips she shared about composing a photo and how to work with a DSLR camera.
Kaye encouraged us to really get into street photography, something I do struggle with. There is always so much happening in Covent Garden with so may tourists, street performers, vendors, street food and it is always alive, buzzing and full of colour. So many photo opportunities!
Though I clicked close to a 150 photos with my Canon camera during this photo walk, it seems minsicule in comparison to the massive number of photo albums I have stored on my laptop and external hard drives. This is where Maplin comes in with photo storage solutions.
Our photo walk took us just over half an hour and we walked starting from Brigit’s Bakery across Coivent Garden, Neal’s Yard and through Chinatown and via Cecil Court (the inspiration behind Diagon Alley in the famous Harry Potter series) back to Brigit’s Bakery.
To view all social media photos from this fun event look up the hashtag #maplinphotowalk
We enjoyed a delicious Afternoon Tea at Brigits’s Bakery and it was the most wonderful way to wrap up an afternoon of walking across the streets of Central London and getting top tips from Kaye.
Here I am putting into practise one of Kaye’s tips – create a ‘photo within a photo’ effect
Here is a photo of the city from Waterloo Bridge taken a few days after this photo walk.
To read my detailed post about the fabulous sit-down Afternoon Tea at Brigit’s Bakery check out my blog post here.
Looking for Travel Inspiration around London or other parts of the U.K, then have a browse through my travel posts below:
- An insider’s guide to London Bridge and the surrounding area in Central London
- Top 5 places near London for the perfect day out with family
- Borough Market, London’s iconic market steeped in history
- Portobello Market, Notting Hill, London – an insider’s guide
- Neighbourhood guide to Angel, Islington, London
- England’s largest Vineyard – Denbie’s Wine Estate, Dorking, Surrey
- Exploring Guilford town and River Wey Valley, Surrey Hills, England
- Weekend Getaway, Southampton, England
- Blog Camp at River Cottage
- Five Bells Inn, Aylesbury, Weston Turville, England
- A week in North Wales – Southstack Lighthouse and Cemaes Bay
*With thanks to Maplin and the PR agency for the invite. Thanks to Kaye Ford for a memorable experience and sharing so many wonderful photography tips, also a huge thank-you to Brigit’s Bakery for a wonderful complimentary Afternoon Tea. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own. No monetary compensation was offered.
Leave a Reply