Last Saturday I met up with a bunch of other bloggers to embark on the #MaplinPhotoWalk, led by the very talented photographer Kaye of Fordtography. If you haven’t checked her photography, you may have seen your favourite blogger captured by her at some point. Her work really captures the beauty of an every situation, making the most (and the best) of surroundings. I’m so happy I was able to pick up a tip or two.
Meeting up at 2 pm outside B-Bakery in Covent Garden on a sunny day, which has been pretty rare for London lately, we were told we were embarking on a little tour of London which Kaye had mapped herself. It would approximately take 37 minutes but looking back it took around an hour with people traffic and finding interesting things to capture.
I took my Canon bridge camera which tbh is pretty mediocre for what I’d call ‘blogtography’ (aka taking aesetically beautiful photos for blogging purposes). I really do need to invest in a better quality camera (but affordable) so if you have any suggestions, please comment below.
Anyway, our first stop on the #MaplinPhotoWalk was…
Covent Garden
I picked up some great tips from Kaye here in regards to using people as your frame. You’re never going to be able to walk through Covent Garden without having people in your shot, so why not make them part of it? By using gaps in the crowd, you can capture the street performers from an interesting angle and thus gives a little more depth to a ‘tourist’ type shot.
How many rings? …Seven Dials
I will always recognise Seven Dials as a place where a lot of street style is captured, is it because of the narrow dwindling road or the contrasts with all the different shops? Most likely both!
Once upon a time in… Chinatown
Walking through here made me want to walk head first into a restaurant… But I never really noticed just how much red dominates these streets?!
Whose yard? Neals Yard
Possibly one of the most Instagrammable places in London, but look how beautiful and colourful it is!
Time for Tea
We headed on back to B-Bakery in Covent Garden for some well deserved afternoon tea and to get to know each other a little better. The tea was ( was fabulous by the way and I was happy to have a terribly British moment by rushing home to make my scones comfortable…
What I took home most from the day is that photography really doesn’t have to be about getting that perfect shot. It’s about having fun too, experiment and not being afraid to stray away from what you think is your typical style. I have always said that photography isn’t a big part of my blog but I would like it to be in future. I’m glad I was able to have this opportunity and it reminded me that it’s all well and good having a camera BUT you do need to think about storage in the long run. You can’t store them in your brain forever, or let them sit on a memory card as these sadly get lost or stolen. If it’s one thing I always go to Maplin for, it’s an external hard drive. I remember purchasing my first one at the start of my film degree back in 2008 (A WD MyBook), which served me well throughout uni! A lesson to learn is back up, back up and back up again. For some super affordable memory cards, check them out here.
I’m not a fan of the photos I captured on the day, so I have reverted to the ones I’ve taken on my iPhone 7 but I cannot wait to start experimenting more when I get a new camera. A huge thanks to Maplin for inviting me on this fun day out in my city and to Kaye for sharing her inspiring tips!
[…] image shot by Kaye at Fordtography; you can read about the Maplin Photo Walk here (also a […]