So a lot of people like rugby then...
'Saturday is rugby day there will be lots of people there.' - Words I wouldn't say i ignored, I just thought a few people playing with odd shaped balls would not hinder me.
WRONG!!! From Clapham Junction to Twickenham I had to let four trains go as they were full of rugby enthusiasts. Had to sit on a small fold down seat once I squeezed onto the next train. My backpack is large and in a packed train it was having a lot of fun getting in people's way. Mostly around the feet and lower back areas.
The first thing I heard once arriving at Twickenham station, was a brass band playing 'Eye of the Tiger' and not one, not two, but three burger bars. I wasn't hungry and I was meeting a friend of mine called Ruth who had agreed to model for me today.
I wanted to put more practice into using my 50mm f1.8 and my Sigma 70-200 and was fed up with just taking shots of the surrounding countryside. Hence having Ruth model for me. We met by the station entrance and walked south towards the Thames. We were soon looking at a very fancy statue in a secluded park, it looked like it was on private land. I wasn't about to boost Ruth over as the one shot I didn't want was one of her impaled on the spiky fence.
We continued on and found a park close to the river. The first thing Ruth spotted was a rope swing and immediately ran to play on it. This was a good start and for the next few minutes we tested out poses and used the surrounding area for backgrounds. Even a robin got involved at one point but flew off as I think he was a bit of a diva.
I had requested the use of a red beret as I thought this would be a great contrast against Ruth's darker hair colour. In the photo above, I had the sun behind Ruth to illuminate the beret and to highlight the shine on her jacket while my pop up flash filled in the shadows from the front.
We continued on, looking to see if it was safe to get closer to the river. There was a patch of earth with a tree on it which sat a little into the river but I wasn't happy with Ruth standing on it so we moved on. It was getting colder by the minute and after a few shots near the pier to Ham I notice that Ruth and myself had started shivering. Thankfully there was a small cafe nearby so we had a cup of tea and I let Ruth view the first set of photos.
We briskly walked to Ruth's abode and tried a few shots in the front garden, As we were about to call it a day a neighbor called Peter opened up a garage he owns close to the front garden and pulled out in a fantastic old Citroen. He noticed us taking photos and suggested we could use it for a few minutes. Well, I was moving before he even finished suggesting it! Peter said he used to use the car for weddings and one year did over 100 weddings with it. Without hesitation Ruth stood by the car and we took a few shots as the light was fading.
I first met Ruth at Madam Jo Jo's while watching and sometime photographing at Cabaret Roulette. She plays a character calledLady Lylith DeHaviland, an Aviatrix Extraordinaire (ish), Host, Singer, Lush and Opiate freak.
Click here for Lady Lylith DeHaviland's Facebook page.
Click here for Cabaret Roulette's Facebook page.
