Back on the portrait walkabout again last week, with Miss PetTIT, the producer of Eyefull cabaret. I wanted to go somewhere new this time, not wobbling around on the beach so I chose Hyde Park. The weather was OK so we set a time of 2 pm to meet outside Hyde Park station next to Apsley House. Right in the middle of a protest march, there were lots of whistles and banging of drums all around.

We met up and strolled through the gates away from the march and headed into the park. It was a lot quieter but a lot busier than I had hoped. We chatted about cabaret and the show we had recently, briefly met at.

As normal one of my first shots was to ask the talent to lean against a tree. One day the trees will have enough of me and fall over to prove a point that foliage can be nervous too.

Stepping away from the tree Miss PetTIT brushed her hair back and we captured this shot. Which to be honest is one of the best in the series and I wondered if I had peaked too early…

We took a few more shots of standing next to a tree before moving on. As we walked past pigeons that seemed to have a union agreement to obstruct our path, we came across a fence and a tall lamp post. Who says shots need to be symmetrical? I like the way the negative space above Miss PetTIT adds to the composition… and not a pigeon in sight.

I don’t know who had been chopping down trees or why this particular one was up for the ‘chop.’ Maybe it was blocking the view for other trees who couldn’t see the forest. It certainly had me stumped! However, it made a perfect seat for Miss PetTIT in this next shot.

Then we walked… and walked… and walked some more. We took some photos at a fountain, but none of them made the cut because they just didn’t work for me. So, we continued walking until we stumbled upon this building. I’m not sure what it was—could have been a mausoleum or something. Miss PetTIT leaned against it with her shoulder and added her jacket for a bit of contrast. It might have even been a café…

I need to use my Sony 85mm f1.8 lens more often; it’s fantastic for portrait shots. Its incredibly shallow depth of field does a remarkable job of isolating the subject, making the talent stand out even more.

We did a lot more walking, took more tree shots, and finally ended up with this excellent shot of Miss PetTIT on a park bench. It was a bit of a challenge—every time we even hinted at heading towards a bench, it seemed like the universe conspired against us. Just as we were about to take the bench, someone would always swoop in and claim the seat!

As the rain started, we headed towards a café. Equipped with our small umbrellas, we decided to play a game of Coffee Roulette, guessing the price of the coffee. I lost by about 24 pence!

This was the route we took… about 2.3km in the end…

You can find Miss PetTIT on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/misspettits/ and Eyefull Cabaret at https://www.instagram.com/eyefullcabaret/