I stay in touch with international wedding and portrait trends through the Digital Wedding Forum. It’s a great place to discuss techniques, new products and share what photographs we’re taking. It’s also a great place to meet other photographers – quite a number from around London find an excuse to get together three or four times a year, although the last major gathering included two from Yorkshire, the DWF boss Jeff Caplan and Aussie photographer Marcus Bell. Today, Charlotte Geary, from the US and her British husband Mike were in a very foggy London before they visit Mike’s parents in Somerset. We did the traditional thing of meeting at the four-sided clock in the middle of Waterloo Station’s concourse, then grabbed a pizza. By the time we’d finished, the sun was pretty much on the way down and Charlotte was keen to capture it disappearing behind London Eye and the Houses of Parliament.
We walked to Covent Garden in search of coffee (which we found at Suburb) and on the way Mike was apprehended by a street performer and ‘forced’ to do press-ups in front of the crowd as part of the show. Charlotte captured the event in video on her point and shoot camera, which will probably make it to the forum.
After essential visits to Neals Yard and Seven Dials for its Christmas decorations, Charlotte & Mike were introduced to Muji and we visited the National Portrait Gallery for the photographic portrait competition winners & finalists on display. I liked about four out of the entire exhibition and Charlotte & Mike were similar – although they were a different four and for different reasons. It seemed a shame that the photograph of David Bailey – who has such a fabulous face – was pretty much ruined by a distracting light shining on one side of the background.