My Photography Experience on World Photography Day

Today – 19th August 2025 – is World Photography Day, a celebration of photography – its art, craft and science.

At the beginning of the day I thought I would take the opportunity to go out and take some photographs with my camera. It’s certain I used to do quite regularly but I fell out of the habit a long time ago.

There’s a park nearby which I thought I would visit. Initially I wasn’t sure what I was going to photograph. Am I a street photographer today? Eventually, though, I wandered up to a quiet corner of the park where there is a small pond.

Drifting around its edges were these purple tipped reeds spraying out almost as if they were fireworks. For a while I lost myself in the subject, trying different ideas to capture how I felt about them. Changing focus, composition and waiting for them to stop trembling in the slight breeze. Eventually I had created the image I liked and I surfaced.

Before I headed home though I came upon the teasels and dived straight back in. Once more I was in a small bubble which consisted of nothing but myself, my camera and the thistles. I looked at them from different viewpoints through the lens and directly. I carefully chose one particular thistle – this one – because it was the right height for me to look down and, of all of them, this was the one with the most pronounced strands swirling around its head. Then I lifted the camera, taking a few photographs, changing the composition and focus.

Once I had finished it was like the moment rising from the sea – underneath everything is muffled and the world is confined to the small space I can see ahead of me; all I do is concentrate on holding my breath and pushing forward for as long as I can. Then I break the surface and the world crashes in around me. The dog walkers, the people heading to work. It was time for me to head home and start work for the day.