I’ve had an exhausting few days, partly from working in what for us in England has been some unusually hot weather but also because I’ve been out photographing rather a lot. People who aren’t photographers (even some who take a lot of photographs) think that photography is an easy number but – at least the way I do it – it can actually be physically and mentally draining.
My camera bag isn’t particularly heavy, typically around 15 or 16 lbs on my left shoulder, and I can stand around for hours without getting tired (though if I forget and pick it up on my right I start to feel pain in minutes.) But covering a procession or demonstration involves a lot of running around, much of it going backwards, as well as stretching, crouching and leaning to get the camera into the right place, often rather tricky as the subject is often moving too.
Mentally I think it’s rather like taking an exam when new questions keep getting fired at you and you have to respond instantly with answers. As well as the purely visual problems you are also working with people and situations. I’m not complaining – I do it because I find it exhilarating, but can also be very tiring.
Of course the subjects I choose to cover are relatively soft ones, unlike those of some other photographers. Despite some of the lurid stories of gun crime that appear in newspapers there is essentially little or no risk of “kinetic activity” when photographing in London, and the worst physical dangers I usually face are those of road traffic. And being able to get on a train and go home at the end of the day does make life so much easier.
The Coney Hall May Queen and her dog in the procession
But despite the fact that the Merrie England and London May Queen Festival is a delightful and interesting event, I was still pretty tired by the end of it, and it was great to be able to relax and have a couple of beers before going home and downloading the images on to my computer. It’s also good not to have to work to tight deadlines, although I had to get everything transferred and backed up so that I could go out and take more pictures the following day.
Sutton May Queen
The festival was held as always at Hayes Common, on the leafy suburban south-east fringe of London (and the pollen count was undoubtedly high as my itching eyes and sneezing testified.) I’d been invited to take pictures by the mother of the 96th London May Queen, though I would quite likely have been there in any case as I’ve been working on a project on the subject of May queens, hopefully for a museum show and book, since 2005. Given the problems that there can be now in photographing children, getting to know and be trusted by people has been vital.
You can read much more about the actual event, and see more pictures than you need on My London Diary, where there are also pictures from various previous May Queen events.