The best picture I never expected to take…!

Photography can be a solitary business, but every now and then I manage to take pictures with a friend. Tammy Marlar is a fellow photographer, and she’s always on at me to go and take pictures in Richmond Park.

When she came over on Friday night to return some camera gear, I happened to mention that I was running a workshop in Bushy Park on 24 September. She immediately suggested that we go there on a shoot the following day.

It was a very last-minute plan, so I had to spend an hour late that night sorting out what camera equipment to bring and packing my camera bag. In the end, I took both my Sony a1 mirrorless cameras with my 400mm f/2.8 lens and my f/4 600mm lens paired with a 1.4x teleconverter—extending it to 840mm. I also took my tripod and SpiderPro belt to make life a bit easier…!

Tammy picked me up just after 0500, and we got to the park gates in half an hour or so. Unfortunately, they were locked! We were wondering what to do when a Flipfit van arrived. The driver unlocked the gate, so Tammy asked him to let us in, but he refused, saying he’d lose his licence. He wasn’t very polite or friendly, but fair enough.

Tammy parked across the road, and we walked in through the pedestrian gate. We immediately saw a couple of fallow deer and started to take pictures in the early morning light. Unfortunately, the guy from Flipfit decided to make trouble…

He argued with Tammy and called her a liar, and then he deliberately stood in front of me so that I couldn’t get any shots of the deer. He even barged into me at one point, and then he clapped and shouted at the deer, trying to chase them away!

Not a good start to the day, but we moved on. When the gates officially opened, Tammy fetched the car and parked it in the car park.

At that point, we wandered round the park, taking pictures of the red and fallow deer browsing from the trees on their hind legs and the waterbirds on the river, including one grey heron that posed nicely for us.

We met a nice chap called Daniel who was very knowledgeable about the wildlife in the park, and then Tammy bumped into a South African friend of hers called Warren by one of the ponds. He also knew his stuff, and he was happy to swap stories with us.

There were a couple of common terns fishing from the hover, so I tried to get a shot of one of them actually hitting the water—but it was too difficult. The terns eventually flew off, and we decided to go to The Pheasantry for a coffee and a bacon bap.

On the way, Tammy took a few pictures of rabbits nearby while Warren and I dumped our stuff on one of the picnic tables. We met Daniel again there and had a quick chat before Warren and Daniel moved on.

The café wasn’t too busy when we arrived, but it soon filled up with people taking part in the park run that happens every Saturday.

After breakfast, Tammy took a few shots of butterflies near the café, and when we walked through the Woodland Gardens, we met Warren again.

The two of them took more butterfly shots, but I wasn’t inspired, so I just lay down in the shade of a tree and read the paper!

We eventually left the park at around 1130 so that Tammy could pick up a friend from Heathrow.

It had been a very enjoyable morning, and I’m glad I took the opportunity to take some pictures. It’s easy to look down your nose at the Royal Parks when you’ve just seen leopards and rhinos in Kenya and elephants in Botswana, but it was good practice and great to have some company.

Thanks, Tammy!

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