The trouble with summer is that it’s warm. Turns out that this holds especially true during heatwaves, and it further transpires that London is not the best place in the world to look if you’re trying to find a gently, cooling breeze.

The plan for yesterday was to have a morning of not doing very much, followed by a shoot in the afternoon; I didn’t know where we’d be shooting – I’d said ‘somewhere woody’ and left it up to the Londoners to help me out with finding something that fit the bill – but I had some ideas in mind, mostly to do with wide-angle shots in woodland.

Of course, the best laid plans often go awry, so when my intended subject for the day texted me to say she had a migraine, I thought that I’d be struggling to get anything done. Of course, I have cool friends, so Alaina, who you can see in the photo at the top of this post, agreed to stand in. The ‘where’ turned out to be Wimbledon Common, which is very, very woody in places and which has now been permanently entered onto my ‘shoot here regularly’ list, in gleeful ignorance of the fact that’s 250 miles from my house. Eventually, after some shots barefoot in the long grass, chasing a starburst from the sun, Lainey decided that it would be cool to climb a tree…

To fill the time before Alaina arrived I shot some frames of Michelle, my hostess for this little adventure. Mich is, amongst other things, an artist, and I quite liked the idea of doing some editorial-ish shots of her whilst she was working on an image. My favourite shot is this one, nice and simple and clean:

And this afternoon, once I’ve had chance to relax a bit after a morning of wandering about central London, I’ll be shooting with some more dear friends of mine. About which I shall tell you more tomorrow, naturally.