This Picture Taken in Cambridge at the end of Autumn. It’s a simple capture from one side of Saint Andrews Street to the other. The colour of the leaves got my attention and so I stopped to Look. I realised that I needed something or someone set against the wall . I was able to break up the the block a bit by including the more of the gate. So I framed a shot and waited for someone to enter the frame. A few people passed but none of them brought anything to the scene. I waiting patiently.

On my side of the street it was very crowded and it wasn’t easy to hold my position.

This is where my little M50 comes into its own. Its my first camera with a flip out screen and I have found that I like using it instead of the viewfinder. It means I can watch outside of my frame and whats going on around me as well.

I’d no idea exactly what I was waiting for. I Never do when I do this. More often, nothing happens, or what does has no pictorial or narrative value. But Sometimes I get Lucky and today was one of those days.

This Lady appeared and she was walking at a nice soft pace.

I didn’t consciously connect the colour of the bag to the leaves at first I just went about trying to get a clear, reasonably well focused shot while buses cars and cycles were passing between us. It was when I reviewed it on the camera that I saw it.

Later when I got it onto the big screen I was really happy. The colours of the leaves and the bag almost matched but these two elements were conflicting in an environmental sense. Zoomed in I could read the word on the bag ‘Today’ which I felt added to this narrative.

The Lady seemed to be of the generation that has been framed as being responsible for the environmental and climate crisis. Deliberate use of the word ‘framed’ here and she is facing the opposite direction to a stationary bicycle which, for me, in the picture is representing the drive to net zero but its going nowhere and no ones on it.

Theres a nice geometry to the picture and the purple/ pink coat seems to work nicely with the other colours. No trickery with the camera just point and shoot with the settings the camera gave me.

I usually shoot Aperture value or Manual. This was AV. Nothing too bright in the frame so it was pretty much bang on.

I find photographers talk a lot about settings. But Cameras are really good. I could have probably been a stop out in either direction and still told a story about the picture. The settings can’t do this for you

I’ve given the picture a title. ‘Bio and Non Bio’ referring to the degradable aspects of the leaves and the shopping bag which are the same colour. I don’t always title my pictures though I wish I would.

For me the picture quickly became about the environment, the plastic bag that the lady was carrying could remain on the planet in that form For an eternity. While eventually the Lady and the leaves on the tree will sooner or later, break down and return to the soil.

Rather than end on that slightly grim thought let me remind you that it started simply with trying to get a pleasing shot. I applied the Narrative later.