Lancaster photo walk - Evening (and Morning)

The air took on a golden hue as I set off from Kelsey Street in Lancaster with camera and tripod in hand, letting chance lead me to photo opportunities.

At the station, the taxi drivers briefly broke off their discussion  (I-phones v Blackberrys) with good humoured advice where to go to take photos and where I would more likely have my camera nicked from me.

So it was across the bridge behind the station along West Road, to find the stone wall on the right having doors at strange angles. At the top was the castle (and prison), its top turrets still hit by the evening sun, so through to the Priory Gardens where three students were celebrating their end of year with a barbecue. The backlit figures glowed against the green of the trees as they soaked the remaining warmth of the day in relaxed conversation.

On their advice, I headed past the headless reclining tombstone muse to take the path down towards the river. The threeway Millenium Bridge provided some challenges in the fading light and I promised to return in the morning (which I fortunately did).

I headed for the city centre which was awash with celebrants out on the town at various stage of alcoholic assisted merriment. Turning into Marketgate out of curiosity, I bumped into a party of four out to celebrate a birthday and it seemed a good idea all round to try and take some pictures.

Avoiding flash, long exposures were indicated, which required posing still for a few seconds - something we had difficulty achieving amongst the joking around. Success came eventually and we parted, with my cheek blushed with lipstick from a parting kiss by the belle of the quartet!

Light was fading fast as I trudged back uphill  - where a major teenage birthday party was underway, with guests spilling out onto the road and into the park in front of the castle. Another quartet was taking a break from the party and there was just enough light to photograph a tableau and an accidental motion blurred exposure of the couple's passionate kiss!

Back in Kelsey Street, I reflected that chance had indeed been in my favour, as had the overall friendly nature of people across three different generations in Lancaster.