Christmas light switch-ons are in full swing this week. With Covent Garden, Kew Gardens, Leadenhall Market, Bond Street, Chelsea and Watford. Plus a light show in Greenwich. Some of these photo calls conflict, so I wouldn’t be able to attend all of them.
One major update in the photography world arrived with the release of Adobe Lightroom. You can now scan all your photos on import, and it will mark all the ones that are in focus, over- or under-exposed, or even if the model's eyes are open. This saves a lot of time. I tried it on photos I took at a fashion show, and it was excellent. I will definitely be using this to save time, especially when you have to go through 1000-plus photos. I will write an article on this in the next couple of months when I have tested it further.
My highlight of the week has to be photographing Robert De Niro; hence, his photo is my featured image. Read more about it below.
Before then, it’s Remembrance Sunday. This year, I stayed in Watford and covered the parade in the town centre. Watford Remembers: A large crowd gathered to remember the fallen on Remembrance Sunday at 3 pm. There was a short parade from the pond to the Peace Memorial, during which wreaths were placed by Peter Taylor, the Mayor of Watford, Matt Turmaine, MP for Watford, and many others. You can see my photos below.
Next up was a shoot in Greenwich on the 11th at the Old Royal Naval College. For this event, it was embargoed until Wednesday, meaning we couldn’t upload straight away. Usually, this is because the organiser wants the photos for the papers the next day.
Presented outdoors, running through the historic Undercroft tunnel and Chapel before spilling outside across the Colonnades and into the Courtyard. At the very heart of GMT, this striking sound-and-light installation features kaleidoscopic visuals that envelop iconic architecture. It was a bit wet outside with showers, but fortunately, it was an unusually warm day. As you can see from the photos, it was a stunning projection onto the buildings.
This marked the beginning of a long day that unfolded through a series of events, culminating in a surprise. It started with my usual monthly photo walk from Cassiobury Park to Whippendell Woods in Watford, which took two hours.
It had been a dry start to autumn, but November has been much wetter; the fungi have started to appear more frequently in the woods. But we haven’t had a hard frost yet to trigger lots more. It has been relatively warm recently. I took a group of eight who had signed up for the event in my Watford Meetup group. This time of the year, it’s perfect for fungi. We saw a wide variety, as shown in the photos below.
More Photos - Flickr
After having lunch in Watford, I headed to central London for the Christmas Lights. There was a raised platform for photographers, and you can get good views. The large crowds gathered in Covent Garden for the Lights Switch-on. A star-studded lineup of West End stage and screen icons attended the event at the Piazza to celebrate the opening night of The Theatre of Christmas.
Stephen Fry officially switched on the lights together with Anna Whitehouse, Pandora Christie, Hayley Atwell, Celia Imrie, Sir Derek Jacobi, Stephen Mangan, Dame Darcey Bussell and Matt Henry MBE.
I hung around after to take some shots of people enjoying the lights, doing selfies, etc. These always make good shots that sell. Before heading to Bond Street as their lights were being switched on at the same time.
It started with photographing mushrooms on a quiet morning walk, and by that evening, I had spotted Robert De Niro — just another day in the life of a photographer! 😄 And to top it off, I even crossed paths with Stephen Fry in Covent Garden earlier that afternoon.
I headed to Old Bond Street to check out the newly switched-on Christmas lights when I noticed a crowd gathering outside Stella McCartney’s store. Curious, I hurried over to see what was going on. A few people mentioned that Robert De Niro might be making an appearance, so of course I hung around… and sure enough, moments later he stepped out of the shop to switch on Stella’s Christmas lights. Lulu started singing from the window!
Right place, right time — photographer’s luck. With only one other photographer there (from Getty Images), I managed to capture some great shots. Though I have to admit, arriving five minutes earlier would’ve secured me a front-row spot!
This was a pleasant, small photocall before heading to Kew Gardens later, featuring only three photographers. The shoot involved capturing people queuing to buy an iconic lava lamp. I still own mine from the 80s, but I didn't know much about the company that produced them.
Mathmos, an iconic British brand and inventor of the world’s first lava lamp, announces an exclusive collaboration with music legends The Rolling Stones to create a limited-edition red vinyl Astro lava lamp.
The special edition Astro was launched on November 13, 2025, with only 1,000 units being made. Thirty-five were available from the official Rolling Stones store, located at RS No. 9 Carnaby Street, London, and 15 from the official Rolling Stones webstore on launch day.
After the shoot, I headed to a cafe, edited the photos, and uploaded them to the news agency website before getting some lunch and heading to Kew Gardens, where we hopefully will dodge the rain.
This could have been a longer evening for the photocall, but the weather had other ideas. We had a brief dry spell at the start, and Kew Gardens had provided some models for us to photograph as they took us around the various light installations. It is quite a big trail. We took some nice photos before the heavy rain started. We probably shot for only an hour. The rest of the time was spent at the cafe, editing photos and getting everything ready to upload.
A botanical world of light, music and magic. This year’s trail showcases brand-new creations from world-renowned artists, lighting up Kew’s landscapes in dazzling colour. Opens on the 14th until 4th January 2026.
A lovely late afternoon and evening spent at the Watford Christmas lights switch-on. They were switched on during a Saturday afternoon event called Winter Fest. The town centre was packed with large crowds. A parade took place through the town, featuring Santa's sleigh and a band. Santa switched on the lights. After the lights, there was some beautiful singing by Jasmine Boussateha.
That’s it for this week, a much busier week. Look out for the next ones in a few days. The Substack membership is now open and includes a calendar of 2026 events; more guides will be added each month. These resources, coming soon, include a standard model release form for you to copy, a guide to my process for exporting and editing photos for News Agencies, and more. You can see a list of upcoming articles here.
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