On the Street: A Sunday Morning in Norwich

Note to self, I thought to myself as I prepared for our trip to Norwich, take photos with actual people in them. See, I’m notorious for taking photos without people in them and have had readers remark how empty places were when in reality, I just have a knack for directing my camera away from human beings. Part of that is because I’m as subtle as a hippo and am never quite sure how to answer people when they ask why I’m photographing them; I also have a genuine love for architecture, buildings and structures and my camera lens naturally gravitates towards them.

On the weekend we went up to Norwich for the the Norfolk & Norwich Festival I was determined to practice my people photography and Stephen was also in a very accommodating mood. And so, with some time to kill and armed with my camera, we began our exploration.

The first thing I noticed was how many people were out and about on a Sunday morning. In Dartford and Kent, Sunday mornings are really quite quiet and you don’t see as many people out and about in the town centre, relaxing and meeting up with each other. Likewise, some areas of London are always busy but others, like the City, can be very quiet on the weekend.

The famous Norwich market is closed on a Sunday but that didn’t stop crowds of people from visiting the city centre.

Occasionally my camera lens would stray away from people, especially when it came to the hidden alleyways and vintage street signs.

But for the most part I seemed to be succeeding in capturing people as they went about their way on a bright and sunny Sunday morning in spring.

There was one other item I was ticking off my list on this Sunday morning. We had visited Norwich in winter of 2011 and I had always wanted to return when it wasn’t so frigidly cold. Granted, I managed to snap some wonderful photos of the Royal Arcade and Dusk and Bright Lights of Norwich but I wanted to see how the city came alive in summer. I was not disappointed.

Oops, there I go again with street signs and architecture.

We soon made our way to Chapelfield Gardens where we were to spend the afternoon. The gardens were a hive of activity with people of all ages out for the Norfolk & Norwich Festival. We were to spend the afternoon in the tent below, for an afternoon of tea and vintage dancing, but that is the subject of a whole new blog post.

These little girls were fascinated by the Paka dragon, as was I.

There was quite a queue for this ice cream stall, so being the intrepid explorer that I am, I decided to try it out. Featuring local double cream, I can confirm that it was indeed waiting for!