The Photowalk

In this second part, former professional documentary photographer Giles Penfound and I are back at Penwood in Berkshire, England, to make one special single picture using 5x4, paying homage to the late Dennis Lee, an American community member who passed at the start of 2026.

In this episode, you get to see what all of that waiting, all of that patience, actually produced. We reveal the finished photograph: the large-format portrait of a remarkable tree. We also pick up the conversation where we left it, talking more about what happens when you deliberately take your foot off the accelerator, not just as a photographer, but as a person moving through the world. Giles came from documentary work, where speed and instant story were everything, and watching him operate with a 5x4 plate camera in a quiet wood in Berkshire is about as far from that as you can get.
Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond.
Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily.
WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here.

Sometimes the most profound photographs aren't made in an instant, they're cultivated over days, even weeks. In this special two-part episode, I walk with photographer Giles Penfound in Penwood in Berkshire, as he slows down to make a single large-format image of a giant tree, a portrait created in honour of a photographer known to us both.
Working with a 5x4 plate camera, Giles has transformed his practice from the fast-paced world of documentary work to something more deliberate, contemplative, and rooted in presence. Across two weeks, we explore what it means to truly slow down: waiting for light, sitting with a 'subject', and navigating the mental space that opens up when you're no longer chasing the next frame.
We discuss mental health, the quality of light, and choosing a different pace of life in a world that demands speed. This is photography as meditation, as ritual, as a way of being fully present with the world.
Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond.
Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily.
WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here.

This week, I speak with Gary Williams, a professional singer who's performed at Buckingham Palace and Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, where the late Martin Parr once photographed him. Over the last two years, Gary has built a thriving business photographing micro weddings at London's iconic town halls, the same venues where Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Lily Allen, and Ed Sheeran have tied the knot. We discuss reaching his photographic milestone of 100 weddings in just two years, the process of building a practice as a newcomer to professional photography, and what he's learned along the way. It's 100 not out.
Then Valérie Jardin returns for her monthly Teach Me Street segment, where she offers creative feedback on candid street photos submitted by two photographers, examining the decisions made and the stories behind the images.
From the mailbag, Sven in Switzerland is trying to lose the imposter syndrome character on his shoulder, Gene Westberg wonders if he missed a photographic trick during the pandemic, Jussi Jääskeläinen takes us on a hike in North Eastern France, Adriano Henney shares what he loves about Venice, and there's a moment of Spike Milligan silliness, or at least an ode to him, from the Doctor of Reflection, Robin Chun. Plus, news about some very special editions coming in the next four weeks.
Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond.
Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily.
WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here.

This week, Steven Seidenberg is my guest, a photographer, philosopher, and writer whose work focuses on empty spaces, ordinary places, and the things most people pass by. His photographic books include The Architecture of Silence and Pipevalve: Berlin, and his work has been shown internationally, from Europe to the US and Japan. Alongside the photographs, he writes prose and poetry that explore similar themes, examining perception and what it means to truly notice what's in front of us. It's certainly one of our more thought-provoking conversations of late, as Steven even questions what a photograph actually is, if it's not a printed, tangible, tactile thing.
From the mailbag, Andrew Larking writes about self-criticism, sharing a story that touches on depression and the instinct many of us have to try to push through it alone; Richard Rawlings writes about neurodiversity, and Jim Farmer reports on unexpected wildlife encounters that may or may not involve actual alligators a little too close to home! Also today, a chance to join in with a new community feature for 2026 called HERE AND THERE.
Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond.
Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily.
WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here.

This week, I speak with Cathal McNaughton, a well-respected international photojournalist and Pulitzer Prize winner. We discuss his biographical film I Dream in Photos, his recent photography in Ukraine that focuses on ordinary life continuing alongside the war brought to their country, and the role family plays in shaping how and why he photographs. 
Along the way, Cathal shares a personal discovery that has refocused attention on him, after a career spent observing others. It becomes a conversation about self-understanding and what it means to keep making photographs when the relationship with the camera itself is being questioned.
From the mailbag, Richard Rawlings pairs photographs with prose as walking helps him appreciate nature, Marilyn Davies nudges anyone still circling a 365 feature, to just start, even if February becomes the starting line, and Jaki G heads celebrates Lisbon's street photo festival, and walking with the celebrated Phil Penman who swapped his adopted New York for the Portuguese capital.
Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond.
Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily.
WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here.