Meet me by the Steps – My 2026 Photo of the Year

There may be a feeling of déjà vu about this image as it was taken at the same place as my 2025 photo of the year, the steps by the Painted Hall in the Greenwich Naval College. Nothing wrong with that in my opinion. We’ve all got our favourite locations that serve as benchmark for testing purposes, to say nothing of the futile endeavour to achieve the illusive perfect shot.

I was in Greenwich to finally use the last frame of a colour film in my Yashica D. Having done that and not wanting to waste the trip I remembered that in the bag was roll Kentmere 200 bought on a whim when it was first introduced to see what it was like. Into the Yashica it went and to the top of the steps I went. Rather taken with the long shadow cast by the young man at the bottom I was framing the shot when a figure a passed into the shaft of light to my left. I pressed the shutter button.

In spite of the light background I would like to think that there’s a touch of film noir in the resulting (lucky) image. If so, I hate to disappoint any romantics hoping for a happy ending for these two. Just as Valli does to Joseph Cotten in the closing scene of the classic ‘The Third Man’, she walked straight past him without so much as glance.

Share this post: