A different perspective – the Photography and Video Show 2025

Well, when the year started, I have to tell you I was pretty pleased with myself. Not only had I got the Christmas Blog completed in time (just before Christmas that is) I got the January blog completed and it was only the start of February. If I were to give you an analogy, I would say that it all started with the speed of a thoroughbred racehorse in the lead of it’s first race of the year. I had every intention of continuing the blogs with this fast-paced enthusiasm.
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Here we all are (you are here aren’t you? Thank goodness, for a minute I thought it was just me) it is now the beginning of May and sadly my thoroughbred racehorse turned into a rag and bone man’s nag (not that there is anything wrong with this type of horse) plodding along. Like me, this kind of horse is in it for the long game showing strength and longevity, which hopefully I will also replicate, in a blog writing kind of way if you know what I mean. 

Fun Fact:
A rag-and-bone man is a person who goes from street to street with a horse and cart buying things such as old clothes and furniture. Not something you see much now days.
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He is also a very good singer, but I have no idea if he has a horse or not and is not for the purposes of this blog the person whom I am referring to. 

Once more into the breach dear friends and back to the subject of our blog.

Erm, just before I do, can I just say that even though this is quite late in the day ( I have seen a few youtubers filming their visits not too many if I am honest, maybe this is not a good subject, maybe you have all stopped reading already, maybe you never started or maybe I am in some parallel universe where I don’t even exist **@&%!) it is as I have said a different perspective.
Yes, looking at all the lovely shiny new things, and there were so many “my precious”, is great but if you are like us (me and the Mrs) then there was no intention of buying anything as we just don’t have the spare cash. However, I can tell you that as well as window shopping which was fun there is a lot going on at these things.
If you have previously seen other videos/blogs about the Photography Show, ours is surely to be one of the last. I am also sure you will agree ours is by far the best, obvs.😁

We begin on the train, where we ran into a lovely woman, on her way to work at a vintage style clothing shop, who herself was dressed in vintage clothing. We chatted and I asked if I could take a picture, and she was happy to oblige.

Artistic Version

​The last image being a more artistic version, with the train carriage being changed to a more 1950’s style.

Just one change later and we were on the Elizabeth line for the last part of the journey.

We arrived at the ExCeL London and the weather was lovely especially for March.
​We had gone on the first day, Saturday 8th March. We had never been before and had no idea what to expect. Can I just say that the ExCeL is big very big and the photography show was just one of the events being held there. I know that there was a baby event going on and also some kind of dance troupe competition and there are places to purchase all kinds of food and drink as well, all within the complex.

Above - One of the dance groups practicing in the main hall.

There were different galleries of winners of various photographic competitions on display. All manor of stands for absolutely everything to do with photography from new cameras to school photography and everything in between.

There was a whole area dedicated to creative fun which was very impressive.

Of course, it would have been rude not to have a go at some of the photo opportunities on offer. This is where my wonderful wife dived in (on one occasion literally) and fully embraced her fun side. These are some of the resulting mobile phone pictures taken, that were sent to friends and family on the day. 

After some fun and giggles, we continued our journey around the show. Many stands had provided models for the event, which was great, and all the models were very friendly and happy to pose. Many thanks to them, as this was just day one of four very long days for them all.
Here are some of the raw files so you can get a flavour of how the stands made space for the models.

With a little bit of time and effort, this is just some of the images we were able to create, we liked them and hope that you do also.

Other models and sets were on offer as we wondered through the lanes of vendors, some slightly more elaborate. 

There was even a tuk tuk on one stand.

My wife then started a small side project of photographing people wearing hats.

It was only sometime later that I was able to offer my own contribution to the project. This one my wife most definitely won.

After some time of walking around I realised something about my YouTube viewing habits, well it seemed like it at the time anyway.

My name is Len, and I watch lots of photographers whose name begins with G.

This revelation came to me due to the youtubers I had spotted at the show, there was Gavin Hoey, Gary Gough, Gary Norman, Gareth Danks, Gary Lashmar (didn’t see him but I do watch him), and honorary G, Mali Davis, what I hear you cry “Mali Davis” yes, now bear with me on this one, this is my Sherlock Holmes like deduction. Firstly he is friends with Gary Gough who is a G already, Secondly they were both on the Nisi stand and lastly (and this is the most important deduction of all, elementary really) Mali always ends his videos by saying C D, well it sounds like that, so it isn’t a big leap to go past E and F which brings us to G, see I told you.

Obviously, I also went up to each one and told them what a fan I am and had a long conversation (no I didn’t, I am nearly 60 and just don’t do that sort of thing, why on earth would any of them want to be bothered by a bald old bloke who they don’t know from Adam).
This is just a light-hearted observation, in reality I watch many people both men and women whose names begin with all sorts of letters, some of whom were also there on the day, I didn’t speak to any of them either. One more observation whilst I am at it was that all of them are so much taller than I imagined from looking at them on my TV.

Gary Gough is no less than a giant!

One of the other great things we also enjoyed about the Photography Show was the abundance of freebies, yes that’s right free stuff. Mainly cloth bags (pretty good quality cloth bags you know well stitched and that), paper, keyrings, and pens, a perfectly pleasing plethora of goodies. Here is some of our totally legal stash of free stuff.

This bag is my favourite, well made and with a statement that works in many ways, if only we could all do such a thing.

So, we arrived early and left about 4.30 but we didn’t go far.
If you are not aware the ExCeL is located at the Royal Victoria dock which is now a smart vibrant area due to regeneration. This used to be a working dock until 1981 when the docks closed to commercial traffic. 

Fun Fact: The Royal Victoria Dock, opened in 1855, was the first dock in London specifically designed for steamships and featured direct rail links to the quay. It was part of the Royal Docks, the largest enclosed dock system in the world. The dock initially accommodated large steamships and played a crucial role in handling import and export trade, particularly of goods like meat, fruit, tobacco, and grain. 

It also links to my family as my father was a docker and worked all along the docks here. I had never visited before; I did take a moment just to think about him.

The weather was still nice, my wife wanted to go on the cable cars and as I already said we had never visited before. It was time to investigate and take a few more images of the area.

There is lots to see and many photo opportunities from boats to vistas of London and a little bit of nostalgia for earlier times.

The large cranes remind me of the machines from War of the Worlds terraforming the earth.

We weren’t the only ones enjoying the weather either.

Artistic Version

There was art all around too, all in a small area.

People had apparently attended the Show from all over the world and time period, maybe it was the mode of transport for the models from the start of the blog.

To fulfil my wife’s request, we made our way to the cable cars. 

Enjoying the return trip and finally making the most of the last of the sun’s rays.

We fitted in quite a lot considering the days were still short at this time of year, including a cup of tea and an ice-cream mid investigation.

We agreed we would certainly go again although sadly it seems the 2026 show will be held back at the NEC Birmingham, which is the normal venue. This would be more costly and probably include staying there, which would mean more time taken, something that has put us off before. However, I would still highly recommend the day out to anybody in the Birmingham area for next year.
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Oh, and before I sign off, the reason we went was not just the fact that it was in London. We actually had an image each on show on one of the Cewe competition walls.

If you made it all the way to the end thank you very much. I hope you enjoyed our alternative look at the Photography and Video Show 2025. It was a bit long, but I hope this in some way makes up for the previous lack of blogs. So, for now I will hoof it on out of here and trot off. Anyway, I will stop horsing around.

Until next time.