The Wedding Car

The Wedding Car. Taken outside a church in Warsaw on the last afternoon of an excellent two-week tour in Poland. Lots of couples were getting married at other churches too, and they all seemed happy public occasions, with crowds gathering round in the street to watch. This was a busy street and I grabbed three shots, pausing – according to the EXIF data – for 26 seconds before this one for a break in the people-traffic.

I was pleased with the result: suddenly everyone moved into position. The lady on the right holding up her flowers (as she had been, all over the frame, for several minutes). The girl on the left in the fashionable skirt; is the young man chatting her up, or is he her brother? A larger man blocks that edge of the frame. There's just one 'wedding hat' on the extreme right. Friends and relations are deep in conversation, and no-one is paying any attention to the car, which is undoubtedly the star of the show at this moment. What is it? I couldn't find a name – it looks a bit like a Jowett Javelin, for those with long memories, but it's not.

In competition, the judge didn't like it. Not at all. He didn't see the point, and 13/20 was all he could manage. I wasn't the only one to suffer that evening, and the concensus of opinion was that he wasn't from, er... the top judging drawer. Well, I'm never too worried about the points, but it was nevertherless very satisfying to have the print accepted for the EAF (East Anglian Federation) Exhibition later in the season.

• 2007 East Anglian Federation (EAF) Exhibition

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