I met Evelyn a month or so ago when I made production images for Carrie at the Southwark Playhouse.

After I saw the show for a second time I messaged and asked if she'd like to make some photos together, happily she said yes. The reason I asked Evelyn was because, as well as being gorgeous, she has a disarming stillness that I knew I wanted to photograph. She has an ability to just look; she's not posing, she's not composing herself, she's just being, and I knew we could make some lovely images.

The sun refused to make an appearance yesterday so I popped to Balloons of London in South Bermondsey and bought her a handful of replacement sunshine and then we headed to my favourite garden at the top of Hampstead Heath. I take myself to north London quite regularly just to sit in this beautiful garden, it's so quiet and peaceful.
Every time I visit I take stacks of symmetrical photos of the structure and every time I wish there was a beautiful person in the middle of all those photos. So that's what we did....

I'm so happy with these images, they're just pictures for the sake of making pictures and they're exactly what I had in my head every time I visit my favourite secret garden. They're symmetrical and reflective. Everything just came together, the colours, the clear muted light, everything.

As we walked back down the hill, the heavens opened and we got pretty much drenched, perfect timing!

Perfect for midsummer's eve. Blimey, just realised how that phrase works on several levels for these photos.