Why I took this photo

Here's a great example of getting a decent frame almost by accident. Okay, it’s time to come clean . . .

I was walking with some workshop students along Gresham Street in London's financial district (a great place to shoot street photography, by the way, especially on a sunny day) and I saw this traffic warden about to give the white van a parking ticket. To be completely honest, street photography wasn't on my mind when I pressed the shutter.

You see, I was shooting this as a stock image. Stock can be a great way to build a passive income and it’s all about the numbers game. Image buyers sometime buy the most mundane shots from image libraries such as Alamy, Getty or Shutterstock and the more images you have on a library’s book, the more money you’ll make. I know a guy who earned £30K every year from gallery sales! So that was my intention for this image.

It was only after I pressed the shutter I noticed the words on the van: “Shred it”. I love making witty connections in street photography and love it even more when things happen by accident. I’m sure you’ve taken a picture and only really ‘seen’ something after the event which makes it work.

What serendipity! As I’ve always said, there often a lot of luck involved in street photography.