A Day in a Photomarathon
Like the Oxford Photomarathon, the Rhondda Cynon Taf Photomarathon is an on-line event open to anyone, anywhere – but it started locally and has a large local following. I took part in 2025, and though I had intended to travel to South Wales, I ended up based in Bristol at my daughter’s house. I like to make a photomarathon a social and collaborative day; I always press the shutter (or set the timer), but for me, photomarathons are most fun done with a posse. But there are many who prefer the freedom of doing it solo.
So, one minute to H-Hour saw us sitting at the kitchen table waiting for the phone to ping. And then it did, with four topics which were quickly shared around the table and out to the rest of the family for the first ideas session. “Introduce Yourself”, “Trapped in Time”, Scare Us”, and “Broken”.
Topic one was quickly dealt with. Ten years of doing the 52Frames project has left me with no fear of a self-portrait, and I added one of my old cameras (a Lubitel TLR) to make it more of a statement about me. Meanwhile, Claire started painting my granddaughter’s face as a fearsome monster for topic three. Thinking how the current world feels a lot like a dystopian novel, Josh posed with a copy of 1984 for trapped in time. But we weren’t happy with the shot, so we dropped that and I used my camera’s double-exposure feature to superimpose Cathy’s face on a clock. Then Izzy was ready to give us her best scary monster face for topic 3.
A coffee and biscuit were then needed while we considered “Broken”. Bristol is the UK capital city for graffiti – as well as Banksy, they have Bumpsy, who decorates walls with images of Mr Bump. Claire and I went out in search of a good Bumpsy, and found one off the Kings Weston Road. Risking the brambles, I did a little gardening to make it more visible, and we were back to base before the next topics came.
As Josh had predicted, topic 5 was “Repaired”, and the next three were “Everyday Life”, “A Different Perspective”, and “Keep it Simple”. We were tempted to reshoot topic 4 with something broken that we could then repair and shoot for topic 5, but instead went with a button being sown onto a cardigan. Having drunk so many cups of tea, I went up to the local store to get milk, aiming to photograph people at a bus stop for “Everyday Life”. But the guy behind the shop counter agreed to pose for a couple of shots and we liked his portrait in this setting. Claire and Cathy sat down with another cup of tea, and put their feet up, and forced perspective then satisfied topic 7. A plate of beans on toast, one of quickest images we took ,went on to win the best in topic award for “Keep it Simple”.
The last four topics arrived: Triangular, It’s Missing, Mix and Match, and End. Cathy and I drove down to Severn Beach, where the shape of the cables of Prince of Wales Bridge gave us our topic 9 entry. Nearly losing her boot in the mud gave us inspiration for “It’s missing” as she stood on one leg, her other foot missing its boot. Back at base, we struggled with Mix and Match, and adding a mixer (tonic) to some gin met the brief. It took a while to get the lighting right, and having consumed the gin and tonic, we decided to call it a night.
Early the next morning I went over the Avon Bridge to Portishead, planning to take a shot of the end of a pier. But while I was looking for the right shot, I saw a fisherman lit by the sunrise and the photo taken could just as easily been a sunset, so this was our choice.
With thanks to Alan and Gaby, not only for running this great event (RCTPhotomarathon.com, running again in 2027) but also for the support and encouragement they’ve given us as we started preparing for Oxford Photomarathon.
My12Pics are visible here: 504 John Whittle - RCT PhotoMarathon