I do enjoy a walk along the riverside and often you can find good subjects for some landscape photography and if you are lucky some wildlife too.  Iv done a few rivers while living in east Sussex like Cuckmere and the Ouse.   Wanting to explore more of Kent today I would head to the river Medway near west Farleigh.

River Medway walk from Teston Bridge

I arrived at the Teston country park in Kent just after 8am.  It was open but google maps was reporting not open until 9AM.  I was the first there and its a display and pay carpark but at the very reasonable price of £2 for all day.  I hate paying by the hour, this ruins your walk as your always worried about getting back to the carpark on time.

It was going to be another bright hot humid day and lots of contrast.  The walk starts at the medieval Teston bridge which I managed to get some photos of.  Seems to be a good year for buttercups, but not noticing much in the way of butterflies or dragonflies, not yet.

Certainly was a pleasant walk along the river medway heading in the direction of east Farleigh just west of Maidstone.  On the bank of the medway the angles were difficult using a tripod so I decided to not use it and handhold my camera only.  It was a very bright day and thought I did not really need to use a tripod.  I set the aperture to f/8 and switched on image stabilisation.  But back home I noticed a difference in image sharpness.

In future will stick with a tripod or maybe just my hand holding skills need improving.  Certainly without a tripod you take a lot more photographs, I had over a 100 to post process back home and most were just mediocre.  With a tripod you are alot more selective.

Some come out well though handholding my camera, like these canoes coming down the river medway near Tutsham hall.  Good walk along the river medway in Kent doing about 8 miles.  A good thing is there are plenty of country pubs along the walk where due to the heat I stopped off in two.

Back at the Teston country park and its after 2pm and its packed, lots of testosterone, shirts off, footballs, families picnics etc, not how I get my kicks.  Cars are queuing to take my place and I like to take my boots off in a leisurely pace.