We have a competition coming up at my camera club with the theme of ‘After Dark’. When competitions have a set subject it forces you out of your comfort zone and makes you create images you may not otherwise have done.

I didn’t quite know what to do for the After Dark theme. I’m chronically ill and because of that I’m usually in bed by 4pm each day, so going out after dark is a rarity. There’s also the safety factor to be considered for female photographers. Wandering alone after dark is risky and scary for women in ways it’s not for men. So, what to do for the theme?

Last week, a friend and I visited the Moon installation currently on show in Hexham Abbey. I took various shots of the Abbey itself not knowing what I would do with them, but they must have planted a seed in my mind because I came up with the idea of ‘Evening Prayer’. Luckily for me, my neighbour makes a brilliant Monk and he agreed to pose in my spare bedroom dressed in a costume I bought years ago for another image. With the backdrop of Hexham Abbey this was the resulting picture:

You have to work with what you’ve got. The reason I do composites is because my personal situation dictates what I can and can’t do photographically and I’m forced to be creative within my confines. The only limits are my imagination.