Took myself out of the usual routine this morning and joined a guided photowalk around Hilsea, put on by Pompey Darkroom and Community Spotlight CIC. It’s a new monthly series called Hilsea Through a Lens, and this was the March edition.

Photographer Mia Blake led the walk, starting at Hilsea train station at 11 and running for a couple of hours. There were a handful of us, a good mix of cameras and phones, and no pressure to produce anything in particular. Just slow down and look.

I brought the 28mm today, which felt right for the kind of tight, textured subjects I was hoping to find. Plus the diffusion filter, which I’ve been using more and more lately.

The lido was the obvious first draw. I’ve walked past it plenty of times without really stopping to look at the graffiti properly. Some of it is genuinely brilliant, layers of colour built up over years, the kind of thing that rewards getting close. The 1/4 diffusion gives it a slightly dreamlike quality that I think suits the decay well. Or maybe I’m just rationalising my attachment to that filter.

Graffiti on the walls of Hilsea Lido, Portsmouth

The tunnels were the highlight for me. Dark, damp, and full of interesting light at the entrances. The kind of place you’d walk past and assume there’s nothing to photograph, then spend twenty minutes in there. The 28mm is wide enough to get some context but not so wide that everything falls apart compositionally.

Inside the abandoned tunnels at Hilsea Lines, Portsmouth

Then out to the bridge over to Foxes Forest. Completely different atmosphere, greener, quieter, a bit of breathing room after the concrete and spray paint. Worth having as a counterpoint.

Bridge leading to Foxes Forest at Hilsea, Portsmouth

It was a good morning. There’s something useful about shooting somewhere familiar with a group and a prompt. It forces you to actually look rather than just walk past. Mia’s guidance was low-key and well-judged, never prescriptive. She also pointed me toward a few accounts and events worth following if you want to get more involved in the local photography scene, which I appreciated. I tend to shoot alone most of the time, and while I like that, I’ve been looking for something a bit more social to keep things fresh and meet people who are into the same stuff.

On that note, I got chatting to Joe during the walk, we swapped details, and then discovered we already follow each other on Instagram. Small world.

If you’re Portsmouth-based and haven’t come across Pompey Darkroom, they’re worth following. They’re a CIC built around making photography accessible and inclusive, running darkroom workshops, events, and artist-led projects across the city. This photowalk series is part of Community Spotlight CIC’s Hilsea Station Adoption Project, part-funded by The National Lottery and Portsmouth Community Lottery. The £5 ticket goes toward the facilitation and that community work, which feels like a decent use of a fiver.

The walks run monthly. Worth keeping an eye on if you want a reason to actually go somewhere and shoot rather than just thinking about it.