Suburbia at its quietest is at its most photographic. A Sunday morning, a bank holiday, the dead middle of the school summer — deserted streets, shuttered shops, long shadows, the occasional dog walker crossing an empty road. The emptiness is not the absence of a picture, it is the picture, and the mood does the work for you.

Look for: the lone figure small in a wide, empty frame, long shadows running down a silent street, a single closed shutter, the parked stillness of cars nobody is using. Negative space is your closest ally here.

Best time: early Sunday, or the strange dead hour of a bank holiday afternoon.