IT was a strange sight. A little old lady, standing on her own in the middle of a field, knitting.

“I was baffled to see her,“ says travel photographer Lynda Sargent, from Garston. “She was just stood there knitting surrounded by these beautiful mountains – what a place to be working!“

After taking her portrait, Lynda was invited back to the woman’s home in rural northern Albania where she was fed and introduced to four generations of the family.

“They totally opened up their home to us. These cultures are very people orientated, they love to invite people in.“

It’s such personal encounters that form the focus of Lynda’s debut exhibition, at Watford Museum, of photographs taken on her travels from France to Albania, along the King’s Highway, the ancient trade route that stretches through the Middle East from Egypt to Syria, and around the Mediterranean from Cyprus to Morocco.

It was while living in Albania doing charity work that Lynda’s friends urged her to take a holiday. Before embarking she enrolled on a photography workshop, giving her the skills she needed to capture the people and places she’d see along the way.

After shooting around her adopted homeland –“I went back with my eyes opened,“ says Lynda – another trip took her through across the desert and through the Middle East.

“I’ve always thought I never want to go there,“ says Lynda, 47. “You see it on the news and it looks like a scary place to go. But I found they are just beautiful people, really friendly, it blew all my perceptions.

“It’s a very different culture, it’s just so different.“

Lynda avoids the usual tourist sights, aiming instead to get to the heart of the nation and its people.

“When I went to Cairo I didn’t even go to see the pyramids. I want to get in where the people are. I want to see what the culture’s like, I want to see their lives.“

There will be a full range of styles on display, from landscapes to portraits to documentary. On the day the exhibition opens, Lynda will be giving a talk on her work, sharing the stories of those she met en route.

“Whenever I think about my photography I’ve got this little strapline that goes through my head all the time,“ adds Lynda. “It’s ’stories of lives, stories of nations’. Each life, each place has a story, it has value and it has significance.

“That’s what motivates me, everyone has a story. If you capture the story of an individual’s life, you’re also capturing the story of a nation.“

Lynda Sargent’s debut exhibition is at Watford Museum from February 23 to March 22. Lynda will be giving a talk at the Little Gallery Tearoom at the museum on Saturday, February 23 at 11.30am and 2.30pm. Details: www.lyndasphotography.co.uk