Windsor Train Station

Time is against me today, so here is a quick post of Windsor & Eton Central Station. I had not planned to post this at all (the picture is from about 2 years ago) but I was working on it to experiment with different styles of HDR processing. After a while I decided to see what it would like as a colour-tinted Monochrome, and this was the result. I created the last bit in Lightroom, but the majority of the work was done in Photoshop, using various Topaz plugins. I will blog again tomorrow to make up for my lack of a blog on Thursday. Have a great weekend all!

My Little Empire

It's taken me a little while but here is my first picture of Windsor Castle. I've said in previous posts that I wasn't overwhelmed with my pictures of the castle itself when I visited there about a month ago but it was always my intention to process this one. This is actually a panoramic shot made up of 2 sets of 2 HDR's. I needed to do a panoramic shot to capture the width of the picture. I know this doesn't really look like a panoramic shot and the truth is I'm not really a big fan of those long and thin panoramic shots you see on photographer's photostreams. I can understand it if you are creating a picture to print it and hang it somewhere but on the internet they just don't look good.

What am I saying with the title My Little Empire? Well, it's really about looking at this part of the castle in isolation. Windsor Castle isn't like Bodiam castle where you can capture a large portion of the castle in a close up shot. Windsor Castle is simply way too big for that. So you end up picturing bits of it here and there. This little tower over looks a mound made up of palm trees (I  know, in England!?!) and other exotic plants. With the pond at the bottom as well, it doesn't really look like it's defending much. This is an HDR as I said and though I did the stitching and tone curve work in Photoshop, the final look owes a lot again to Lightroom 4.

If you are interested in seeing where else I am on the web, here is my little empire:

Facebook Group - www.facebook.com/PeteHalewood
Twitter Page - www.twitter.com/PeteHalewood
Flickr Photostream - Pete Halewood Photostream
Pinterest Page - www.pinterest.com/PeteHalewood
Official Website - PeteHalewood.com
Online Gallery - HalewoodPhotographic.com

I am in other places such as Google+ and 500px but I keep a minimum presence on these sites. I do not try to make myself appear everywhere!

Home by the River

The River Thames that flows through Southern England has been quite a theme of my pictures recently and this is one to add to the collection. This is another picture from my trip last weekend to the Windsor area and another that was pictured in the village of Datchet in Berkshire. Datchet is one of the many towns and villages that the river Thames passes and there is some beautiful sights to be seen as it flows by. I have no idea if this is somebody's home (I suspect so) or is an office of some sort but it's difficult to know as you can't access that side of the river! It's a fantastic sight though and very 'English'.

Another feature that has started to become more common is the square format look to my pictures. This was not a deliberate ploy, they just seem to be framed that way by the time I have finished cropping to my content. My theory is basically to keep in the frame what is interesting and that normally means cutting quite big chunks off the side. I know there are some photographers who present their pictures exclusively in the square format and while I would never be that restricted, it definitely is an interesting dimension to use.

The Waiting Place

The most useless place as Dr. Seuss described in 'Oh, the places you'll go!'. And the first line as he describes what the waiting place is - 'Waiting for a train to go'. So that is what gave me the inspiration for this picture. Of course I wasn't thinking about Dr. Seuss when I took this picture but I was certainly inspired by the scenery. I was going for more a compositionally sound picture at the time, with the Windsor train sign placed so I could also capture the man sat waiting and the clock and telephone boxes at the end. The art of it struck me afterwards and that's when I began to think of Dr. Seuss' famous book. I took this picture just last Saturday after visiting Windsor Castle. I'm sure some of my pictures of the castle will pop up on here soon but I was much more excited about this picture after I took it than anything I captured at the great fortress.

I'm now a published author as well!

I'm not trying to modestly overexert my achievements but I have written a book you can find online. Ok so it's unlikely to become a bestseller or sell any outside the Newbury area but yes with my one-day upcoming exhibition in Newbury Town Hall (March 3rd), I thought I'd like to give people something else to look at, other than the pictures themselves. So I wrote and compiled a book called 'West Berkshire in HDR' which would showcase the HDR photos from my local area and also write about the pictures individually. Similar to what I do on this blog actually. There is a bit about the HDR technique in there as well, but the book is really aimed at none-photographers (more specifically Newbury locals) who haven't seen HDR before.

The hard copies are on their way to me but it is also available online as a downloadable ebook. So if you want to have a preview of it or indeed order a copy, please click this link:

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2996848

The Church with the Red Door

Say what you see Pete! Sorry it's a little case of 'titles-block' again, but I couldn't think of anything else to sum up this picture really. This picture is from the village of Datchet, just outside Windsor in Berkshire. I was about to write 'sleepy village of Datchet' then, but if you have spent a night there like I did last night, you'd have done well to get some sleep! Not only is it directly under a Heathrow flight path but the rail line that runs right through the centre of it is surprisingly busy at night as well! Having said all that, it is a charming little village and has existed for hundreds of years, even before the year 1000AD. Therefore, there are some historical sights to see around the village and this is the church of St. Mary the Virgin located on the right as you enter Datchet (if you arrive from the M4 direction anyway).

I've spent the weekend in the Windsor area and yesterday visited Windsor Castle. You can never bank on the English weather treating you well but it has been pretty miserable the last couple of days. Not bad when the effect you are after is quite gloomy like this picture but thoroughly annoying when you have about a 3 seconds to get a picture in the castle grounds before the lens becomes coated in raindrops. Hopefully I'll have some good pictures to show from the castle soon.

I mentioned the other day that I can now be found on Pinterest, well for HDR fans I have also set up a group called 'The Best HDR Photographers' and you can find a link to it here: http://pinterest.com/petehalewood/the-best-hdr-photographers/