The Country Life of the Cotswolds

Often seen as one of the most desirable places to live in the British Isles, the Cotswolds is an area of land that mainly encompasses Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, and is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. There are 2 villages within the Cotswolds, Bibury and Castle Combe, that I have posted photos of for well over a year now. The villages that you find in the Cotswolds are largely untouched by time and architecturally date back hundreds of years. For this reason they are very often used as sets in period movies and TV programmes. There are many villages to be found in the Cotswolds though, and include the subject of today's picture, Lacock, which was the latest of the Cotswold villages I have visited.

This is an HDR shot, though rather than use bracketed images, I sometimes just use a single RAW file, such as today's picture. This arguably (tediously as well) means it is or is not an HDR image, but it really doesn't matter. I like to put photos through the Photomatix works, as I still find that whatever you are trying to achieve, it helps the picture come to life a lot; adding superb colour and detail.

I'm now back from my busy couple of weekends abroad, but expect to be busy still for over a month, as the days begin to count now until my wedding in late September. I may take a break for a couple of weeks around that time, to get my priorities right (and take a break for taking a break's sake), but until then will continue to blog as usual 3 times a week.