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/

The Thames Under Oxford / Pinterest

Here is another record from my recent day trip to Oxford. I mentioned last week that I need to go out and shoot some more pictures now and that is still very true. The more pictures you post from a certain location, the more difficult it is to write about. You've already written so much content on the place! Anyways, as opposed to my 'Oxfordshire' shot last last week, this is from the other side of that bridge that goes over the river Thames and is in glorious HDR! It is an HDR from 3 shots and I decided to go for the square format for this picture as there was little if any interesting content towards the left side of this picture. I always remember Rick Sammon's advice about cropping, which is to always make the picture fill the frame, that's what I try to do.

Pinterest


Since Trey Ratcliff's blog about Pinterest the other day, I notice there are a lot of photographers signing up. Which has included me as well, so if you want to have a look, here is my Pinterest page:

pinterest.com/petehalewood

I only have 2 followers so far, so more would be appreciated! There was a big debate on Trey's site about the pro's and con's of pinterest. I completely adhere to Trey's core philosophy about having no fear who uses or what happens to your pictures and let be what will be. The internet has changed the way artists can have their work accessed and I think you either accept this and use it to your advantage or don't accept this and spend your days complaining of the way things are. It was a wise person who once said "If you don't like change, you are going to like irrelevance even less".

In a way nothing has really changed in terms of gaining success. A struggling pub band with ambitions to 'make it' don't go chasing money out of everyone who hears their music. They are grateful for any exposure they get. If and when they do make it, they will be able to earn a living, but their music will still be used by people unwilling to pay for it. And the internet hasn't changed that, people have been making tapes and bootlegging music for decades. What a waste of time it would be for bands and record companies to chase every teenager who made a tape from someone else's record and let's be honest we've all done it.

The most important lesson I can offer to people who are concerned about where their pictures end up, is simply always remember to tag and record your information in the metadata. That way your picture will always carry a metaphorical 'chip' in it and some way down the line, someone may use that to track you down and ask to pay you to use the picture.

This is simple enough to do in Photoshop, just click into File and then File Info and fill out all the relevant information, just make sure you get your email address or other contact details in there so people can find you!

I have a 4 day weekend now, which will include heading over to Windsor, so hope to capture some great photos around there.