Gateway to the Castle

An appropriate picture and title for today's blog, as my most recent bit of news involves castles. More specifically, postcards of castles. Two of my Warwick Castle photographs are now on sale at Warwick Castle as postcards and of course I am very excited about this. I was contacted a couple of months ago about using these pictures (Link 1 and Link 2) for postcards at Warwick Castle and now this week I have been sent my own copies and couldn't be more thrilled that my photography is now available to buy (yes I know they're only postcards!) at Warwick Castle.

So to tie in with that good piece of news, I am posting a picture of another castle, Windsor Castle, one of the oldest and most majestic historical structures in the British Isles. This is not an HDR picture (that's 2 in a row, a record for me?) and was processed entirely in Lightroom 4. This is not the great gate that is the main entrance to the entire fortress but one of the smaller entrances, once you are within the castle walls.

Is anyone else in the UK struggling with photographic motivation and inspiration with all the miserable weather we've been having recently?

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 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/