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At this time of year, sunsets are a bit more manageable thanks to the shorter days, so I have recently been visiting Ouse Fens Nature Reserve of an evening. This RSPB site it a haven for many types of bird life, some of them quite rare. Unfortunately my wildlife photography skills leave a lot to be desired, so I stuck to landscapes.

Thankfully there are several spots to be found along the River Ouse, and some of them do favour the sunset image, so I have been taking full advantage. Below are a selection of images, they're not all taken at different spots, but all are taken on different days, with accompanying weather conditions and cloud cover to add a touch of variety.

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I recently paid a visit to Wimpole Estate, 3,000 acres of parkland, which contains Wimpole Hall, the largest house in Cambridgeshire, along with a church, a farm and a walled garden, but I wasn’t there to see any of that, I had my sights set on the folly.

This substantial pile of Grade II listed masonry was built in the 1770’s, and designed to resemble the ruins of a gothic castle. It was designed by Sanderson Miller, who was a noted follies architect of the day, and is probably best known for the Great Hall at Lacock Abbey, the place where William Fox Talbot created the earliest existing camera negative. The folly was actually built by Capability Brown several years later, when he ‘naturalised’ the parkland landscape in his inimitable style.

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Following on from yesterday's post from Monks Wood, where we saw the trees changing into their autumn finery, in this post, also from Monks Wood in Cambridgeshire, we look a bit closer at some shots of the leaves and berries that festoon the undergrowth and the vibrant colours they reveal.

Monks Wood is a fair size woodland and doesn't get many visitors, which meant I pretty much had the place to myself as I rummaged through the thicket looking for shots. It was very peaceful indeed.

I hope you enjoy looking through them as much as I did taking them.

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Last week I took a trip over to Monks Wood in Cambridgeshire, it was designated a national nature reserve in 1953, and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. It has been described as one of the best examples of ancient ash-oak woodland in the East Midlands.

I was in search of some autumn colour, there wasn't a great deal about, but I managed to find a bit, as you see.

The following images show what colour I could find in this attractive woodland. In part two we will have a closer look at the leaves and berries that adorn the trees.

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I recently paid a couple of visits to Ouse Washes, a nature reserve managed by the RSPB, which houses two diversion channels from the River Great Ouse and is the largest area of frequently flooded (for an average of 22 days per year) grazing marsh in Britain.

My first visit was under a very bilious looking sky, full of fidgety, tumbling clouds which let through the odd ray of sunshine here and there, as if they were uneasy with the whole concept, and wished to hoard it for themselves.

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A couple of weeks ago I visited the National Trust property of Lyveden New Bield, an unfinished Elizabethan summer house in the east of Northamptonshire, and a Grade I listed building.

It was constructed for Sir Thomas Tresham, who was a figure of national importance and a talented designer, and also a fervent Roman Catholic, for which he suffered persecution a good portion of his life. Much of the garden design and cultivation instruction were penned by Tresham from his prison cell. The house is thought to have been designed by Robert Stickells. The exact date is unknown but can be estimated to circa 1604–05, the year of Tresham's death.

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I awoke to a very dismal morning, not the best news when you're on the hunt for a decent sunrise. My plan was to head for Peveril Point in Swanage, to document the beginning of a glorious new day, but as I arrived at the car park on the eastern tip of the town, it started to hammer it down, so I sat and waited patiently for it to subside, which in due course it did.

So gathering up my stuff, I began to set off on the 10 minute walk to the coast, but after a few steps I thought better of it, as it began to lash it down once more. I realised that even if I waited for this shower to clear, if the rain insisted on a repeat performance, particularly one with a bit of longevity to it, which seemed prodigiously feasible. Once I was down at the point, I and my gear were going to get a thorough drenching. I needed somewhere with a bit of shelter, where I could cower and hide should the weather mount a sustained attack.

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Last week I paid another visit to the beautiful coast of Dorset, around the Swanage area, as it had been a while since I'd been there last, which meant it high was time I got a few more pictures from this very scenic region. My first day was spent almost exclusively at Durdle Door and Corfe Castle, or Durdle Dorf Castle as I like to say when referring to them together.

My initial stop was sunrise at Corfe Castle, where I ascended West Hill, to get a view of the sun rising from behind the ruins. Unfortunately the sky wasn’t looking like it was going to play ball, there were hardly any clouds, apart from a thick plume along the horizon where the sun was supposed to make an appearance. So I was not best pleased I can tell you, but as I’d made the effort to get part way up the hill, I wasn’t about to turn back without giving the dawn the benefit of the doubt, and allowing it to make amends for such a tardy display.

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In part two of my visit to Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk, I take a wander around The Wilderness, stroll through Home Covert and I encounter some very charismatic trees.

Wilderness gardens were created in deliberate contrast to the rigid formality of gardens immediately surrounding country houses. Clumps of shrubs, specimen trees, meandering paths and the dappled sunlight of surrounding woodland created a romantic illusion of an untamed landscape, in which people could walk and experience nature.

This part of the estate also contains a large boulder, about a metre across, that is composed of hundreds of fossilised oysters, and has been dated back to around 165 million years ago. I didn't take a picture of it, as its picturesque interest is of a somewhat limited value.

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Last week I paid a visit to Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk. Despite being built during the Wars of the Roses, Oxburgh Hall was never intended to be a castle but a family home. It was completed in 1482 for Sir Edmund Bedingfeld and the family have lived at Oxburgh ever since. It is now run by the National Trust, although the family still lives there.

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Following on from my tour around the gardens at the National Trust property of Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire, here we have a look at the impressive house itself and the accompanying Rose Garden.

Once a medieval Augustinian priory, then an Elizabethan manor house, Anglesey Abbey was restored in the early 20th century by Lord Fairhaven to create a richly decorated showcase for his eccentric collection of fine art. The house retains parts of the original medieval buildings and Elizabethan decoration.

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A couple of weeks ago I visited Anglesey Abbey, a National Trust property located a few miles north of Cambridge. I wanted to have a mooch around the grounds and house, as well as visit the vibrant display of dahlias they have every year.

This first post is all about the grounds. The 98 acres of landscaped grounds are divided into a number of walks and gardens, with classical statuary, topiary and flowerbeds. They were laid out in an 18th-century style by the estate's last private owner, the 1st Baron Fairhaven, in the 1930s. Baron Fairhaven bequeathed the house and grounds to the National Trust upon his death in 1966.

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I arose, on my last day in Exmoor, to a dank, drizzly morning, so a sunrise was out of the question. After packing up the tent in the rain, always a delightful job, I drove to Porlock Weir so I could begin a spot of rambling along the South West Coast Path.

By the time I arrived it was starting to brighten up a bit, with the morning sunshine appearing through the ever thinning clouds. I parked up, and strapping on my camera bag, I took the little track to the coastal path. I was only walking a tiny fraction of it, the entire length of the path is 630 miles, the longest in England, and stretches from Minehead, around the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, all the way to Pool in Dorset. And because it rises and falls with every river mouth, the total height climbed, if you were to complete the route, has been estimated at 114,931 feet, almost four times the height of Everest. I wasn’t about to do that.

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Up for sunrise again this morning, this time I was heading to the Exe Valley, located just the other side of Simonsbath. The valley itself is not the most interesting of valleys, it doesn’t have the precipitous slopes or trees and shrubbery of the Barle Valley, nor is the River Exe that imposing, it’s just a small trickle occasionally spied among the valley floor grasses. The one thing it does have going for it though is the sunrise, which ascends beyond the basin and lights up the landscape below, at least that was the hope.

It wasn’t a great start, there was no pre-dawn light, and I had to wait about half an hour until the sun actually began to appear over the horizon before I could engage my equipment. It was worth the wait though, when the soft warm light did finally emerge it transformed the valley into a sumptuous bowl of golden sunlight, it was difficult to believe I was looking at the same tableau. It wasn’t long before the canvas of clouds began reflecting in sympathy with the colour of the landscape, which meant I had quite a scene on my hands.

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I was up at five for a sunrise shoot at the Punchbowl, where I’d been the afternoon before, as it looked like it might be a worthwhile spot for some early morning antics. I got there a little late though, as the sky was already beginning to transform from the lead grey of nights end into the first flush of dawn.

Parking up and grabbing my gear, I took off at speed into the moorland to find a suitable spot for what I hoped might be a rewarding show. If anyone had been passing by they would have witnessed a rather ungainly fellow scampering through the ferns, tripod flailing in the morning breeze, crying out ‘wait for me’ to the blushing sky. Whether it’s shade signalled the start of a colourful sunrise, or it was just embarrassed to be seen with me, I didn’t yet know.

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After a very disturbed night, thanks to the seemingly endless rain tap tap tapping on my taut tent topping, I wasn’t up that early, not that there was much to be up for, the rain was still continuing its cascade of damp misery. So after a leisurely breakfast, by which time the clouds had taken on a more cheery countenance and the sun was finally awake, I took a drive over the moors to the coast, and Porlock Common.

Porlock Common is a fetching piece of land that comprises meadows of heather and a patchwork of trim, hedge lined fields upon rolling landscape, all situated right on the coast. It encompasses all of what makes Exmoor such an appealing place, in a way that very few spots in the National Park manage to do. And it was looking very fine in the morning light.

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Last week I spent a few days in one of my favourite places, Exmoor National Park. I was camping near Exford so I was hoping the weather would stay clement for the duration, as I don’t find tenting and rain an agreeable combination.

So, I arrived at the campsite accompanied by a howling wind and intermittent blustery downpours, perfect conditions to set up a large, flapping piece of canvas. As I wrestled with my accommodation, doing my best to deal with its angry flailings, like an overwrought parent who’s run out of Ritalin, the sun did finally, if bashfully and fleetingly, show its face, so I had reason to hope things might improve.


I didn’t hang around the campsite to admire my handiwork, although there was of course much to admire, but sped off to Robbers Bridge to try and get a few shots of it while the conditions were still overcast. Located in what is known as the Doone Valley, referring to R.D. Blackmore’s novel Lorna Doone, which was set around the area, this ancient arch bridge, accessible via a very narrow, steep and winding road, spans Wier Water, and is a beautiful, quiet spot to spend a little time.

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Yesterday evening I took a little trip to the RSPB nature reserve at Ouse Fen in Cambridgeshire, so called because it is traversed by The Great Ouse. At 143 miles, its journey from near Bedford to the Wash makes it one of the longest rivers in the UK. Hence the ‘Great’ moniker, to distinguish it from several other waterways named the Ouse.

Ouse Fen is a 30 year project (started in 2002) between the RSPB and Hanson Aggregates, who operate the largest quarry in eastern England on the site. And it is these quarry pits that are slowly being transformed into a vast nature reserve, some 28 million tonnes of sand and gravel will be extracted over three decades to create a 700 hectare wetland reserve which when complete, will boast 460 hectares of reedbed, the largest in the UK.

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Going through my website recently, I realised how much my processing style had changed over the years, hopefully for the better! Workflow and processing skills should evolve over time, and along with things like camera technique and compositional skills, go to make us better photographers.

The down side is of course, when I look at images I processed years ago I don't exactly get a warm feeling inside. So to that end I decided to re-visit my images from the Dordogne taken in 2010, and thought it might be interesting, at least to me anyway, to compare how my processing from 6 years ago has changed to how I process them today.

A couple of things to note. The image on the left is the 2010 image and the one on the right is the revised one, this is the case for all images. You will notice on most of the pictures that there is a slight shift as you move the slider across, this is due to me using lens distortion correction in Camera Raw, which wasn't available in 2010. All revised images were re-processed from the original Raw file with all previous edits removed.


The most obvious difference in this image of the hilltop town of Beynac, is how much lighter the new image is. As a general rule I did like to give my images a much darker, some might even say murky look to them. I can't really remember why I favoured this approach, I think I just liked to push the processing as far as I could, whereas now I have a bit more of a gentle touch.



While going through the original files, there were certain views that I decided against using originally, but on second look, I found I preferred. The image above is a case in point. This is also a view of Beynac, and while the town can't be seen as clearly as the first image, I actually prefer how the image works as a whole, and nowadays wouldn't dismiss it as I did before.



Here is an example of something I try not to do now if I can help it, as you can see, even though the village of Bretenoux is very picturesque, the light is really drab, so I have tried to push the processing to rectify the flatness of the image, never a great idea, as I have gone overboard on the dodging and burning in an effort to create some three dimensionality to the buildings. The resulting picture certainly has 'storybook' quality to it but overall it's a bit of a mess.

The revised image, while more restrained is still not a great image because of the conditions and shooting angle. This is one of those times when it would have been better to recognise that the image didn't have any potential, rather than try and force it to work.



This image of Chateau de Fenelon has a bit more going for it, there is at least a bit of sunlight on the scene, plus the clouds have a lot of interest in them. Unfortunately I took that form in the clouds, and with unerring overkill dragged the image into the realm of unrealism. Couple that with excessive use of the dodging and burning tools, and blocking a lot of the shadows, it's easy to see why it was time to update it. The new image is certainly not as tough on the eye, but once the distracting edits had been removed and it was processed more gently, I wasn't particularly happy with the image generally, I didn't think it was that strong.



This picture was originally discarded, but going through them with fresh, and I dare I say, more knowledgeable eyes, it stood out as the best image from the set taken at Fenelon. The path and wall lead the eye into the view and towards the chateau. The clouds are not quite as energetic as the first picture but rather work to frame the top third of the image. An example of how picking the correct image in the first place may negate the need, as a way of compensating for a below-par selection, for over-processing later on.



Moving away from the landscapes, this detail shot of an ancient wooden door in the village of Carennac, one of the features that these medieval towns abound in, is a lesson in letting the elements of an image tell the story themselves, as opposed to dragging them kicking and screaming into a new narrative. The original image which, while it does have a certain look to it that isn't entirely out of place considering its subject matter, does seem to suggest that just round the corner are a pile of disease ravaged bodies and a village filled with bile frothing, plague infested peasants. While the new image, with it's warmer, sunnier tone and more restrained processing looks more like a fortunate encounter with an interesting feature on a summers morning.

While they both exude a sense of history, it's important to realise the power of meaning that imprints on an image depending on how it is processed. I'm pretty sure I wasn't driving for a Black Death themed picture when I processed it originally, I just tried to make every stone stand out and every feature more prominent through the use of highlights, shadows and colour balance, whereas it didn't really need that kind of treatment, and I completely changed the substance of the image.



This image of the famous town of Rocamadour is a lesson in more isn't always better. In an effort to make the image as dramatic as possible I re-visited this file several times, each time adding a bit more work to various areas to try and bring out as much detail as I could. In the end it just wound up a dense, nubilous representation of the scene. Yet because I was so invested in getting the image to look a certain way and had spent so much time on it, I was loath to give it up.

The new processing took about a tenth of the time and yielded much more positive results. Sometimes it's worthwhile to take a step back from an image to evaluate the best course of action. It can be difficult to be sure, especially if you have a definite idea in your mind of how you want it to be, even though the results aren't forthcoming. At times like that it can be a good idea to make a fresh start, even if that means discarding the work done up to that point.



This image of wisteria around an old door, taken in the remote village of Peyrusse-le-Roc early one evening was one of my favourites from the trip, and was one of the few pictures I wasn't sure needed a processing re-visit. But after having given it a make over I'm glad I did. The dense shadows, which I considered important to give the image depth, I soon realised weren't required, and it looks a lot fresher for their removal. With more of the door visible it now plays a bigger part in the picture, and the texture of the ancient wood really comes to the fore.



As is often the way, while looking through the original Raw files I came across a different view of the same scene and it immediately grabbed my attention. I'm still not sure I prefer it to the closer image, I change my mind every time I look at them, but to my eyes it's definitely as strong. Showing more of the scene, it gives extra context to the elements, and has a bit more depth to it, the first picture is a touch dimensionally flat.



This quiet little cul-de-sac in the village of Carennac was another one of my favourite images from the area, thanks to the interesting architecture of the houses and accompanying colourful plant life. The original, as was my want, is a little too dark, with the shadows conveying a grubby feel to the place which definitely wasn't intentional. I didn't realise this until I re-processed it, and comparing the two versions it became all too apparent.

It can be tricky when working on images, to keep a balanced view on how they are looking, it's all too easy to rush headlong into a certain way of working, and forget how the scene actually looked at the time. To be fair the new edit isn't perfect either, I kept the colour balance on the new process more in keeping with what the camera captured, but in hindsight I think a yellower tinge would've been more agreeable.




I rectified the colour balance on this different perspective of the same view. I actually prefer this to the first one, it's still keeping the colour of the vegetation, but the scene is a lot more open and I think pulls the viewer into the image. I can imagine walking into that picture, past the flowers and down the steps at the far end, then off into the village. It's a lot more inviting and having looked at it over the past couple of days, I favour this one far more than the other.

Why I chose the first one over this image when I did the original edits is something I'll never know, it obviously didn't speak to me like it does now, which of course is another facet to consider when working with images, our taste, knowledge and experience in photography change over time. There's not much we can do about that of course, it would be pretty difficult to choose and process an image to please the preferences of our future selves. But what we can do I guess is try not to get stuck in a particular way of doing things, be aware that just because we are comfortable in a certain workflow, it doesn't mean that it can't or shouldn't change.

And don't forget to re-visit old images, it's always worth having a spring clean every now and again!

Speciality tea makers, Birchall Tea, are currently running a campaign entitled Birchall's Britain. A region by region guide to Britain, looking to showcase the people, culture and landscapes that make each region special.

They approached me, and requested I be involved with their celebration of the Cotswolds, which I was delighted to do, as it's an area very special to me. So I supplied some images and a few thoughts on this beautiful part of the country.

You can read the article and view the images on their website.