Week 1 - Woodstock, Oxfordshire

Details: Nikon D80, Nikon Nikkor 50 mm f/1.8 lens, 1/80 s @ f/13, ISO 200

This was a week when I was supposed to be travelling a lot to various client sites but instead made a single journey to one, which is in the heart of the Cotswolds in Oxfordshire. One of the delights of the journey to and from the client site is the town of Woodstock, the place where Blenheim Palace is located, seat of the Duke of Marlborough and birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. The town is a delight in all seasons and I caught this picture at lunchtime on Tuesday, January 2nd.

As pictures go it is not the most dynamic but it captures two of the three essential elements of any small English town or village: the Town Hall and a pub, in this case the sign for the Bear Hotel. The third element - the village church - just could not be squeezed into the frame. I hope the picture captures the colour and warmth of the local building material, the aptly named cotswold stone. Most old towns and villages in the Cotswolds seem to be carved from the stone and to me it offers a real feeling of warmth and comfort.

Sadly, the clear blue sky in the picture belies the fact that just about everywhere else there were dark clouds and about 10 minutes after starting to shoot the rain came in. Given this and the fact that I had stolen time in my lunch break to take the photos, it meant that I did not cover as much of the village as I would have liked. But I will be returning soon...