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...
8 comments:
Good start to the year... looking forward to seeing the rest of this village as it seems like there is quite a bit of history there. I hope you do an architectural survey of the town in the weeks to come.
Britain is full of great places to see. Loooking forward to more beautiful pictures.
Very nice, I love seeing other towns and cities.
Nice shot of a beautiful area of the country.
You have picked a great theme for PAW. I look forward to seeing more from your travels.
Very good start for your PAW project, well done
This is a really interesting shot for me since architecture is a favorite of mine. The stone you mention is fabulous. I love the arch of stone over the windows. The one thing that struck me about the image is the bear mimicks the pose of the animals on the town building. The intricate ironwork on the sign is fascinating as well. A Little old world with the modern world peeking in with the cars. Lovely!
Looks very cozy, Carl. Nice place and wonderful that you got a bit of nice weather while you were out for the shoot!
Great start the the year. Nice tonality in the town hall and I agree with t-mayer that the sign for the pub pulls the image together nicely. Good composition, too, with the pub sign really working the rule of thirds.
Two things I might consider for the image... The building in the lower left jumps out at me. I would maybe crop it out or use localized curves to drop the contrast. Also, if you're open to removing elements, the flag pole on top of the town hall divides the photo for me and stops the eye flowing as easily as it otherwise would.
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