Blenheim Palace - 3rd January 2019.
A much-needed dose of fresh air after the festive period lead me to Blenheim Palace. I last visited during the snow of February 2019 and had been meaning to venture back since then, it is only 20 minutes down the road after all :-)
Blenheim has much to please the eye in its grounds and so I headed out with no real plan and just waited to see what captured my attention.
With the afternoon closing out on this early January day, I gravitated towards the lake and the Grand Bridge. The lake is full of wildlife and the Grand Bridge is quite spectacular. There is a spot I enjoyed shooting from in February which is down by the lake (near the “Harry Potter Tree”) and it looks across to the bridge and up toward the palace.
Here I experimented with filters. I have a graduated filter, a polariser and a variable ND filter. I am yet to master them but enjoyed trying the same shot with the different filters to attempt to observe the difference.
One thing I learned is that I need a better ND filter. The variable filter introduces this type of vignetting at the max darkness and this meant I couldn’t get the shot I wanted, whereby the water and clouds were smoothed out. I have since purchased a single 10-stop filter as that should meet my needs better.
The 3 images below were my favourites from the day.
The Grand Bridge at sunset. F7.1, 1/15, 28mm, ISO 100.
I like the golden light the setting sun casts on the bridge. The long grass/weeds lead around to the bridge. I wanted a betting leading line to the bridge but this was the best I could find. I’m going to go back and look for better compositions, ideally one without the grass in the bottom left as it’s a bit distracting.
The Palace at Sunset. F7.1, 1/125, 120mm, ISO 100.
Golden light on the palace. The bush in the bottom left is a bit distracting so I may try and photoshop that out.
Sunset at Blenheim, not a great deal of colour in the sky so captured the sunburst. F18, 1/125, 24mm, ISO100.
I’ve been using a smaller aperture to create the sunburst effect recently and I really like it.
My favourite image is the first image. The colours and the composition work well I think but I will keep going back as I’m sure there are other compositions in and around the lake which perhaps provide a better leading line.
When I get my 10-stop filter I’m going to head back and practice with that as the right conditions could provide a fantastic reflection from a smoothed over lake.
I also need to give myself more time at Blenheim, there is so much to see and so many different possible photos. The lake, the bridge, the palace, the woodland etc. A rich source of photo opportunities are there and it won’t be long before I return :-)
Love to know what you think.
Simon.