The light is back.

There’s a large, ruined, country house about half an hour from us.  It’s called Whitley Court, and although the house is ruined, (after a massive fire in the 1930’s), the gardens and fountain have been restored.  The light was very strong, and it cried out for the contre-jour technique, where you shoot with the light coming from behind the subject.

I had taken my Lumix TZ100 travel zoom compact with me, so it was a test of just how much I could control the exposure to give the look I wanted.  This shot of the fountain is a good example.   I set about 3 stops of underexposure to expose for the water correctly, and let the other tones go dark.  I liked the flaring sun, as it gives a feel of just how hot it was.

Here my eye was caught by a glistening slug trail on a standing wall.  Putting the sun in the frame and still getting detail on the slug trail was quite hard, and once again the flare from the sun

The ruined conservatory was about the size of a tennis court.  The roof and glass panels are gone, so all that remains of it are the stone pillars and pediment.  There are few fragments of glass wedged in the pillars, and with a lot of contortions I was able to get one backlit by the sun; it’s nicely ambiguous.

I’m researching whether Whitley Court are able to host photo walks.  I’ll keep you posted.