South West England X - a Church, a Castle, a Cathedral (Burwash, Bodiam & Chichester)

On my drive to the south-east of London, I caught sight of this lovely church from my car, and just had to stop and photograph it. St Mary the Virgin church, Upwaltham, West Sussex

Digital infrared original, 2 frame stitch

I just happened upon St Bartholomew's Church in Burwash, East Sussex, on my drive to see Bodiam Castle. A glimpse of the spire from the road was enough for me to decide to pull over, and spend half-an-hour photographing it. A lot of the strength of this image comes from the beautiful sky above - yay infrared!

Digital infrared original, 3 frame stitch

One of the greatest debates during this trip to southern England was if I should go six hours out of my way just to see Bodiam castle. In the end, the irony of the debate was that the time it took to drive to the castle was exactly what made the photographs so perfect; if I’d arrived earlier, the light angle would have been different, and while I am sure I would have made some successful images, much that makes this photograph strong comes from the late afternoon light.

Digital original

The end of the day (after a lovely dinner of fish and chips as the World Cup was on in the background of the pub) was spent photographing the exterior of Chichester Cathedral. of all the buildings I wished to visit on this trip, Chichester was the only one to restrict photography, so while I was unable to secure permission to photograph its interior, I did spend 45 minutes creating images at twilight, which lead to a number of really nice results.