Last Thursday 5th August, 14 brave souls turned out for "Summer" Club at Painswick Rococo Garden, despite the weather forecast. Sadly, the forecast of downpours was only too accurate (have you noticed that when sunshine is forecast, it doesn't happen but when rain is forecast . . . . . ) As we arrived at 7:00pm the skies started to get darker and darker and after we had been there about 20 minutes, the heavens opened and the deluge began - and kept on coming right the way through the evening.
My challenge for the evening was to take some "reflection" photos, using the three separate ponds. We wound up with rather more than three ponds, due to all the puddles which appeared on the paths! Reflections were pretty much ruined by the raindrops blurring everything so there weren't many reflection shots posted online. However, despite everything, there were some really good images posted and if you haven't yet had a look at the gallery images, do take a look. Taking just the "reflection" images, these are my favourites:
1. "Inverted Arches" by Martin Gill. Monochrome really works and full marks for near-perfect symmetry and most of all for inverting the image in post-processing, making for a very strong image.
2. "Rococo Exedra" by Leslie Holmes. This is a classic shot of the Exedra but Leslie has achieved perfect symmetry and has taken full advantage of the heavy rain to give a very satisfactory blur to the reflection which makes it "different"
3. "On Reflection" by David Hunt. Very clearly gives the spirit of the evening - Rococo infested with photographers! I would say that reflected blue sky is a bit suspect David, given the conditions! Maybe a conversion to monochrome could improve the "reality!"
So, those are my three "reflections" choices. There were some other images which I'd like to mention too, which really appealed to me.
"No need to water the garden this evening" by Roger Matthews. Again, the monochrome conversion suited the evening but you took this one when it wasn't actually tipping it down with rain (how?) and it would have been good to go back and take it again when there were lots of raindrops hitting the pond, which would have completed the story in the title perfectly!
"Lillys in the pond" by René Cason. I collect glass paperweights and would love to have this one! Only one suggestion which would be to flip the image vertically in post-production, otherwise I love it.
And finally, there's "Summer Evening at Rococo" by Annie Blick. This is my favourite image of the evening! Annie spent her time sheltering in the "Red House" but put the time to very good use. I think the quality of this image is stunning and I hope we'll be seeing it in one of our competitions in the coming season. Well done Annie, it's an absolute cracker.
Well done everyone who turned out - against all the odds it was a successful evening and there were some great images.
Comments
Re my "on reflection" image. In my defence: all I did was crop it and increase the primary blue to get some colour into the water. The heavens hadn't fully opened at the time of the photo. :)