Stourhead gardens

[carregwen]

Stourhead, Wiltshire, last Tuesday.

The National Trust are supposedly getting twitchy about images of their properties and land, but they still let you take shots, which is just as well. I had to balance carefully halfway down a steep embankment near the water, while a keen groundsman on a John Deere lawn cutter tried to mow me down. He missed.

C+C welcome

[JK6065]

A beautifull shot, as always
What can I say, I think I should clone out those white things in the water. And I feel like my eye has a bit of a problem chosing between the left or the right side of the big tree in the front. Just a thought about it. I don't know if you even should do anything with that thought at all.
Furthermore the colours and reflections looks so nice. It reminds me to a lovely late-summer day wich seems to be long gone in the cold netherlands

[Geoff F]

On the left side, you have half a tree with a natural gap between it and the other trees so I would be tempted to crop to that gap which would have the effect of moving the big tree slightly towards the left and make a better balance. It would also help to concentrate the eye towards the far distance. As JK mentioned.

I'm not sure about the ducks; which are too far away to have any real impact, although I don't really find them too distracting.

But in all honesty we are just quibbling about attempting to change 99% perfection into 100%.

[carregwen]

A beautifull shot, as always
What can I say, I think I should clone out those white things in the water. And I feel like my eye has a bit of a problem chosing between the left or the right side of the big tree in the front. Just a thought about it. I don't know if you even should do anything with that thought at all.
Furthermore the colours and reflections looks so nice. It reminds me to a lovely late-summer day wich seems to be long gone in the cold netherlands

Thanks for the comment. Agree about the ducks, and have removed them. Have also re-scropped the shot to exclude the cut-off tree on the left, which has also moved the big tree more to the left. I must be getting sloppy in my old age...

[carregwen]

On the left side, you have half a tree with a natural gap between it and the other trees so I would be tempted to crop to that gap which would have the effect of moving the big tree slightly towards the left and make a better balance. It would also help to concentrate the eye towards the far distance. As JK mentioned.

I'm not sure about the ducks; which are too far away to have any real impact, although I don't really find them too distracting.

But in all honesty we are just quibbling about attempting to change 99% perfection into 100%.

Thanks for the comments, Geoff. See post above.

[KentDub]

Are there people walking down the trail? Clone em out

[carregwen]

Are there people walking down the trail? Clone em out

Nah! they're the ghosts of past critics...

[GillR]

Lovely shot, and I also prefer the cropped image. Stourhead is such a lovely place .. , but I never seem to manage a visit when it's not raining

[jacsul]

Nice shot.
Did you use a polarizing filter, I can see through the water in the foreground?
I Agree 2nd image looks better.
Jack

[carregwen]

Nice shot.
Did you use a polarizing filter, I can see through the water in the foreground?

Yes, I did use a polarizer. That's also why the sky is so blue and other colours are so strong. The sun was about 90deg to the camera - the best position for a polarizer.

[taken]

nice reflection shot! there should have been more space below,than the top, to give the reflection more attention,that it actually deserves with the present framing i am ending up spending my time looking at the top of the pic instead down...a personal feeling

[carregwen]

nice reflection shot! there should have been more space below,than the top, to give the reflection more attention,that it actually deserves with the present framing i am ending up spending my time looking at the top of the pic instead down...a personal feeling

I think I agree, but I was very close to the edge of the water, so couldn't get any more water space in the frame.