Erddig Hall 1

This is Erddig Hall. I once went there about 20 years ago and I was upset to find they don’t sell the rainbow colour erasers that I once bought. I can’t believe we spent a whole day there as a school trip. Its about a 10 minute walk around the garden, which was a bit disappointing for Â£5. The water in the pond they had was muddy brown, so that wasn’t a nice shot. The garden is nice and you can lie down by the pond. The ducks will come up to you, as they’re very tame. The other problem I found was that the light was too harsh for my shots. I normally shoot during the last 2 hours before sunset. You get the best light then. This hall would be stunning then I’m sure as its on a hill and completely open to the sunset.

When I got home I spent hours processing about 3 or 4 shots. I didn’t know what to do with them. Why does a photo of a hall need a dramatic sky? They didn’t look right in colour or black and white. Nothing really worked for me. I guess because I didn’t know what I wanted the images to be I couldn’t correctly process them. I didn’t like how they looked so I didn’t know where to take them. I just couldn’t work out what was wrong. Normally I come home, HDR the image, push the black and white preset button in Photoshop and go “Yeah nice.” This didn’t work. The blacks were too dark, the contrasts were too high it just didn’t work. In the end I dumped all but 2 of the images. I tweaked the blacks and neutrals in selective colour so they weren’t too over cooked. It still wasn’t right. So I tried duotoning it and came out with something I was happy with. My photography is about doing the subject justice, in making people see the world as I see it. So if I see a great landscape and say “Wow” my photo has to make that person do the same. So while the garden was small and expensive it was very nice to be in.