Hatley Castle
As I have mentioned elsewhere, I had the good fortune of a lunch and photo outing with Toad, of Toad Hollow Photography in early July. These shots are from our wander around some of the gardens at Royal Roads University in Colwood, west of Victoria. The property was once a private residence of a local coal baron by the name of Dunsmuir. The house was named Hatley Castle and is in very large grounds with a wonderful garden. The property later came into the possession of the federal government and was used as Royal Roads College, a military training centre and many buildings were added behind the original house. Most recently it has become the Royal Roads University, no longer with a military connection. The old house is used for private functions and the like. When we were there, a wedding was either just being set up, or taken down. Last weekend my son’s band played a wedding there. I expect the summer is full of them at this spot.
Naturally, if one shoots with the Toad, one shoots brackets. So, these are all HDR processed images from three brackets. I was carrying only my 100mm macro, thinking only of the gardens. A funny choice of lens, but I think I got it to work on the architecture too – one just has to adapt (I was cursing the lack of a wide angle lens for some of the views I saw though).
The stone appealed to me in black and white, so that is what we have, but a couple of the images, like the doorway, will reappear in colour I expect as the wood is such a lovely warm colour. To see more from this outing with the Toad, click here.
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To open the gallery below click on any image, navigate with the arrows and escape to return to this page
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- Front tower
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- Terrace detail in front
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- Fountain in terrace
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- planter on terrace in front
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- Front tower detail
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- Front tower detail
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- Doors off the front terrace
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- Down spout
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Canon 5dii, Canon 100mm/f2.8 macro lens, ISO200, +/- 2.0 E.V around the Exif values visible in the gallery, lower right for each image.
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FABULOUS textures and details here my friend! I had a great time exploring the grounds with you on this day and can’t wait to have a chance to do that again!
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Thanks Toad – it was totally a fun day, and perfect weather to bring out the texture in the stone too.
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Beautiful light that picks out the stonework so well. Is the B&W conversion done using a red filter preset, or is this an infra-red preset to get the jet black sky?
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Hi Andy. It was a bit of an involved workflow.
I processed the images in photomatix for the HDR part. Then in Lightroom 4 I tweaked them in their colour versions until they suite me, exported a version and then did the black and white conversion on the right side of the screen (not the presets on the left side). From there I adjusted different colour grey levels till it seemed right , mostly the blue-grey and aqua-grey levels, along with purple and magenta.. Finally, because of variation in the sky brightness, I applied a mask to some areas and changed the brightness or exposure till they were black as well.
I then synced the remaining (tweaked and exported colour) images, but not with the masks or some other particular settings transferring and then tweaked each of the remaining images as necessary.
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Beautiful images. I, too, often am changing my lenses in the field…..I don’t worry too much about it. What can you do, it is either that or not get the shot you want or working the subject incompletely. I’m not saying I would change in a dust storm….just under regular conditions.
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Thanks Howard. Dust storms, driving rain, blowing pollen clouds, wind driven spray at the ocean edge (especially) – those are the times I am avoiding changing the lens, or taken extraordinary precautions under my clothing or something.
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These are very nice – especially considering the lens situation! I like the planter on the terrace and the first front tower detail shots a lot.
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Thanks Melinda. I was thinking of your photography when the sky came out so nicely black.
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I have been known to post some shots with black skies….
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You have some terrific detail shots of this beautiful old building with a history. I like to see these old buildings preserved like this, too. Your B&W treatment is really nicely done as well.
I hate to change lens in the field because I worry about exposing the inside of the camera to dust and dirt. I usually pick a lens and hope for the best but most of the time I use the short zoom.
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Thanks Ken. I only have primes so I am often changing the lens in the field. And I do have quite a lot of trouble with dust on my sensor, but never dirt – I am very careful. A nice zoom lens would be a good thing in situations like this.
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