Through the Arch: St Thomas' Square...

Have been eyeing up this shot for quite some time - and a really wide lens was essential, to get the frame of stone arch in as well as the background, St Thomas' Church and Square, Salisbury.

However, I always knew it required something a bit extra - during the day it often has parked vehicles and delivery vans and lots of people. The rather posh brasserie to the left has tables outside during the day, which is rather pleasant and continental. Yes, it required the added sheen and gloss of rain - and with this passage way and arch, somewhere to cower under, for shelter.

So, with the weather forecast indicating a sweep of heavy rain coming in, timed it so that I walked down there just as it was starting and by the time I left, was pretty heavy.

Quite a lot of problems - the foreground arch was very bright as it lit from within, in a flat yellow light, this resulting in an awful black and white conversion, requiring many layers of added contrast and darkening. Ironically, they went out just as I was packing the tripod away in its bag, so I timed that just right! I also heightened and straightened the arch in Photoshop's 'vertical perspective', which also gave extra height to the church tower.

The original exposure was set at between the foreground and background, so fair bit of shadow extraction of the square, the flagstones and church. Some ugly lens flare had to be removed too. But, I know it was worth the effort, not just for Blip's sake but also as the scene was worthy of it. It'd also look good in the snow and in the winter when you get light trails from bikes scootling past, but for now and for a first effort here, am fairly satisfied with this one.

Lens: (if you didn't know by now!) Nikkor 10-24mm - with some extra sharpening, added, here.

Current DVD boxset - with the passing away of Margaret Thatcher and many reminisces from her fellow MPs, ITV's latex satirical puppet-show 'Spitting Image' and it being my weekly Sunday night fare as an early 20 something, when, ironically I was a civil servant under HER Government!!, I had to get the series 1-7 boxset, just under £30 from Zavvi, which is cheaper than Amazon. Yes, you do really need to have lived back then to be able to relate to all the real-life characters (or their stories), but boy, do they bring back a lot of memories. And boy, did they or did they not often push the boat out, back then?

Check out all the details in LARGE Spot the flag, blurred in the breeze!

Thanks too to all who got my Starfish in the Night-Sky blip into the spotlight yesterday. It still feels special when one does.