This is the Royal Earlswood which once was a Victorian mental hospital and has now been converted into luxury flats. I wanted to get this shot for my mentoring group as I remembered what a lovely building it was as you looked down the avenue of trees. Sadly the trees have grown since I last went there and most of the building is obscured. What is left on view is the central tower which was the main entrance to the hospital. I was unable to get closer as it is private and gated!! I understand the flats are very expensive!! I am not sure I would want to live there!!
I took 3 bracketed shots and then cropped in. I used a posterising filter in PS as the sun was so bright I lost a lot of the detail in the white part of the building. There was a woman walking along the path and then she just stopped!! I have not cloned her out as I thought she gave it a sense of scale.
@taffy@newbank@888rachel@golftragic@sullivar I thought I would be able to get a shot of the whole building for my last shot of the architectural theme but could only see this portion. It's a shame I couldn't get closer as there are lots of interesting features which would have been good for this weeks theme.
Such a great photo. I love that she is on the path, as she really gives a sense of the immensity of the trees and the driveway. The part that you can see of the building looks so interesting, and I can see why you went to take it. A lovely shot.
Great photo Pam, and thanks for sharing the story too - makes the viewing so much more informed. Pity about the trees, but on the other hand they funnel the eye so effectively towards what we can tantalisingly glimpse of this large imposing structure. So glad you left the figure in the shot, gives good sense of scale.
I like the trees leading you do the building. What would happen of you cropped this so there were less of the trees? Would that make the building more of a feature? I like your processing too.
I hate gated communities - they seem so elitist and they get in the way of wandering and taking photos! I love the level of detail in the tree trunks - that really makes the photo for me! My only critique is that there is bit of a halo in the sky - there's a darker blue ringed by a lighter blue and it's kind of stark - it might be a remnant of the processing, but it's possible it was just due to the sky itself too.
