Last week I made my longest journey in months to meet my good friend Ian in Windsor Great Park. Despite visiting Windsor several times over the years to meet up with clients - notably The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award who are based there - I had never explored the park. We wanted a location where we could meet easily, ideally halfway between the two of us and Windsor fitted the bill. As it turned out it also fitted the bill photographically. The weather was pretty poor - lots of rain and drizzle but there were a lot of deer in the park some of whom liked hanging out in the woods, which made for interesting compositions, even if the lighting was a tad low; overcome by shooting at ISO 2500.

I would have preferred him turned slightly more…

It was not all about the deer. There was a friendly squirrel having a snack and some lovely ferns, freshly grown so not yet weathered and tatty. We did discover from a warden that tripods are not allowed to be used without a license - something that is not hugely uncommon on ‘private’ land. So at least I will not have to carry a tripod unnecessarily in future. It was a great day out and good to see Ian after several months and we have definitely found a new location to shoot. Autumn would be great when the deer are rutting and the trees starting to turn. The oaks are famously impressive and there is an avenue of them leading to the Castle from a high point in the park - so a wonderful view down the avenue.