Yesterday Helena Blair and I took the morning train to King’s Lynn to visit Castle Rising. Our original plan had been to visit St Peter Church in Wiggenhall, but after searching for additional nearby derelict buildings we came across the castle. Wiggenhall became our secondary objective, and we ended up staying the entire day at Castle Rising. This meant that the fallen angel themed photos have to wait for another day in favour of the Rapunsel and Lady of the Castle photos.
The gatehouse in front of Castle Rising creates a great frame for our photo. Helena had brought a set of dresses, but we ended up only using the red one as it made her stand out more in the photos.Playfully walking down the stairs of the castle.Perching next to one of the arrow slits in the wall. There was no roof above allowing direct sunlight on Helena. There are a bit too much shadow around her eyes, but I like the photo as a whole.The castle had been renovated, and there were glass windows in the first chamber.The corridor leading up to the kitchen. There were multiple openings into the great hall on the right. By positioning Helena near one of these openings we got her well lit. One of our ideas was to depict the Lady returning to her old castle which had been abandoned and started to decay.A photo taken in the kitchen, more precisely standing in the oven. There is an opening in the wall to her right, and also to her left, creating a bit of extra definition on her shoulder and hair.Here I have backed into a corner, with two white walls behind me reflecting the sunlight back onto Helena’s face making her eyes really pop.Good times! I love the smile.Here another corridor with a bit of light coming in from the left.We had planned on taking several Rapunsel photos, but the only window that would have worked to have the hair hanging out of was a bit too vertigo inducing so we abandoned that plan.The white room at the top of the keep, filled with spiders. Notice how Helena’s dress colours the walls around her.We headed back outside, for some exterior photos. There was a low ruin right next to the castle. Here Helena is stepping off the wall, falling forward.Castle RisingWalking along the grass covered mound. Up close it is quite steep. The castle is on her right side just out of view.The lady and her castle.One more of these, I like how the hair frames Helena’s face and her expression.Ground floor of the keep.Raspberries and tiny windows that let through light only in a restricted cone can make for some dramatic photos.We were playing around with cinemagraphs, here an outtake photo as we were looking for different angles. Overhead a drone was flying.
One thing we wanted to play with was cinemagraphs. They are short video sequences that you convert into a static photo with one or a few moving elements. This meant lugging a tripod along for the trip. We shot several vertical videos in narrow corridors before realising that we probably should shoot them horizontally for better displaying on the screen. Below is one of the horisontal ones we did.
Our cinemagraph. Look at if for a few seconds if you can not see it right away.
It is crazy how fast a day goes by. We headed out at half past ten in the morning, and were back in Cambridge about nine hours later. It was great to be out of Cambridge for a while, many thanks to Helena Blair for a fun day!
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