On day 1 of each England trip we go west on the motorway, and then explore the southern landscape on our way to Avebury. England's rolling hills have a healthy variety of deciduous trees, but even those not doing so well can have their last moment of glory amid the yellow symphony of Oil Seed Rape/Canola.

Day 1 of my England trip finishes at Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, and it's nice to have some sort of dramatic sky to enhance the mystery of the stones. Here are a few Stonehenge 'faces' . . .

The morning shot set against the Wiltshire countryside. It took a long lens for this one.

Warm side-lighting and foreground 'depth' combine for an uncommon perspective of the ancient stones.

The British Robin joins the Holly and the Ivy on English Christmas cards each year.

Salisbury Cathedral in Wiltshire. Gothic and magnificent inside and out.

This is Gold Hill in Shaftsbury, and I used the rail as a lead-in, but another option is to sit down to the left, include the mosaic of the cobblestones in the foreground, and shoot with a wide-angle.

Left, Just another placid harbor scene in Cornwall. This one is in the tiny fishing village of Mousehole, as is the image below. The locals pronounce Mousehole as 'mou-zell'.

The English love their dogs, and this serendipitous shot was captured while on a short amble between two small harbours on the south Cornwall coast.
One just has to be ready when they crop up, as nothing else is required!

The church and Celtic cross at Morvah on the north Cornwall coast this time.
I did take out a power line that crossed the image near the top, but resisted putting in a graduated blue sky, as I like the dour look on what was a foggy day.
Not many folk, even the English, are aware that Cornwall is a Celtic 'county' with it's own language and culture. The name Cornwall in the Cornish language is 'Kernow'.

That Automobile Association sign says a lot. We are in St. Mawes in Cornwall, and it's 263 and a quarter miles to London. Myself, I'd rather be in Tregony which is just 10 and a half miles away!

A Mute Swan that landed right in front of the group in Somerset one year. Special!

Cornwall is noted for it's tin mines, and although the 'golden era' - or should I say rusty? - of tin mining has passed, there are still photo ops to be had.

The winner of this year's
Winston Churchill look-a-like
contest is . . . .

. . . . and in that same photogenic village on an overcast day. I had the pub sign and alleyway in the frame, and all that was needed was a figure to give a bit of perspective . . . oh hold on!, here comes someone with a multi-colored umbrella right on cue!

This is the tiny fishing village of Polperro in Cornwall, and I 'discovered' this place via a narrow back road when scouting the southwest coast in the early 80's. There is actually a 'normal' road to the village, but traffic is kept from the streets by their narrowness, and thus my first impression of Polperro as an unspoiled and photogenic spot has been preserved.

Celtic crosses are synonymous with Celtic Wales, and Gaelic Ireland and Scotland, but England's southwestern most county, Cornwall, has it's Celtic history too.

Vicar's Close in Wells, Somerset, is a fantastic step back in time. It has the oldest original cobbled street in England. In the background is the impressive Wells Cathedral.

This is a Cotswold stone barn which looks different each year as it depends on what crops are planted around it.
Compositionally I decided to lop off the right side of the barn to 'strengthen' the juxtaposition of shape and colour.

This was a Lavender field in England, but devoid of flowering Lavender at the time. So, I decided to take the pleasing 'S' curves home, and play with the image saturation and hue in PhotoShop.

A back-lit dandelion head. Backlighting is more pronounced against darker backgrounds, so you might want to consider you camera angle before taking the shot.

Brass numbers and door knockers such as this work better photographically on coloured doors as a rule, but exposed properly, 'dull' doors can work too.
Under exposure by around a third to half a stop will fix your meter's tendency to turn the green colour into a shade of grey.

Looks like ice, but they're water droplets on a leaf. The closer you get, the more impact there is.

St. James church in the village of Coln St. Dennis, Gloucestershire.
Framed by the gate and ornate wrought iron lamp arrangement, it adds up to a pleasing and very English composition in my mind.

Chipping Campden's old covered market area provides the 'frames' for shots such as this red door.
Step one is seeing the image, and step two is getting the image into your camera the way you see it.

Edward the 1st built most of the English and Welsh castles to keep the locals in order, and today they make great photography subjects. This is a section of Warwick castle looking down the River Avon, which I passed every day for five years on my way to school.

On the other side of the River Avon is Bridge End Street pictured here, and I must confess that we used to ring doorbells on the way home from school, then skedaddle back to the orphanage. Aaahh, those were the days, eh?

Back to Warwick, and a post box on an ivy-clad wall which says England, England, England!
At the top of the box you can make out the letters V and R with a crown in-between. V. R. is Victoria Regina, which means that Queen Victoria reigned when this box started it's useful life.

A Thatcher at work in the Cotswolds. The roofs last between 30 and 80 years, and some Thatchers still hide a bottle in the thatch containing details of when they did their work.

To the Lake District for this shot of Bluebells clustered around the base of a twisted Oak tree trunk.
You can get in close with a wide-angle for an image in this situation too, but I opted for a long lens on a tripod to isolate this particular section of the subjects.

Another valley where sheep may safely graze in Herriot's Yorkshire Dales.

Two taken just minutes apart in the Yorkshire Dales. The 'lesson' here is that there was dull overcast light until five minutes before these shots were taken. "f.8 and be there" as they say!

A 'George Reigns' [GR] post box on the side of a Post Office in Yorkshire, plus Lance Armstrong's training cycle.
I worked for the Post Office out of school in 1966, and rode these heavy old clunkers delivering telegrams . . . if we were lucky that is, as some deliveries were much further than we cared for back then!

In 'normal' daylight, the shot of this farm is 'usually' the farm gate, lane, trees and distant farmhouse, but the light on this occasion dictated that the composition be re-thought.
That's the point really, as we should consider the differing elements in a scene each time we return to it, and not get stuck in a compositional rut as it were.

The old and narrow Ashness Bridge in the Lake District. The bridge is so narrow that the only way I can get across it with the group van, is by asking everyone to breathe in.

As man-made objects age they tend to appeal to us more, and this is true of this road sign. The circle at the top tells you that you're in Buttermere, and that you have three options to 'get out of town'!

Backlit Maple leaves look all the better when shot against a black background.

The limited size of the image is unable to reveal what a classic Lake district scene this is with it's wall and lane lead-in to the whitewashed farmhouse, and mountain peak . . . but it surely is!
A wide-angle set at f.22, and a tripod are recommended for this shot.

I'm from England, and rode on such steam trains when I was but a wee lad. The Beeching Axe closed many local lines back in 1962, but the following decades have seen a number re-opened by volunteer railway enthusiasts, and they make excellent picture opportunities.

It may be just another rope keeping the gate closed in the Lake District, but it's undoubtedly a classic 'Still Life on the Run' shot.

And the Castlerigg stones once more silhouetted at sunset.

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