When I recently visited the Cotswolds, a particularly lovely region of England famous for its honey-hued limestone cottages and the most charming of villages, I was very disappointed that the weather forecast predicted rain. A clear blue sky and sunlight really brings photographs to life and I knew my images just wouldn’t be the same without them.
Despite the weather I had a really wonderful day exploring those off-the-beaten-path places that only a local would know, with Becky from the Secret Cottage. But when I got home and downloaded my images, I really longed for the light of a sunny day. However, when I converted some of them to black and white, I really rather liked them just the way they are.
You can read more about the fabulous day I had and see some of my images in colour in my post, The Secret Cottage Tour of the Cotswolds, but I think you’ll agree it’s a very special place no matter what the weather and is equally lovely in colour or in black and white.
One of the many enchanting things about exploring the English countryside is some of the silly names you can find, in this case, Upper Slaughter (pictured above) and Lower Slaughter (pictured below). While these names sound rather gruesome I’m sure that they originally meant something else entirely.
I once heard of a Boggy Bottom in Hertfordshire and saw a sign for Happy Bottom in Dorset. Scotland and Wales have their fair share too, apparently there’s a Twatt in Orkney and a Tart’s Hill in Flintshire. You can read more about some very unusual place names in this article from the Evening Standard, Scratchy Bottom beats Brokenwind, but Shitterton takes the prize… for unfortunate place names. But I digress… let’s head back to Lower Slaughter and then move on to Great Tew.
Are there any unusual or particularly silly sounding places near you?
More articles from the south of England
Photographing the Red Squirrels of Brownsea island, Dorset
A room with a view at the harbourside Greenbank Hotel, Cornwall
Journey back in time on a steam train to Bodium Castle, East Sussex
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Some lovely photos of the Cotswolds, I think some black and white shots of nearby Rollright Stones would be very majestic on your next trip!
Thanks for the tip, Jess. That sounds like a great idea.
Lovely pictures in stripped back black and white. The Cotswolds were home to the great writer Laurie Lee and this is his centenary year. I wrote this piece after enjoying a lovely walk through Laurie Lee Wood….
http://thelittlesummerofthequince.wordpress.com/2013/10/04/knitting-socks-wet-eyed-squirrels-and-drinking-cider-with-rosie/
Thanks Paul. I’ll be popping over to your blog to read about that soon.
It can be really disappointing when the weather’s not up to it but you turned this around beautifully. I love these black and white shots which have inspired me to visit the Cotswolds just as much as your colour pics.
I’m really pleased with these now but I would still love to go back on a sunny day.
That is a great idea Kat and your pictures look stunning in black and white. I have been to that area many years ago and understand how a grey day might be disappointing from a photographic stand point but you had a great comeback.
Thanks Tim 🙂
How to turn a grey gloomy day into great moody pictures! We’ll have to remember this :-). And “Boggy Bottom”? Now there’s a name that puts a smile on your face…
Personally I’d love to live Happy Bottom! Cracked me up when I saw that.
I really like these! If not for the occasional television aerial and satellite dish, they could have been taken at any time in the last century! I use the ‘gradient map’ and ‘convert to greyscale’ facilities fairly often, especially when colour isn’t all that important, or the sense of timelessness it gives.
Thanks Keith. I tweaked these in Photoshop elements, including removing the colour and then tone mapped them in Photomatix.
Hi Kat, lovely images, the Cotswold area is so lovely, and your images are so wonderful. I have been travelling round Germany, the old cities would be wonderful with a little sunshine, but we make the best of what we have! I do enjoy your blog, very inspirational, thanks for sharing your work with us.
Thanks Janice and thanks for reading my blog. I need to get to Germany some time. I’m sure there’s some wonderful places to explore.
The same thing happened to me in Bruges, Belgium. We had nothing but rain all day and the spectacular photos I was hoping to get turned out not to be so spectacular. I hope to get back again sometime on a less rainy day and try again. I ended up turning most of mine B&W for the blog post as well. It seems to be the answer when you come across these conditions and it’s worked incredibly well for you. You’ve done a fantastic job with these! It really makes me want to visit in person!
Thanks Sarah. A little HDR magic using Photomatix really helped.