Sam Styles Photography

International Garden Photographer of the Year

2009-06-24T08:22:00.000-07:00

A Photograph of Hampton Court succeeds in coming second place in the Garden Views category of the International Garden Photographer of the Year.

Needless to say, I was mightily chuffed :)

Link here: http://www.igpoty.com/competition02/winners_GardenViews_Fin6.asp?parent=winners

http://samstylesphotography.blogspot.com

Hampton Court Palace meets Glastonbury

2009-04-30T08:44:00.001-07:00

Well, Rick Wakeman to be exact. He will be performing his album The Six Wives of Henry VIII for the first time in its entirety on the 1st and 2nd May and this is the stage that's been put up for the show. Rock on.

http://samstylesphotography.blogspot.com

Kensington Palace - 360 Degree Interior Panoramas

2009-04-29T02:22:00.000-07:00

The finished set of 360 degree fisheye style panoramas of selected interiors at Kensington Palace. Technically known as an equirectangular projections, these were made from about 36 separate images stitched together and rendered into a spherical image.
There are many problems associated with recording wall paintings and interiors one of which is the difficulty arising from trying to capture curved surfaces and represent them accurately in a 2D image. Similar to trying to draw a map of the world without distortion at the poles. We're hoping that by using panoramic projections we don't just get one image which captures the curved surface in one, which would hugely assist the conservation process, but a useful by product is having the ability to produce interactive 360 degree images too.

The Cupola Room	The Duchess of Kent's Dressing Room
The Privy Chamber	The Presence Chamber
The Queen's Dining Room	The Queen's Closet

http://samstylesphotography.blogspot.com

Kensington Palace Interiors

2009-04-09T01:25:00.001-07:00

The final set of partial panoramics featuring some select interiors at Kensington Palace.

The Cupola Room	The King's Stairs
The King's Stairs	Queen Victoria's Bedroom
Queen Mary's Bedchamber	The Privy Chamber

The Queen's Stairs

Using a specially designed (home made) panoramic head, approx 15 photos were taken for each image and then merged together using panoramic software. It was exciting to use this technique for the first time in some very visually interesting and detailed rooms. Lots of early mornings and carting all the gear around but it was worth it!

http://samstylesphotography.blogspot.com

A sea of blue at Kew

2009-03-26T16:21:00.000-07:00

This was a must take photo, the blue of the flowers matched the sky exactly.

http://samstylesphotography.blogspot.com

Kew Palace & Queen Charlottes Cottage

2009-03-25T10:28:00.000-07:00

Kew gardens are fantastic on a sunny day and this happened to be one of them. Here are a couple of photos of the Palace building itself and Queen Charlottes Cottage which is tucked away in 300 year old woodland at the bottom of the gardens.

http://www.samstylesphotography.blogspot.com

The Banqueting House, Whitehall

2009-03-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

A photographic visit to the last surviving part of the Palace of Westminster. Upon walking into the main hall visitors discover the impressive Rubens ceiling painted in 1635 which is a dizzying 17 meters above floor level.

http://www.samstylesphotography.blogspot.com

Interior Panoramas - Kensington Palace

2009-02-22T05:01:00.000-08:00

I completed the first couple of test panoramic images on Friday. After a quick walk around the rooms requiring photography I decided to attack the smallest (and thus more tricky) room first - the Queens Closet.

Luckily my lens and the mount worked well and I managed to get the whole height of the walls in the final image - stitched from 48 separate exposures and then manipulated into this circular arrangement. I'm looking forward to revisiting and seeing how this works on the larger rooms. Watch this space as I may try and put the interactive panoramic image up here somehow.

The second room I photographed was the Kings Stairs. This worked really well, with only 9 exposures this time for an image that captured 90 degrees horizontally. However, on the next visit I'll be retaking this to get it perfect along with photographing a number of other rooms to be presented in a similar way.

http://samstylesphotography.blogspot.com

The Tower of London in Mono (+1 colour)

2009-02-20T08:58:00.000-08:00

It's half term and the place is packed with tourists - which is all good because there is loads going on for families over the week which made it a good time to visit the Tower yesterday for some photography.

Not all mono, I have to admit. There's a colour photo thrown in because I liked it :)

http://samstylesphotography.blogspot.co.uk

Greenery

2009-02-13T04:23:00.000-08:00

One from a recent visit the RHS Gardens at Wisley where they had released exotic butterflies into their greenhouse. This meant there were hordes of visitors to work around and in the end I got carried away taking photos of the plants and took a number of photos of the palm fronds in the greenhouse for this multiple exposure image.

The full set of multiple exposure images can be found here.

http://samstylesphotography.blogspot.com

Kensington Palace

2009-02-08T15:03:00.000-08:00

After the joys of the tube when a Chelsea game happens to be on, the Circle line not working and unfortunately not making the Banqueting House this time round, my camera got its first proper shot of the day at Kensington Palace. It was a fairly quiet day with the remains of Monday's half melted snowmen littering Hyde Park. But my job today was inside... all the blinds pulled down against the sunshine and a great deal of trying to make as much use of the available light as possible.

http://samstylesphotography.blogspot.com

Flickr

2009-02-04T09:20:00.000-08:00

Today, Sam got Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/samstyles/

http://samstylesphotography.blogspot.com/

Snow

2009-02-02T05:18:00.001-08:00

A 7.15 am start for some snowy photos in the Palace Gardens.

http://samstylesphotography.blogspot.com

Lighthouse & Flags

2009-01-30T07:29:00.000-08:00

A new series of multiple exposure overlays that I'm hoping will work together quite well.

http://samstylesphotography.blogspot.com

The Privy Garden in Snow, Hampton Court Palace

2009-01-30T06:51:00.001-08:00

Another image taken a while ago which I've only just got round to processing. On this occasion I awoke to snow so took the opportunity to get to the Palace early to photograph the gardens in their pristine whiteness. This photo shows the 18th century Privy Garden and baroque style south front designed by Sir Christopher Wren for William III and Mary II.

http://samstylesphotography.blogspot.com

Base Court

2009-01-28T04:07:00.001-08:00

A rectified panoramic photo taken in three shots a long time ago, which I've only just got round to putting together. This is Base Court prior to the work thats now being done to re-cobble the surface - one of many special projects in 2009 which highlights the 500 year anniversary of Henry VIII's ascension to the throne.

The palace in detail

2009-01-12T15:03:00.000-08:00

A series of images depicting work at Hampton Court Palace. A tilt-shift lens effect and rich colours isolate details in the Palace scene.

Anne Boleyns Arch & Clock Tower repairs - finishing touches. Feb 2008	Filming of Little Dorrit in Master Carpenters Court. May 2008	Base Court resurfacing - archeology exposed mid project. October 2008

Umbrellas

2008-12-22T15:11:00.000-08:00

Amazing - Take II

2008-12-03T08:34:00.001-08:00

The frost was sitting nicely on the ground this morning and I was able to go back and get this image of the Maze in the cold weather.

Stone Indents

2008-12-03T08:18:00.000-08:00

During conservation repairs stonework is sometimes replaced. When the area of damage is small, rather than replace the whole block small repairs known as indents are pieced in to replace the damaged spot. These indenting repairs are on the verticals of a fluted column currently being repaired on Lion Gate at Hampton Court.

Monochrome photos of Hampton Court

2008-11-28T08:58:00.000-08:00

Amazing!

2008-11-27T07:21:00.000-08:00

Historically, every photo I've seen that Hampton Court Palace has of the maze in the Wilderness is taken from the upstairs window of the house on the far right. Recently a rare opportunity arose to photograph the maze from a slightly different perspective on top of the scaffold currently on the Lion Gate piers that are having conservation repairs carried out to them.

Edinburgh Festival Street Performers

2008-11-17T03:27:00.000-08:00

Comedy Mirrors

2008-11-14T08:36:00.000-08:00

Bonfire Night

2008-11-11T15:53:00.000-08:00

Remember remember... and this is how. Bonfires, fireworks, sparklers and the odd burning effigy. An odd custom when you look at it that way but an English tradition none the less. Here are just a few shots from round the fire at a recent local bonfire night.