Through a dark and enchanting woodland, deep in the Shropshire countryside stands the ancient remains of a beautiful castle, with sandstone walls, framing the beautiful, decadent windows and doors.
I first visited this particular castle when I was about 6, with my friends on the way home from a riding lesson, a hidden beauty, unknown by many. There is a truly magical feeling here and I remember my friends and I running round and through the old doors and windows that still remain, pretending we were princesses in search of our prince.
This has always been a location in mind for a photo shoot, however due to a very small car park, it has always seemed a little too difficult to arrange… introducing Pippa, Sparky and Timmy, who are hacking distance from this magical place, making the dream of doing a shoot here possible.
Between 5:30 and 6pm we started this gorgeous photo shoot, the sun was becoming lower in the sky which illuminated the castle in the most glorious golden light, giving a beautiful, dreamy appearance to the images.
During the summer time, I am sure you all know, how the mosquitos come out in force in the evening; and although they may be seen undesirably, for a photo shoot day, I LOVE them (and you will see why in the image below) – those little orbs of light scattered around the image, giving the impression of fairy dust, were each created by a mosquito, caught in the light of the sun.
Having photographed by the ancient tree which stands by the entrance to the castle, I was eager to go in to the castle for the following set of images. Using one of the old windows as a frame for the shot, I managed to create the image I had envisaged within seconds, which really was wonderful, featuring Pippa’s gorgeous Shetland pony Timmy.
As well as windows, there were beautiful door ways to venture through, which worked so unbelievably beautifully, especially with the golden light flooding in behind.
To conclude this truly wonderful shoot, Sally (Pippa’s mum) kindly let me experiment with a shot I was thinking of for my Nocturne project (if you are not sure what this, please look at my recent blog “Introducing Nocturne“).
Away from the castle, we ventured back in to the woodland, where we set up this shot, featuring a princess chair I had found hidden in an antique shop for just £15. The perfect prop.
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