One month into my new contract in the east of England and decided to take a wander around the town of Bedford with my compact camera and then took a trip to the ruins of Houghton House.

Around Bedford

Bedford is a town of two contrasts.  Down by the river and with spring in full bloom there was some nice compositions to capture.  To then realise I had left my compact camera in my car.

Still I always had the camera in my mobile phone on me which I could use.

Mobile Photography.

I always practice compositions using the camera in my mobile phone and keep archives of all the places I have visited within albums using Google photos.

The screen is much bigger on the mobile phone than any live-view screen on your main camera.  There are so many mobile phone apps you can use for photography doing some post processing on the spot before sharing on social media like Instagram.

Using the camera app in Lightroom mobile you can capture images in raw and edit them using all the tools that come with Lightroom.

I always wondered why you could not change aperture in pro mode with a mobile phone.  It always shoots wide open like F/2.  why?  the reason being the diameter of the built in lens is so small, reducing the aperture any more would cause severe diffraction.

Google Explore and Houghton House

After exploring Bedford, having had some coffee I wondered what was nearby I could visit and photograph?  Using Explore Nearby on Google maps you can select categories like historic places, parks, nature reserves etc.

And that is when I discovered Houghton house only a few miles outside of Bedford so that was where I was heading.  This time I remembered my compact and got some better quality shots than you can get with mobile photography.

I love photographing old ruins, like churches they can be so photogenic especially if located in good surroundings and the light is good.

Houghton house in Bedfordshire was no exception.  There were many compositions and angles to capture from different faces of the ruined building.

There was a photography group there that I was trying to keep out of the picture.  To think of all the history that are contained within these grounds, the comings and goings of high society when Houghton house was in its prime to then fall into disrepair.

Using OS Maps online there was a good walk of a few miles through Kings wood.  Kings wood is un-spoilt and ancient forest and looks like a good place to capture bluebells in full bloom that were a few weeks away.

Moral of the story is if scratching around for new places to visit you could be pleasantly surprised using explore nearby on google maps.