I like this assignment that I was given by a 52 weeks of photography group that I am a member of on Flickr. This was to tty out a new way of exploring a landscape. The idea is to create a composite of multiple pictures of a landscape that you’ve taken during a short walk through it. It was a simple job of taking many shots of the Watergate Bay beach landscape. I found lots of views that caught my eye. It was also great fun assembling this selection of pictures. 

On the eve of England’s World Cup campaign in Russia, I went with friends for a behind the scenes tout of St George’e Park which is the flagship training facility for the England football teams.  It is an impressive facility situated in the beautiful Staffordshire countryside.  The tour starts in the Hilton Hotel which is full of footballing memories in the form of pictures and trophies.  The training facility is a short walk next door and has numerous indoor pitches.  There is a state of the art Hydrotherapy suite and other gymnasiums.  There are also changing rooms named after England captains.  We were not able to enter the Billy Wright one as there was a football competition taking place but we were allowed to see the Bryan Robson changing room which was prepared for the England team match of Futsal.  They were playing an international match against Poland.  The tour finished with a hot and cold buffet at the Hilton Hotel.

For the photographers reading this.  The photographs were taken with my Sony RX100v5 and processed with Photoshop.  I set the Sony on Program for general shooting so as to be ready for impromptu pictures.  I shoot in RAW and the processing will include sharpening via an unsharp mask and tweaking of the exposure, highlight, colours and saturation.

The entrance to the Park

The car park space for Gareth Southgate (with Andy and Jim my son-in-laws)

The centre is set in beautiful surroundings

Abstract of the front entrance

Tour briefing of the lecture room at the Hilton

The scene of many England Team briefings

The inner courtyard of the Hilton Hotel on site

Exterior view of the Hilton Hotel

A footballer sculpture in the reception area

Footballer sculpture with black and white pictures (reception area)

State of the art training facilities

All those weights

Cycling machines all lined up

Counting up all those exercise bikes

I know who is in that picture

An amazing underwater treadmill

The autograph wall with many famous signatures on it including the Duke of Cambridge

Set in beautiful countryside

The Bryan Robson changing room

All ready to be worn for the game

The impressive indoor training pitch

It says it all

The end of the tour