Photos from the Discover Portchester Castle on Portsmouth Harbour Photo Walkshop
A bright Saturday morning kicked off the return of Photo Walkshops to a a Portchester Castle, rich in the colours of early summer. This location is always full of opportunities for photographers with not just the castle itself but the slipway in to the harbour, the beach and the woodland areas too. We walked down to the slipway for the local sailing club and could get to the water’s edge and explore round the shore and views out over the harbour. We used the pier here as a focal point and at the gate for leading lines and we also caught people on the water in boats and yachts. From here we headed along the path on the harbour edge with views of Portsmouth over the harbour and we also explored the castle wall, where medieval meets roman.
The gateway is really fun to photograph, with natural frames for days from the gateway itself to the arches and other shapes in the stone walls. The tower has stairs leading up to the circular remains at the top, leading the eye upwards to the sky. Apart from waiting out the passing visitor you can spend an hour just here alone. One thing we did look at experimenting with as a group was how to catch the sun peeking over the edge of the window and creating the star shapes of light using aperture.
A short walk back on the coastal path and it lead us down to the far side of the castle that faces south over Portsmouth Harbour. We can get down on to the seaweed and rocks of the shore here and also cast our eyes far to the south and pick up the harbour entrance and the Spinnaker Tower. Here we had a great Q&A session. Our last stop was completing the circle around the castle and ending up in the dry moat. This spot gives you intriguing different perspectives along the bed of the moat to where it meets the footbridge (and fills with water) plus looking up at the keep of the castle too. This finished up our morning of photography. A huge thank you to everyone who came along! – Paul.
