The Orangery

Wrest Park in Bedfordshire is a superb country estate that had its origins in the early seventeenth century but was developed later by the de Grey family and is dominated by the French-style mansion built in the nineteenth century. In the last few years the grounds have undergone extensive renovation as a result of grants from English Heritage.

There is much to explore: formal gardens, extensive woodland areas, lakes, numerous statue scattered across the grounds, and several outlying buildings including the Archer Pavilion, and the Orangery (orange trees really did grow there). It’s a delightful place to visit.

The Orangery, Wrest Park

When the sun shines the Orangery offers a number of photographic possibilities. The one that attracts me the most is the play of light and shadow on the walls from the framework of the glass roof. I’ve never used HDR techniques, and this is a single image shot, but there was a little work selectively on the windows and on the interior to get the right balance – more in terms of contrast rather than exposure.

The view back ( William 111 in foreground) across Long Water to the Mansion

For more about Wrest Park – click here to see my first post showing the reverse view of the view down the lake from the mansion – or enter ‘Wrest Park’ in the search widget in the right sidebar to see a number of previous posts from this estate.

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