Hinton Ampner

On a truly foul Good Friday we decided to visit the house and gardens at Hinton Ampner in Hampshire

The National Trust were very understanding about photography and as long as I hid the flash there was no problem.

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-hintonampnergarden

It's a worth while visit, a bit pricey if you're not a National Trust member but very interesting and a good chance to try some low light photography and see what you can do with a wide aperture.

I used the trusty Sigma 24-70 EX DG lens, bought just before Christmas and put the camera to iso 400, above that I start seeing that little bit of shadow noise creeping in. It's the sort of situation where you'd want a really wide prime lens really but the Sigma didn't do badly at all.

The weather cleared up enough to get outside and take some pictures of the grounds, the light wasn't brilliant, April in England though, you can't expect miracles.

I'm pleased with these overall. I enjoy photographing things on an overcast day, it's a challenge and makes you try slightly different settings. Interestingly, I tried shooting a couple of these on 'p' and the camera over-exposed so I went straight back to manual. I'll keep an eye on that methinks.