Canons Ashby

Canons Ashby House is the ancestral home of the Dryden family. Clara Dryden, born 1859, was a gifted painter and painted many of the scenes at Canons Ashby including the interior of the house and the gardens. Polly Swann married Chris Dryden in 2000. Polly is a keen amateur photographer and had the idea to produce a book called "Canons Ashby Then & Now". This book features watercolours by Clara Dryden and photographs by Polly of the same scene shown side by side. It is remarkable how little has changed since 1710.

I have been inspired by Polly's book to try a slight variation of Polly's idea. That is to take photographs of the house and gardens and then give my photos a painterly type effect. Over the years I have tried lots of different software/filters and a while ago I came across the "Dream Smoothing" filter in 'GIMP Photo' software.

Maybe not to everyone's taste but I have grown to very much like the effect this filter produces :-))

Here is my first picture of the house given the 'Dream Smoothing' effect and this could be the start of more 'Dream Smoothing' Photos :-)))

Also, a bit of a tenuous 'Sight and Sound' link but I have chosen "Picture Show" by John Prine & Tom Petty.

Added to ~ Sight and Sound : Pictures & Music

♫ ♪ ♪ ♫ Listen here ~ Picture Show ~ John Prine & Tom Petty

Maybe view on black, please :-)