It was only quite recently that we discovered a lovely oasis in the urban environment where we currently live. The location is the beautiful 17th century estate called Killruddery, near the town of Bray in Co. Wicklow here in Ireland. The house is very beautiful and the grounds are huge. Because its relatively unknown compared to other such places in Ireland, it can be very peaceful.

It’s also become one of my favourite places to photograph. As well as a beautiful estate, it’s also a working farm and there are vegetable gardens, wonderful flowers, animals and more, all in the one location. The house and gardens are just outside a large town, itself a suburb of Dublin, so it’s still close to an urban centre, but you would never think that when you are there. I often remark at how quiet it is there. I posted about it on my blog before.

Anyway, we were there recently, and we noticed a sign up that said “Filming in progress”. This is nothing unusual in this part of the country. They are currently filming the sequel to the Disney movie “Enchanted” not far from there. And Ireland’s largest film Studio is just around the corner too. We continued our excursion into the grounds regardless, and only a few places were closed off. One of the places we regularly frequent, and I’ve regularly photographed is a set of two large ponds in front of the main mansion. This was set up with several stages as well as archery targets, spears and other various battle like instruments. There was no actual shooting going on, but there were some of the crew minding the sets.

My sister who was with us at the time, asked what was filming, and it turned out to be for a Netflix series called ”Fate: the Winx Saga” - a young adult fantasy series about fairies (more like magicians - not like the tinker bell type) who kick ass. I’ve been on sets a few times over the years, having worked in television doing motion graphics for a long time, but this is the first time I’ve just wandered onto a film set almost accidentally.

We actually went back and watched the first season after visiting the location and it’s actually not bad. We quite enjoyed it. It was based very (very) loosely on an animated series from the early 2000s which was aimed at much younger children. This is definitely aimed at an older audience with quite a few violent and scary parts - and other adult themes - you know what I mean! It's kind of like Harry Potter meets The Hunger Games meets Charmed meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Apparently fans of the original animated series consider it an abomination, but I thought it was ok.

So what is the moral of the story? (Or, why are you telling us this and what does it have to do with photography?)

It made me think of how it’s always interesting to see things from different perspectives. Both literally and metaphorically. In the series, they shoot the main house and gardens from lots of different angles, many of which are obviously drone shots, but in a few cases I had to stop for a second before I even realised it was the same place.

They always tell you to try different perspectives when shooting, but sometimes you miss things or become caught by your own habits, and you fail to notice other opportunities - which is where the metaphorical perspective comes in. You’re seeing something through another photographer, or in this case, cinematographer’s eyes. Sometimes you can see the same thing over and over, but it takes seeing how someone else views it to “wake you up” to a different point of view. In this case, literally a different point of view. The next time I go back there, I will definitely be on the look out for different vantage points.

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