Your R System Images - May 2026

[PKM-UK]

Service Announcement: Don’t Panic! Please note we are now away until Mid-May (Welsh Frank-Fest) so this thread has been started earlier than usual. We will be unable to provide any feedback until after we return (and dry out!). The existing April thread remains open and available for image posts and comments...

Your R System Images - May 2026

We hope you enjoy creating fantastic images this month!

Have fun - but stay safe and well…

Phil and Karen

——

Any R System images can be posted. If you would like to say something about the subject, settings, or processing, that will be very welcome.

Remember, you don't have to only post things you took this month - sometimes people don't get around to processing/ editing images straight away. (Think of it more as an ‘images I’d like to post here this month’ sort of thing). Images taken with non-R System lenses are also very welcome as this adds to the interest.

Images posted on this thread will also be available to view in the dedicated Monthly R System Images Gallery.

Commenting on people’s posts is encouraged, as it keeps everyone interested and coming back. (Please try to be considerate, thoughtful and constructive).

Note we will be away until mid-May-ish and are also busy with ‘life stuff’. The lack of a comment from us is not a sign of disfavour!

Finally, please post in accordance with the RF Shooters Community Guidelines.

Thank you!

 

[PKM-UK]

Images from my recent visit to Bodiam Castle, Robertsbridge, East Sussex, England.

(Shot raw and processed using: DxO PL Elite/ Viewpoint, Adobe LrC/ PS with Tony Kuyper Panels and Topaz Labs Studio. Karen was working up in nearby-ish Maidstone to gather a little ca$h, so these images are mine).

Importantly, Bodiam appears in the 1975 film ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’, serving as the exterior establishing shot for ‘Swamp Castle’ and also in the 'Tale of Sir Lancelot' sequence, where the castle's moated exterior is shown. (One of the guides told me Mr John Cleese had trodden these very ramparts!).

You can find out more about Bodiam Castle by clicking Here.

Phil (missing Karen)


1. Bodiam Castle was built around 1385 by Sir Edward Dallingridge. It was constructed amid fears of French invasion during the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) and stood as a powerful symbol of social status and personal ambition.

• Join to view EXIF data.

2. Sir Edward Dallingridge (c.1346-1393/94) was a soldier, landowner and politician. His marriage to Elizabeth Wardieu (c. 1346- after 1383), daughter and heiress of John Wardieu of Bodiam, expanded his estates. It was on her inherited land that he built Bodiam Castle.

• Join to view EXIF data.

3. In 1385 he received royal permission from King Richard II to fortify his manor: ‘That he may strengthen with a wall of stone and lime, and crenellate and may construct and make into a castle his manor house of Bodiam, near the sea, in the County of Sussex, for the defence of the adjacent country, and the resistance to our enemies'.

• Join to view EXIF data.

4. After Sir Edward Dalyngrigge’s death, Bodiam Castle passed by marriage into the Lewknor family and subsequently through various owners. By the early modern period it had begun to fall into decline. In 1723 the estate was bought by Sir Thomas Webster (1676 -1751), owner of Battle Abbey. The Websters kept Bodiam for more than a century. During this time the castle became well known as a picturesque ruin visited by artists and travellers, including J. M. W. Turner.

• Join to view EXIF data.

5. By the early nineteenth century Bodiam Castle was admired as a romantic ruin but remained in a fragile state. In 1829 it was purchased by John ‘Mad Jack’ Fuller (1757 -1834) of Brightling, a Sussex squire and Member of Parliament known for his eccentric interests.

• Join to view EXIF data.

6. A major new phase of conservation began in 1917, when Bodiam Castle was bought by George Nathaniel Curzon (1859-1925), 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston and former Viceroy of India. Curzon left Bodiam Castle to the National Trust on his death in 1925.

• Join to view EXIF data.

(Source: National Trust).