Will Lott’s Cottage is located in East Bergholt, midway between Ipswich and Colchester, and features in many paintings by John Constable. The most notable of which being ‘The Haywain‘.

‘Willy Lott’ was the name of the farmer who managed the land and Willy lived in the house at the time Constable was painting in the area. By the early 20th century, the house fell into disrepair, however through various benefactors including the National Trust, the house returned to its former glory by the mid 20th century. Today it is managed by the National Trust and is used as a learning centre.

Photography Tips

Finding unique compositions can be tricky here and it’s hard to look past the classic view, like the one pictured above. In my opinion, spring and summer provide better conditions for this particular shot, when there is plenty of leaves on the trees and flowers are in bloom.

One thing to note however is the trees tend to block the very late evening or very early morning light and is probably best to setup when the sun is a little higher in the sky. In the image above, I had just missed the evening light hitting the cottage in full.

When processing this particular image, I paid close attention to balancing the shadows against the bright highlights. The green foliage in the foreground also came out of the camera with a cool green, almost a teal hue, so I made sure to increase the warmth in this area to give it a more realistic look and feel.