Waterloo 200: First Images

I've posted the first few images of the Waterloo 200th commemoration over on NorbSoft board..

It was a blast to see even a portion of the thousands of re-enactors, horses, guns and enthusiasm!

Hope you enjoy,
Ron/Palmer

PS I was surprised not to see anyone in the KS group there -- since the van in the last picture obviously belongs to one of you.

thanks a lot for sharing - I thought about going there for a very long time - but having seen it once already and having been on the field twice I decided that I was rather going to avoid the huge masses

Very nice photos as we would expect from you. I'm sure we're all looking forward to seeing more.

Many thanks Ron, waiting for more.

Pictures posted for Quatre Bras and Walhain/Wavre. The links may be found on the NorbSoft forum:

Lots of colorful uni's in the Walhain set!

Great photos. Colors are nicely saturated. Was that a 6lber being fired?

Chasseur a Cheval uniforms look good.

I liked the ones of the horse interested in the grognard's breakfast.

Uncle Billy wrote:Was that a 6lber being fired?

Yep, pretty sure it was. The horses they had pulling it had no trouble at all. But then, they were also the biggest horses I've ever seen. ;-)

Mr. Digby wrote:I liked the ones of the horse interested in the grognard's breakfast.

That horse was inordinately curious (more than hungry, I think), which began to concern the guy in the picture. Hard to blame him with probably 1600 pound of horseflesh hulking over his head. Before he began nosing around the fellow's dinner, my wife caught a great video of him walking right up to join the C.O. of the 9th & myself engaged in studying a map. In the video, it looks like he's just as interested in the map as we were. Very funny.

That would be great to see.

More Waterloo pics are posted. These include shots of Ferme du Caillou ("Napoleon's Last Headquarters") and Wellington's line along the Mont St. Jean ridge and Lion's Mound area. http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/96-discussion/69324-images-of-waterloo-200#69414

Looking forward to see more shots!  

Pictures of Hougoumont and evirons are now posted...
http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/96-discussion/69324-images-of-waterloo-200#69440

Great images; however, the picture of three French guardsmen is by far the greatest. You captured them at that perfect moment which allows one to get lost and the present/past to become intertwined.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rwberg53/19387647568/in/album-72157655631506156/

The last photos are now posted for La Haye Sainte, Waterloo's Wellington Museum, and Plancenoit. http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/96-discussion/69324-images-of-waterloo-200#69480

There's also now a link to a collection of all the Waterloo 200 albums for easier viewing:
Waterloo 200 - All Images

The picture of La Haye Sainte from the Lion's Mound gives a great view of the folds and slopes of the ground d'Erlon's men were marching across. It's an ugly blot on the battlefield, but a great place for photography.

Uncle Billy wrote:It's an ugly blot on the battlefield

Couldn't agree more. Wellington's comment about it was simply, "they've ruined my battlefield." The massive amount of dirt used to create the mound was dug from the ridge and road -- understandably distorting the topography of the area significantly. And all this to glorify the Prince of Orange who, by most accounts, did the Duke a huge favor by stepping in front of a French skirmisher's bullet midway through the battle.

Prince Willem may not have been a tactical genius but his position commanding I Corps was a political appointment which was necessary in order to fully embrace the Dutch-Belgian state into the Coalition. A lot of their soldiers and generals had fought for the French from around 1808 to 1814 so they had to be treated nicely.

In my view the Prince's worst mistake which cost about 550 lives was the loss of the 5th Btn KGL north of La Haye Sainte at about 6:00pm.

While I am okay with the Lion mound and what it stands for I agree with most others that they should have carted soil in from an area beyond the battlefield to build it. At least with simulations like SoW we can appreciate how the topography looked on 18th June 1815 again.

His inexperience did, indeed, lead to the useless sacrifice of a fine battalion. He made some other mistakes as well. I'm not disagreeing with the importance and necessity of his political appointment -- only (though cynically) pointing out, that it was fortunate he was removed from the field and too bad it couldn't have come a bit sooner.

An additional thing of no real importance, but a bit disgusting nonetheless, was PoO's very self-serving report back to his father after the battle that he had basically won the day for Wellington.

his appointment -- only (admittedly cynically) pointing out that it was fortunate that he was removed from the field but too bad it couldn't have come a bit sooner.

Two days earlier would have been best.

Great images; however, the picture of three French guardsmen is by far the greatest. You captured them at that perfect moment which allows one to get lost and the present/past to become intertwined.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rwberg53/19387647568/in/album-72157655631506156/

For me the magic of that photo is diluted by the modern road sign and the tarmac road surface and markings.

Ron, do you ever photoshop your images to enhance them, such as this example where deleting the road sign and replacing the road with a dirt or cobble texture would be just a few minutes work?

http://www.atomic-album.com/showPic.php/22426/TroisiemeGrognard.jpg

(Happy to delete at once if you want Ron)

lol, I occasionally make minor PS adjustments and can easily do it on this one. Honestly, I didn't even notice the sign pointing to the guardsman's nose until later. That's what 5 days pouring through 1100 images will do to you.

Edit: Voila!

A free photo book offer inspired me to throw together a handful of images from last summer's Waterloo commemoration into a small coffee-table production. The reduced size (20-ish pages) precluded doing anything comprehensive, so I just focused on a few of the faces, characters, and sites that most impressed me at the time.

Waterloo 200