Last year for our summer holiday I hired a motorhome and took my family to Wales. I have never been to Wales sightseeing before and I was amazed at the number of castles this country had.

On arrival at Caerphilly I was immediately impressed by the huge castle in the centre of the town complete with a moat and drawbridge. After lunch I left my two wives to explore the inner castle while I set out on my own, in peace, to find a good vantagepoint from which to try and capture an image of this magnificent structure.

I don't really like photographing scenic views in the middle the day especially in the height of summer, the light is directly overhead and tends to be unflattering and too harsh for the subject. When I'm on holiday with the family however, this is usually the only time I can practice my art. Undeterred by the light, I walked around the moat until I came to a park from which I thought I would at least get a reasonable "record" shot.

I found an area just off the main path leading through the park that looked promising and started to set up. I go through pretty much the same routine whenever I prepare to take this type of picture. I set up my camera on the tripod, I attached the remote shutter release cable, composed the scene in the viewfinder, made sure the camera was level, checked the exposure, recomposed, double-checked the exposure and so on. After some time I was ready to open the shutter when a local passed by on the path behind me and said, in a very broad Welsh accent....

"Why don't you just buy a postcard?"

Now I did immeadiately see the funny side of the question but at the same time I also felt slightly crestfallen. Not only could I not at the time think of a witty retort but here I was with £ X,000's worth of camera equipment in front of me when I could have saved a fortune and simply spent 50p in the local newsagent. The postcards in the newsagent were in fact infinitely better pictures than the one I took, but then they had been taken in much better light.

Caerphilly castle

Should have bought a postcard!

By the way to any of you who picked up on my comment above about my "two wives" I should perhaps clear that up. My first wife is the lady to whom I have been happily married for 14 years. My second wife is in fact my 11-year-old daughter, Charlotte, who somehow manages to henpeck me more than my official wife. Hence I consider myself to be owned by two wives. You know, I never did understand the Mormons.