What are we doing at Goodrich Castle? Apart, that is, from enjoying the wonderful scenery of the Wye Valley on the Welsh Border. Well, with only three months to go before we start excavations at Tell Khaiber we have begun testing some of our equipment to iron out any glitches and to ensure it functions as it should before we get to Iraq. Photography is an important part of recording what we find and one of the problems we always have is how to take good elevated shots of an archaeological site and its excavated buildings. Photographic towers are difficult to move around and position for the best photograph, while helicopters can be ordered up only once in a while! Our solution is to use a nine metre telescopic pole with a digital camera on top, connected by cable to a laptop. Software on the laptop allows us to see what the camera sees, to zoom in and out, and control all the other features such as aperture and speed. Once we have the perfect picture, we can take the photo and save it straight to the laptop.

Here, Dan Barrett, our Site Manager, and Ron Shoesmith, former archaeologist at Hereford Cathedral, are taking elevated photographs of the castle for a guidebook Ron is writing for English Heritage. The results were excellent and show the castle as it has never been photographed before.