Introduction
These photos were taken during a trip to the Waterloo battlefields for the 200th Anniversary events.
The tour was taken with "In The Footsteps Battlefield Tours".
I recommend them. I visited Normandy with them for the 75th Anniversary of D-Day. There are photos of that elsewhere on this site.
Visiting battlefields can be frustrating and photographing them moreso; a 200 year old battlefield may have changed a great deal.
The Battlefields of Ligny, Quatre Bras and Waterloo have actually changed much less than many of those I visited in Spain.
Ligny was, and still is mainly farmland. The villages have of course grown considerably.
Quatre Bras is a busy cross Roads and the Bois de Bossu doesn't exist any more.
The Waterloo battlefield is officially protected but there are some changes. The sand pit is a grove of trees. Most of Hougoumont still exists, and has recently been restored, but the Chateau, the orchard and the woods are gone. La Haye Sainte is inaccessible.
The main obstruction to viewing the battlefield at Waterloo was the event itself. The arena and hospitality areas occupied the east half of the battlefield. The Allied encampment was to the east of Hougomont and there were car parks all over the place.
For me, the best bit was walking around the encampments, talking to the re-enactors. The battlefield will still be there next year, I'd like to go back. (I did in 2018).
And there was beer ...
... and spectators in costume ...
... and re-enactors everywhere.
A note about the equipment used.
Most of the pictures were taken using an Olympus E-P5. This has a Micro four-thirds lens mount and very good stabilisation.
I normally used an Olympus 14-150mm, 1:4-5.6 lens (35mm equivalent, 28-300) for the walking around shots.
For the evening events I fitted an Olympus 75-300mm 1:4.8-6.7 lens (35mm equivalent, 150-600) and used a monopod (Manfrotto MMC3-01) which was very straightforward to use when seated.
I also had my older Olympus E-PL2 and put the 14-150mm lens on that when using the 150-300mm.
A few photos were taken using an Olympus 9mm wide angle lens.