bluebells
Spring happenings
As with the rest of the country, spring arrived very early indeed with flowers blooming a good 10 days earlier than usual. I love spring. It’s my favourite season by far. As we emerge from the winter gloom and the days lengthen we at last feel that we have time on our hands to actually do stuff! Late April through to late June invariably finds me getting up very early to shoot dewy flowers or bird and hare activity on the marshes. Wood anemones and bluebells are only around for a short time so I try to make the most of them and set about photographing them at first light. Why so early? Several reasons. The light is soft, wind almost non-existent and the countryside as a whole is much quieter, human-wise anyway, allowing you to experience the dawn chorus. After a few hours photography I pack up and go home, just when everyone else is getting up and going to work!
This first image of a wood anemone was taken at 07.20 hrs at a local nature reserve called Cromer’s Wood where I have been assistant warden since it’s conception in 1990. I had this shot in mind and so it was ‘simply’ a matter of looking for the right specimen. If only you could see me dashing up and down the pathway, bending down, laying down, searching! As the sun rose, I shielded the flower from the sun to retain detail and also to obtain this contradiction of hues of the coolness of the anemone with the warmth of the background. I used a wide aperture of f4 to throw everything except for the lip of the flower out of focus with the resulting shutter speed being 1/25th sec. The same technique was also used for the bluebell image, several days apart but along the same path.
Wood anemone
Bluebell
Prior to the above image being made, I visited a beechwood just a few minutes away to get some pictures of the rising sun bursting through the trees illuminating this swathe of bluebells.
Bluebells in beechwood
I deliberately chose not to add an ND Grad to the image, below, since I didn’t want any detail in the trees. As I composed it I thought it had a rather heavenly, dreamlike quality so left as it is.
To round off the session in this particular wood I shot this young bracken surrounded by the bluebells.
Bracken and bluebells. Nikon D300, 200mm, iso 200, 1/40th sec. f5.6, Manfrotto tripod.
Our earliest flowering woodland orchid, the early-purple.
Another early morning flower shoot. This time of a common dog violet. I just can't get enough of them dewy mornings!
I do photograph other things other than flowers….honestly! A few evenings were spent laying close to a rabbit warren in the hope of capturing the youngsters. I only had fortune on my side the first evening but will continue to shoot (pardon the pun!) them throughout the spring and summer.
Rabbits outside warren
Young rabbit. Nikon D300, 300mm f2.8, 1.4x teleconverter, iso 400, 160th sec. f5.6, beanbag, full camo clothing.
Male pheasant displaying. It doesn't matter how often I photograph this behaviour, I just can't help myself. Although an introduced species, I cannot imagine the countryside without them. It would be like losing the cuckoo though sadly, if one were to disappear, it would most likely be the latter.
Cock pheasant displaying
Although suffering a rapid decline, corn bunting's are still, thankfully, very common throughout the North Kent Marshes.
Warm days followed by cold nights are providing wonderfully atmospheric conditions in which to shoot in at the moment and since the mist reduces the sun’s harshness for another half an hour or so, this in turn extends my photography a little longer. This brown hare was captured a few days ago as it nibbled on some grass.
Brown hare at sunrise. Nikon D300, 300mm f2.8, iso 800, 1/2500th sec. f5.6, beanbag.
These yellow flag irises were spotted a few days prior to shooting them and was fortunate enough to have great cloud formations, something which simply cannot be guaranteed. Positioning the tripod was the biggest problem here with two of the legs in water and another at quite a peculiar angle in which to move the camera slightly overhead. I was careful not to leave it unattended through fear it may well end up in the drink! Due to the exposure range I used two ND Graduated filters. A 0.3 (1 stop) at a 45 degree angle covering the sky and ditch and a 2 stop (0.6) covering just the sky since this was brighter than the water in the ditch.
Yellow flag iris at sunrise
It’s easy to for us to take this season and all that it offers for granted thinking “well, there’s always next year to photograph them.” As a recent personal event reminded me, there may not always be a “next year” so we have to grasp every opportunity and, indeed, make a concerted effort to enjoy this very special time of the year.
Flowers past
Just thought I’d post a few images taken only 2 1/2 weeks ago, though for anyone who has, over the last few days, stepped into a woodland, you’d think they were done a month ago! It doesn’t feel like spring anymore. I just spent the afternoon in an almost impenetrable woodland where, 3 weeks ago, bluebells flourished and now, wild grasses a foot or more high are rapidly taking over. Puddles are still evident in the shaded parts after the rainfall 3 days ago and the wonderful lime-green vibrancy of a woodland in April and May is turning a deep, depressing green. The claustrophobia of a broadleaved woodland in summer is nearly here. It’ll be the marshes for me over the next few months!
Ferns and bluebells in beechwood at sunrise
Common dog violet
Remote badger
There has been a lot of talk over the last few months regarding the use of remote cameras when photographing wildlife but there are times when it quite simply is the only way, especially if your intention is to create a very different perspective on a much photographed mammal. I was at least present when the image was taken, indeed, I did take it. There were no beams or pressure pads, just me, sitting 20m away in a tree hide firing the camera by radio remote.
It’s an image I have had in my mind’s eye for number of years but for one reason or another was unable to achieve it. Having secured a number of close-ups the previous few weeks, I waited till the bluebells were in bloom then over several nights, would arrive at the scene around 6.30pm (1 1/2 hrs before they usually emerge), climb an old hornbeam, clamp the camera and receiver to a branch, cover them in plastic bags, then retreat to my platform. Once a badger emerged, which it did at 8pm, it was simply a case of waiting until it was in the desired position and hoping above all else, that it would remain still long enough so as not to be just a blur. I set the D300 to iso 1600, aperture priority f4.9 with the resulting shutter speed being 3 seconds. Lens used was 12-24mm. So as to keep any disturbance to a minimum, I waited till it was completely dark, content the badgers had wandered off to forage, climbed down from my platform then went home, returning early the next morning to collect the camera. It was carried out in private woodland and with the camera being a good 15 feet up a tree, I was fairly confident it would still be there when I returned!
Damp morning
I headed out yesterday, pre dawn, to a favourite bluebell wood about 30 mins from where I live, in the hope of getting some panoramic images with the morning sunlight filtering through the trees. But, the weather forecast wasn’t quite as accurate as I had hoped and instead of clear(ish) skies, it was cloudy and rain threatened.
As I entered the Forestry Commission car park, I was greeted by the sight of a rather large herd of fallow deer, that are wild here and totally unlike the park deer of nearby Knole. I hoisted the pack on my pack and headed to the spot where I hoped to get the pictures. But, as you can see from the results, although it brightened a little, it remained heavily overcast turning to heavy rain. Thank goodness I brought my umbrella! In the first image it was so dark, I needed to use the AF on the 28-105 to focus!
Beechwood at dawn
Both images were taken in portrait mode, the first requiring 7 images and the second, 5 and were then stitched using PtGui.
Bluebells in beechwood
Although I didn’t get the pictures I wanted, it is always good to be out early, especially at this time of the year. Seeing the deer in the woodland and listening to the dawn chorus made me forget, albeit only for a short while, just how wet I was!
Working on the commoner species
Several springs ago while topping up the feeders at my bird feeding station, I arrived to find half a dozen hens and a cock pheasant crowded around the base of the feeder picking up the seeds that had fallen from above. Previously, I had only photographed pheasants from a hide or from a vehicle, rarely as the prime target but as something to shoot (pardon the pun!) while waiting for the intended quarry, notably smaller birds and squirrels. It occurred to me that here was an opportunity to take advantage of their relative tameness and to obtain images that were a little different to the norm.
The closest I could approach at this point was about 10 metres, far too distant for what I was after. So, every morning, I would jump over the gate, shake my bag of bird feed and sprinkle it in the area where the pheasants frequented most. After a week I could get to within 5 metres and after 2 weeks, within 1 metre. I became somewhat of a pied piper, that wherever I went, they would follow. The following week was then spent either following them around or them following me. I would take advantage of this by placing the food in attractive settings, such as the bluebell wood, often using a wide-angle lens to get that unusual perspective. By this point I could get to within touching distance.
Cock pheasant
At the tme, I was using film and used a Nikon F90 with a 28-105mm lens, Fuji Sensia 100 and a Nikon Speedlight SB-26 flash-unit set to -1.3 for fill-in. All were taken handheld with the camera set to shutter priority, possibly 1/125 sec. with the aperture fluctuating from f5.6 to f11, depending on the day’s brightness.
Cock and hen pheasants feeding
Pheasants in bluebell wood
There’s an awful lot to be said about working with animals we see on a day to day basis, rather than concentrating on rarer kinds. The more we encounter them, the more the likelihood of recording something interesting, as opposed to a mere portrait taken with a telephoto lens. Don’t get me wrong, I like a good portrait as much as the next person, but it really can’t compare to an image with the subject either actively doing something or photographed in an unusual way. With so much subject matter to choose from, the only thing we need to do is open our eyes a little wider and explore the possibilities.
Cock pheasant with hens
About Robert Canis
Robert Canis is a professional photographer specialising in the natural world.
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