Water crowfoot

There’s been an explosion of water crowfoot this year across the North Kent Marshes.  It’s an incredible sight and in all the years that I have visited this area, have never seen so much.  Every ditch, rill and shallow pool is smothered with this beautiful little flower.

The first part of it’s Latin name, Ranunculus, is rather apt for this plant as it means, little frog, due I guess to the fact that it’s found near or in water.

The images above were used without a tripod, something I hardly ever do.  However, there are times when it simply isn’t practical.  For both I had to lie down overhanging the water, using a right-angle finder and a 12-24mm lens.  As the scene was very bright, even though it was only 6.15 in the morning, I could use a small aperture coupled with a reasonably fast shutter speed.  A polarising filter helped eliminate specular reflections from the foliage, water and deepen the blue sky.

This one however, taken at sunset with a 300mm f2.8 lens, absolutely required a tripod.  A perfectly calm evening was necessary to get the mirror like reflection.

Tags: crowfoot, north kent marshes, polariser, ranunculus, reflection, right-angle finder, water crowfoot