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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
