Bluebell Season
Bluebell season has finally arrived here in sunny Lancashire. Looking at the works of other local photographers, I think it actually arrived a few weeks ago for most of the county, but here in my local patch they've taken their time to surface. No matter though, because the woodland meadows around here are currently full of them while they're on the wane in other areas.
I've photographed in a couple of locations this year, Duxbury woods, which is very close to where I live and Brinscall woods which is about 6 miles away. I visited Duxbury on a couple of occasions at different times of day and the bluebells looked stunning. Unfortunately I could not find compositions that really appealed to me, at least not involving the bluebells. The trees stood amongst the bluebells had very little character and in instances where they did, there was often too much clutter or some inconsiderate bush that had decided to plop itself right in the way. This was a shame, because the bluebells themselves looked stunning, but a stunning meadow of bluebells does not a good photo make.
About a week after my last visit to Duxbury, I returned to Brinscall where the bluebells had finally erupted in grand style, probably about a fortnight after everywhere else. Unlike Duxbury, I felt I had much more success finding interesting compositions involving the bluebells. Again I visited on a couple of occasions at different times of day, specifically early one sunny afternoon and also a couple of hours before sunset on a similarly sunny day. I didn't bother with early morning as the woods sit on a westerly facing slope, so there would be very weak/flat light before the sun manages to pop its head above the moors. This is a general problem around here as we're on the West of the Pennines, making those spectacular sunrise shots a little challenging as the sun often needs to be quite high in the sky before you can actually see it.
A negative consequence of the bright sunlight is high contrast, which led to a bit of a battle in the edit to try and flatten the hotspots without creating flat looking images.
Brinscall Woods In The Afternoon
On the first visit, I set out around lunchtime. It was quite a warm day and I didn't feel like carrying a lot of equipment, so I just settled for the little X-T50 with the ever unpredictable 16-55 f/2.8 (MK1) - a highly respected lens, but one that's always been plagued with focussing issues for me no matter what camera I paired it with. However, when it works, it works and on this occasion it was generally well behaved, even if it did feel like I was carrying a lens with a camera attached!
These images were all taken handheld with a CPL on the lens aligned to reduce reflections from the foliage.
Brinscall Woods In The Evening
Having thoroughly enjoyed my walk in the woods (and feeling quite pleased with how (relatively) easily I'd made my way up to the top of the steep hillside the woods is perched upon), I visited again the very next day. I'd been relatively happy with the Fuji pictures, but wanted to try again with something a little more substantial, so this time I returned with the Z8 and Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8S, plus a tripod for extra inconvenience.
Much as I enjoy using the little Fuji and often get great results, I find the Z8 to be so much nicer to use, the control structure just works well in my hands, much better than the fiddly controls of the Fuji. The viewfinder is much nicer too, making exposure and importantly, polarisation, a lot easier to judge. The downside of course is the increased bulk and weight. Throw in the tripod too and it's fair to say that I didn't exactly bound through the woods so much this time. Still, I managed to get to the upper reaches of the woods reasonably (if somewhat breathlessly) quick, so I even had enough time to circle round to the southern edge of the plantation for a sneaky sunset shot from one of my favourite spots.
All images taken with the Z8 mounted on a tripod through a CPL adjusted to reduce reflections.
