Sand Patterns at Wells

On Friday I spent the day at Wells-Next-The-Sea. Despite the lovely sunny weather, for some reason hardly anyone was on the beach all morning. This meant the sand was undisturbed, so I spent a lot of time looking for patterns in the dunes.

Blurred Bluebells

Today, I made my annual trip to Ashridge for the Bluebells. I love this place and would happily go without a camera to to walk in the woods. But since I am a photographer and have a camera, I might as well take it. I have been there so many times it is hard to do anything different. I try to set mini projects. Last year it was wide angle shots, a couple of years ago it was landscape pictures using a 100mm lens. This year I decided to try some in-camera pan and zoom blurs.



I also tried some more subtle blurring by using a 10-stop ND filter to give me 8 minute exposure times, allowing the wind to soften the beach leaves and flowers. I don't think this worked as well.

Early Purple Orchids

There are a good number Early Purple Orchids in Waresley Woods at the moment.

Hayley Wood

Cowslips and Greater Stitchwort at Hayley Wood. I went back the next day to try and shoot the Cowslips in better light and they had started to turn overnight.

Brampton Wood

These images were actually taken a fortnight ago. The day after the Points of view shoot in Cambridge. Sadly, the last couple of weeks have been hectic with work, finishing up a silly little NVQ, and getting to grips with Lightroom and Photoshop CS5 (a student card having been the big benefit of the NVQ).

But now I have a nice long break, spring is moving fast and it's time to concentrate of shooting the abundence of flowers now in flower.

Brampton wood is my closest wood and one I visit often. It is particularly good for primroses and two weeks ago they were at their absolute best.

Points Of View - Mill Road

Saturday was the Camera Club's annual 'Points of View' competition. This year we were based around Mill Road and Parker's Piece. It was a beautiful sunny day, more like summer than spring. Photographically, the strong light was very challenging. And despite all the practice we have had in the Abbey Horizons group, this is a tough competition.

The competition judging isn't until Monday, so I won't post my 5 selected images. But these are a few of the also rans.

Tree Blossom

Some pictures of the blossom on the trees on Eaton Socon Green. It never lasts long but is beautiful while there.