Chelsea In Bloom

Each year, to coincide with the RHS flower show, the shops and businesses in Chelsea hold 'Chelsea In Bloom'. Described as 'London’s largest free-to-attend festival of flowers', over 145 retailers, restaurants and hotels compete to create floral designs on a theme. This year's theme was ‘Out of this World’, and was broadly interpreted with space travel, astrology and fantasy designs. My favourites were the designs that both met the brief and stayed on brand for the business. These included the cow jumping over the moon at a butchers, a saucepan rocket at a kitchenware shop and 'Little Shop of Horrors' at a florist.

Late, Spring Flowers

 Some flowers that I should posted a while ago.

Bluebells at Gamsey

These images were taken at Gamsey Wood, a couple of weeks ago, when the bluebells were just hitting their best.

 

Pasque Flowers

On Easter Monday, it seemed appropriate to photograph the Pasque flowers on Therfield Heath. There was a good display and the flowers were at their peak.The weather was also the best of the weekend, although I still had to contend with the traditional Therfield breeze.

 

 

Spring Monos

Recently, in my social feeds, I have been seeing a lot of high contrast monochrome images of plants and flowers. I wanted to give it a go, so I took a few shots at the Botanic Gardens and have been playing with them in Silver Efex.

Tate Britain - A Few More

A few things from Tate Britain that drew my eye. 

Tate Britain - The Forbidden Staircase

I was in London last weekend. With the prospect of yet another wet day, I headed to Tate Britain. While I do enjoy all the art on offer, what I have always loved about Tate Britain is the building itself. It has some beautiful spaces. This time I was taken by one of the staircases and spent some time taking abstract shots. Eventually I drew the attention of one of the security guards. Apparently I wasn't allowed to take photos of the stairs. It was okay to shoot all the art, but not the building. That required 'a pass'. When questioned, he was a little vague of the reason and detail for any of this. Luckily I had what I wanted, so went on my way. Although I might take a few more photos of these stairs. next time I'm in.