The Little Wood On The Walk

During any normal spring, I would be spening many hours in the local (or not so local) woods, photographing the spring flowers.  It is probably the thing I miss most during lockdown.  Luckily, my explorations of the fields behind my house led me to find a small patch of woods with a good covering of bluebells and greater stitchwort.  Unlike the woods I normally visit, it is completely unmanaged, meaning lots of undergrowth and no paths.  But I was able access parts of it and take a few handheld images.

 

 

Daily Walk In Infrared

For my daily exercise, I have mainly been roaming the permissive farm tracks that cross the fields a short walk behind my house.  On a lovely sunny day during Easter, I took my IR camera on one of these walks.

 

 

 

Lockdown Projects - Flowers After Pep Ventosa

Spring is my favourite season.  Any normal year, with good weather and the spring flowers in bloom, I would happily spend many long hours in the woods.  Sadly this isn't a normal year.  The great lock-down means the best I can do is bring a few flowers to me.  Fortunately, the over exuberant officers of Cambridgeshire police have yet to get as far as deciding what is non-essential in St Neots Tesco.  So, I've been able to pick up some on my socially distanced shopping trips.  I also have a lovely deep window in the living room that is very handy for tabletop photography.  

Rather than some straight and boring flower portraits, I decided to try to make some images in the style of Pep Ventosa.  For anyone not aware of him, Pep Ventosa is a Spanish photographer who has developed a technique that involves taking multiple pictures of the same image from slightly different angles.  All of the individual shots are then blended together.  The final result is a very impressionist image.  It's a technique I have seen used to great effect by other CCC members.  I have had a couple of attempts whilst out and about without great success.  The ideal subject is something that can be photographed from a full 360 degrees.  This is very easy is achieve when shooting in a home studio.  Set up the camera on a tripod, frame your subject with space either side and then rotate the subject a small amount between each shot.  For a first serious attempt I am quite pleased with results.

Cherry Blossom and Magnolia

These shots were all taken on one afternoon, not far from home, whilst out on my government sanctioned daily exercise.  It was too sunny a day for flower photography, but the blossom looked too good to ignore.  Magnolias are a particular favourite of mine.  I love their bold size and delicate colour, and above all their transience.  More than any other spring flower, Magnolia blossom has a very brief window at it's best, before the wind takes it away.