Isabella Plantation

Last weekend I was in London for my birthday.  The weather was not kind and most of my photographic plans were abandoned.  However, for a couple of hours on Saturday evening the sun broke through.  I headed to the Isabella Plantation, an enclosed woodland garden in Richmond Park.  The plantation is filled with Rhododendrons and Camellias, many of which were at their best.  The light was lovely, but I only had a short time available to me.  There was certainly no time to bother with a tripod and there was just enough breeze to make image stacking a waste of time.  So all the images are hand-held single shots at fairly wide aperture. 

Cambridge Evening Outing

Last Wednesday I joined a few other CCC members for an evening outing in Cambridge.  May continued to offer it's mixed bag of weather.  Mainly leaden skies, with some occasions breaks of good light, and only one brief shower.  The Wisteria on the wall of Sydney-Sussex was at its best, but sadly the light wasn't.  On the Backs, there was a mixture of dandelions and bluebells, that made for a different shot of Kings.  I also liked this view of one the King's lampposts, it had a rather Narnia-like quality.  We finished the night with Clive posing in fedora and trench-coat outside Trinity.

 

 

Gamsey Wood

In recent years, all of my bluebell shots have either come from Waresley Wood or Brampton Wood.  This year a colleague told me about Gamsey Wood, near Ramsey. Like Waresley or Brampton, this is a BCN Wildlife Trust wood, but a rarely visited one.  Probably because it is tucked away behind a farm, with no obvious parking  I was there all of a Sunday morning and didn't see another person.  The wood itself is small, with one main looping path.  There was a good showing of bluebells, without too much clutter getting in the way, but it lacks the variety of other spring flowers that can found in some of the local woods.  

I tried a few focus stacked close-ups.  Although not perfect, I am quite pleased with the single bell.  I didn't notice the spider on the second bluebell until I was reviewing the images at home.