In The Meadows At Lyveden

On Bank Holiday Monday, I went to Lyveden, a National Trust property near Oundle.  As well as the ruined house, the grounds include several hay meadows.  I visited last year toward the end of June, when the meadow flowers had largely gone over.  So this year, I was keen to visit earlier.  I was little too early to catch it at its best, but there was still plenty to occupy my time.

Whilst doing some flower portrait shots, I spotted a spider on an Ox-eye Daisy.  It turned out it was a female and there was a male was trying to mate with her.  I watched as the small male made several  attempts to get close to the bigger female without ending up as lunch.  Eventually he succeeded, before making a hasty exit.  It was fascinating to watch, but tricky to photograph, with the narrow depth of field available.

There was also a Red Kite wheeling above the ruined house.  Apparently one of a local breeding pair.  An increasingly common site in this area.

Buttercup Meadow - Paxton

At Paxton Pits, the small meadow, near the visitor centre, is currently covered in buttercups.  So I popped along on Sunday evening to take a few shots.  As well as all the buttercups, there was red clover and the last of the cow parsley, with plenty of damselflies flitting around.

 

Cow Parsley - close to home

Normally I have to travel a bit to get photos.  Sometimes I have to go a long way.  Rarely are there photo opportunities right outside my house.  There is a long tree covered bank behind my house, which screens off the busy A1.  Currently it is covered with Cow Parsley and looks beautiful.  The bank runs north-south, with the more open side facing east.  Thus, the best light is in the morning, and recently that light has been lovely.

Field Patterns

The flowing of the oilseed rape is now coming to an end.  Before it did I grabbed a few pattern shots, whilst out walking in fields near my house.

Waresley Wood

On bank holiday Monday, I spent a beautifully sunny morning at Waresley Wood.  Again, it was a lovely day to be out in the woods, but hard to photograph.  The bitterly cold March and early April delayed the spring flowers by a couple of weeks.  Then when they did finally come, it has been at a rush, and short lived.  At Waresly, where the bluebells were in full sun they were already starting to go over.  Elsewhere in the wood, the other understory plants were growing up around them.

 

 

 

Brampton Wood

The bank holiday weekend was bright and sunny.  Not the best weather for flower photography, but, as it was my only change to capture the peak of the spring flowers, I had to make do with the conditions I had.  Brampton Wood is my closest ancient woodland, and a favourite, so I started there.  The bright sun better suited the Greater Stitchwort than the Bluebells.  The central ride is also good for Lady's Smock.

Portrait Workshop

I recently took part in a one day portrait workshop organised by Clive and Trevor.  With the help of an excellent model named Bernadette, we spent the day going through a number of basic lighting set-ups.

We started with the simplest set-up.  No studio lighting, just the light from a window and and a reflector.

Next, we changed to a low-key lighting set-up.  First only using one studio light, then adding two more.

 From low-key, we changed to high-key, and experimented with coloured gels on the back lighting.

 Finally, as Bernadette is also a ballet dancer, we tried some dance images.