It’s bluebell season – last year I took photos of bluebells at the end of April … and shared my topical post here and another one here – this year I knew I had to try again, to see what I remember from last year and to experiment more with different lens and because I just love the delicate nature of the flowers.
The morning I choose was overcast and there had been rain the day before – so the results included some lovely water drops on the flowers. I started off with my 100mm macro lens, shooting without a tripod, aiming to select one flower from the background.
I then had a helpful photobuddy, who whenever I got down low to create my shot was there in the way … this one was captured on my 100mm lens too, F5.6, 1/250sec, ISO100 but I have added a tilt shift blur in photoshop to remove the attention to his name tag and to add some bluebell bokeh!
I then changed lens, and decided to shoot manual. I knew I needed a shutter speed of 1/250 sec to hand hold, so then set the aperture so that I was ensure that all the flower was in focus and increased the ISO so that I was slightly over exposed … I had in mind a light woodland and a delicate flower.
It was really interesting to discover that event a tiny change in angle could really effect the outcome – here a small angle change, changed the background and meant that I had to increase the ISO as the amount of light the camera was getting was reduced. It really highlights how important the background and nailing the focusing is.
I revisited the macro lens to see if I could get similar results, but with a narrower F stop it was not a true representation, and although there is more detail on the flower when I have focused and you can even make out a cob web – it is the same bluebell as above, the shallow depth takes out the sense of place which I feel the flower needs.
Finally I tried the 3rd lens in my kit bag, and the wider angle enabled me to include more of the woodland – but although the zoom helps compress the background, there are not enough bluebells in flower to give an amazing blue glow, and the highlights in the sky draw your attention…. I need to find a busier woodland – this was Great Newbridge Copse which I visited last year, Roydon Woods this year sadly is closed off to visitors as they are maintaining the woodland near the bluebells.
Helen's Photo Challenge 
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