Bluebells and Yellow Fields

Waresley wood was very busy this morning for our CCC Wednesday Workshop outing and, once we got parked and in the woods, we could see why:- the Bluebells are extra good this year. Fewer Oxlips, wood anemones or orchids but the smell and sight of the Bluebells made up for this. The blue of the flowers is so dependent on the light conditions - cyan out of the sun and almost purple in the sun. Not so keen on the smell of the Rape which is turning lots of fields yellow.

 

Harwick Wood Spring

With recent colder spell, there is a great variety of Spring flowers in and around Hardwick Wood at the moment with the Garlic and Bluebells just coming out but Oxlips and Wood Anemones still in bloom. I was accompanied in the Wood by various birds.

A Good Year for Bluebells

The Bluebells in the Cambridgeshire/Bedfordshire woods are very impressive this year. Here a few from recent visits - mostly taken with the Olympus legacy 50mm 1.8mm lens so manual focus only. I varied the aperture in some shots and really like the softness of focus and colour that this lens produces.. The last image is with a modern Fuji 80mm macro - the glass results in much more contrast and saturated colours.

Early Purple Orchids

A wonderful display of Early Purple Orchids in our local woods at the moment. A very difficult species to do justice to with its supersaturated colour and always ' messy' surroundings, especially as I prefer to have the flowers with enough detail in the background to show habitat. A very variable species in its colour and petal shape etc.

Hardwick Wood and Caldecote Church

 Our Cambridge Camera Club (and RPS Nature Group) outing was to have been to Waresley Wood but this was closed until the day so we relocated to Hardwick Wood, which in many ways is a better venue. It is certainly at its best and has the finest displays of  spring flowers for several years with all the species out together. Paul and I visited Caldecote Church meadow at the end for the Fritillarias and also a couple of bees. I was using mixture of focus stacking with the X100v and single shots with the 80mm macro. The bees are with the X100V (23mm). The third shot is with a legacy Olympus lens - I love the softness of this but found it too difficult to manually focus in the bright and contrasty light.  Last shot shows some of the group in situ!!