Pasque Flowers 2

I delayed the RPS Nature group outing from last Saturday with hurricane Kathleen threatened to yesterday when the forecast was for sun and light breeze at the time of choosing. It was actually overcast for much of the day and very breezy but still great to be up on the Heath with the Pasque flowers now out in their thousands (see final images). I decided on a bit of backlighting and concentrating on the various stages in the Pasque flower life from bud to seed head. We were lucky to have two insect models - an Angle Shades moth and a Small Bloody-nosed Beetle. The numbers of flowers is very impressive - probably rivalling 2013 (see here)

Pasque Flowers Beginning at Royston Heath

The Pasque flowers are just beginning to flower - a bit later than some years but will probably be best around Easter as their name suggests. They are very short so quite a challenge to photograph plus a stiff breeze today. Most are Focus stacks using Fuji X100V and Raynox 250 close-up lens. I find this a very useful high quality combination for flower photography. We found one very small bee - a Lasioglossum species

Pasque Flowers 5: Bluebells 10

Barry joined me on my annual pilgrimage to Therfield Heath for the Pasque flowers and Gamlingay Woods for the Bluebells and other Spring flowers. There is a reasonable display of Pasque flowers this year with some already over and some still to come out - the snails are munching their way through quite a lot of them. The Bluebells and Oxlips are at their best at the moment and a very good year. 

Pasque Flowers Out for Easter

 A perfect way to spend Easter Sunday lying on a hillside covered in Pasque flowers. A pretty good display though some have got a bit battered by recent winds. There are still plenty more to come into bloom but I don't think the display will be quite as good as 2013 when they were nearly a month later and there were estimated to be 10,000 flowers on the hill - see blog entry

Pasque Flowers Revisited

 I decided to have one more go at the Pasque flowers at Royston as I didn't get quite what I wanted the first time and because this appears to be the best flowering anyone can remember on the heath. The first general view (24mm) shows that many of them have now got quite long stems. Many are going to seed but there are still some groups. I then got in close (100mm macro) to a lovely group of four blooms and shot at f32, f18 and f2.8 - I think I probably prefer the middle setting where the flowers and particularly the hairy stems are in focus.The wide open aperture gives a great pictorial image especially as I have moved round slightly to get a better separation of the blooms and have some side lighting here. The next image of a different foursome uses the 50 mm macro (f22) giving more detail in the background and the last a distant shot with the 100 mm to show just what the hillside looks like.