Coming to Life

The other day I shared a couple of shots of a bracken heart which I think looked quite lovely. Today I have selected another shot of some bracken coming into life but from a side on perspective.

I just love the way this plant develops from tight little green balls, coiled up, covered in fine tendrils, slowly unfurling one stage at a time until it produces lush green fronds giving ground cover and a haven for birds, insects and small mammals. Even from a static image I think there is a real sense of movement or at least potential to spring into motion at any moment.

I like the lighting in this shot too, moments before I had tried to capture an image but a cloud had passed in front of the sun and so the fern was in shadow but as the sun appeared from behind the cloud so this lovely curl became illuminated giving light, and depth to the image.

Fleshy Fungus

It is that time of year when a woodland walk will reveal lots of beautiful fungi and I can never resist capturing images of these wonderful organisms.

I will soon be heading to the New Forest for a few days and I am sure that I will be snapping a few more like this.

Open Hearted

Anyone who has seen my regular posts over the past few years will know that something I look for are nature's hearts. It can be pebbles, a cut tree trunk, even sea foam, but something that often produces beautiful natural hearts is emerging ferns.

I spotted this one yesterday and I really like how the heart in the foreground is opening up to reveal a smaller closed heart emerging in the background.

The settings for these two shots were slightly different and in the first shot the greens were not quite so fresh and vibrant so I used a black and white preset in Lightroom which I think works really well.  For those who prefer a more natural look the second image may be more up your street. 

Golden Fly

So today is my birthday and I went for a walk at Bickerton Hill in Cheshire. The day had started off wet and grey but by this afternoon it brightened up a little.

I had my bag of kit with me, unsure exactly what I would shoot but I spotted this fly and decided today would be a Macro day...

I got some nice shots of bugs and some early season fungi and I look forward to sorting through them and sharing them with you.

It is pretty much universally accepted that flies are ugly, dirty pests but when you take a closer look they often have some really interesting features. Take this one for instance the golden stripes on its face set it off. In the original shot (this is a low res image) the features are really sharp too so you can see the individual lenses that make up the compound eyes.

That's Just Dandy

Whenever I post pictures of Dandelions I ask myself the question "are these weeds of wildflowers?"  

Looking at these beautiful images the answer is clear, to me at least.

Bejewelled

At first glance as I walked through the meadow alongside Colemere the dew encrusted spiders webs were just a pretty white (very damp) blanket but as the sun rose above the treeline the early morning rays lit up the webs in a glorious display.

Misty Dawn

If I ever wonder why I go camping I look at scenes like these and it makes it all worth while, even getting up at 4.00am. What you don't get from looking at these images is the stunning soundtrack of the dawn chorus but believe me it was an absolutely wonderful experience.

It was a beautiful morning, hardly any breeze and a light mist rising off the surface of the mere. Although I paid for it later (I was so tired by the time I got home) it was so worth getting up for this and I felt privileged to be there.

Swimming In The Mist

These two shots of the same swan were taken firstly in the mist of a dusky evening and secondly in the golden light of the early morning sun on Colemere.

Swans are so elegant and beautiful and they always look their best in the soft light at either end of the day. I think the mist rising off the mere adds something extra to these images.

Man's Best Friend

Today I went to photograph a works event in Chester, it was fun and I got some good shots which I think my colleagues will be pleased to see.

While I was there I was asked whether I would take a commission to photograph the family;s three pet Labradors. It is not something I have done before but I said that I would give it a go, it seems like it could be quite a fun challenge.

As I was walking along the river bank I decided to practice by taking photos of some of the dogs out walking. I think they turned out quite well. 

Monochrome Twilight

I had gone looking for a series of ponds where I was told there would be some good opportunities for some wildlife shots. I had followed the sound of a large and very noisy flock of birds that I think were settling to roost for the night but the area was too overgrown for me to get access for any good photos. As the light was fading anyway I decided to head back to the campsite that was home for the night. 

Walking back along the track through the barley I was struck by the lines drawing my eye to the oak trees at the edge of the field directly ahead and I knew immediately it would make a great shot. Initially I thought that the soft light of evening would lend a warm glow to the image however the sun off to the right was just too low and the scene was a little too cool so I tried again in black and white and I feel this creates a much more atmospheric landscape.

Delicate

I think this is beautiful.

Bird's-eye Speedwell

These tiny little flowers could be easily overlooked, they really are tiny. The genus is Veronica but more commonly they are known as Speedwell.

When you do take a look they are beautiful, a striking blue with lovely striped petals.

And they're not just pretty to look at, they also have several uses. First off they are edible and taste rather like watercress. They can be used to make a "tea" for things like bronchial conditions and asthma or for the treatment of disorders of the nervous system, respiratory tract, cardiovascular system and metabolism.

Mediterranean Visitor

A couple more pictures from my walk yesterday testing out my gimbal head.

The first two shots are of a beautiful Mediterranean Gull that was flying about above my head. 

The third is another shot of the Gull-billed Tern (see yesterdays post for some more images of this wonderful visitor).

An Unexpected Visitor

I recently bought a gimbal head for my tripod, just a cheap one to test out the tech thinking that if I get on with it I can save up for a decent one in the future. 

I really wanted to get it to try and increase my chances of getting decent shots of birds in flight. Up to now I have had to use my big lens handheld for this and the results have been hit n miss so I was hoping this new head would be easy to use and make a difference.

I hoped there would be a fair selection of waders and other birds along the shore but unfortunately the tide was almost all the way out so the large flocks of birds were way out of range as they followed the tide feeding in the freshly uncovered silt. I could see some common gulls and some black-headed gulls so figured I would practice on them, I wasn't too bothered as I was really just there to test my new kit.

As I got to the bottom of the steps onto the beach I was greeted by a guy who was equipped with a bird watching scope. He started to tell me about a bird that was flying along the shore, I guess he assumed I was a fellow twitcher and was going to spot a celebrity visitor, he explained that it was a gull-billed tern and he suggested a good spot to look for it. 

I wondered why the guy was so excited about seeing it, but it appears that these birds normally breed in Southern Europe, Eastern Asia and the coast of North America and they winter further south in Africa, the Caribbean, northern South America , Southern Asia and New Zealand. Here along the Dee Estuary in the North West of England I guess it is quite a long way out of it's normal territory so I felt privileged to see it.

As you can see I managed to get a few good shots too, he was quite a way away but I think they turned out OK and the gimbal head seems to be doing its job.  I will try and get some more practice with it and look forward to sharing more pictures here...

Rustic Charm Renewed

This wonderful staircase is part of the hamlet in Marie Antoinette's domain at Versailles. A little hamlet created to give the Queen a taste of rural life without actually having to get close to poor people. It is quite beautiful but at the same time it is an obscene folly.

The last time that I had visited I photographed this staircase and it was quite fragile and close to collapse. So it was nice to see that it has been restored to its original condition.

In A Queens Garden

These shots of flowers are from Marie Antoinette's domain at Versailles. Aren't they pretty?

This could be a movie set...

This is the Chateau de Pierrefonds. I visited here for the first time way back in 19## when I was just 9 years old  on a visit with my penfriends' family. I was amazed with the magnificent building with its fairytale turrets and towers, cobbled courtyard and the wonderful staircase guarded by the statue of a knight on horseback.

It had such an impact on me as a child that when I took my own family on holiday top France I was keen to show them this magical place. 

I visited again just recently, stopping off for a brief visit to break the journey from Versailles to Calais on my way home. It gripped me just as much this time round as it did the first. I had to wait ages to get these last two shots without anyone in the shot, at one point there was a woman stood in the middle looking back at me, aware that I was waiting to take a picture and she just wouldn't move. In the end I started snapping away with her in the shot, she quickly moved...

I said it is a magical place and I said in the title to this post that this could be a movie set and in fact it was used as a set for the TV show Merlin. The producers of that show clearly were drawn to the spell of the chateau. I will share some more images in due course but for today, enjoy!