Holidays, bluebells and garlic, oh my!
Well, I am fast approaching the end of my first week of a well deserved two week break from my day job and I actually think I have worked harder this week! It is the peak of the bluebell and wild garlic season here in the South of England and I think myself and my good mate Dave have been to at least five different woods already this week! Its been a creative learning curve for me this week as well because for some reason the mist and fog have just not shown up around here this year so its been much harder without the “cheat code” that is fog to get the strong compositions. I have relied instead on early morning light or softbox type flat light and worked hard on my compositions this week to get some images i am happy with.
Our first visit was to a secret little wood that Dave had scouted a few months previously. The forecast on Sunday had promised fog here but as usual the forecast got it wrong and we had none all day. Fortunately, the carpets of bluebells guarded over by some stunning oaks and a lack of sky in the background made it relatively easy to get some nice images from here. The oaks in particular this year seem really colourful with their leaves, almost autumnal with stong hints of yellow and orange among the more typical lime greens. It made for some fantastic colour wheel matchups with the vibrant blues of the woodland floor complementing the orangey yellows of the canopies above. Below is an example of this
Classic colour wheel combo of colour here.
We met up with a couple of photographers for this trip. Shout outs to Phil and Ryan, both top drawer photographers and really nice chaps to boot. Now, I do worry sometimes that when we meet other photographers mine and Daves innuendo kind of humour will put them off. I am trying to keep the innuendo down but I find it hard….so hard. Anyways Ryan and Phil quickly “got” us and all was good!
The following day we decided to head to Micheldever woods. Now I went there last year and messed up big time as we had ace conditions but literally every composition I got looked exactly the same! Its a very uniform looking Beech wood but some differing angles would have meant I could have shared more than just the single image from there! This year I intended to work it a lot smarter and vary my compositions more. However, once again the mist that was forecast abandoned us and we only had a reasonable sunrise that created good light for about ten minutes to work the scenes. I must admit I am quite happy with what I got but the woods themselves looked in really poor condition this year compared to last. The carpets of bluebells were very patchy and a lot of management had gone on during the winter leaving the place looking quite scrappy overall. Hopefully it will return to its former glory in a year or two! I did do a search online when I got home though to check if my particular deodorant had some kind of anti fog property to it.
A nice sunstar and slanting lines of light was the best I could get on the day!
After this we headed off to another wood in Dorset that had some nice bluebells last year but again, upon arrival found a very different looking wood, with lots of trees down, forestry work done and an influx of wild garlic that wasnt quite at peak here. I wandered around for about 45 minutes but in the end left disappointed. What was going on?
I had a day off Tuesday to edit up the images from the first two days but we were back out again on Wednesday with promise of fog that once again vanished into the ether! I must try to sacrifice more goats on the alter of the fog god this week! A fruitless visit to the wood we visited on Sunday yielded no better conditions than we had on the Sunday so, after a brief meetup with Phil and his mate Tony, myself and Dave decided to try RSPB Garston wood. This should have been a simple drive over but Dave was running low on fuel when we headed off. We figured we had enough to get to Blandford to get more but upon arrival they were out of Diesel! Thanks Tescos! A slightly panicking Dave nervously waited while I used Google to find the next nearest station and we headed off at a very leisurely pace in the opposite direction to where we wanted to be. Dave lifting and coasting his way to the station and luckily they had plenty of fuel so disaster was averted. On the way back to our destination though we passed a van who had obviously had the same issue and was now limping along at a few miles an hour trying to eak out their fuel to the station! I hope they got there.
Garston alos turned out to be a bust. There was garlic in abundance but once again a lot of work had been done over the winter and the wood looked incredibly messy and cluttered. We had a walk around, met a nice dog and were threatened by an irate weasel (feisty little things!). But trudged back to the car empty handed and disappointed once again.
Dave had a brain wave though and remembered a wood he had visited about a year ago where there had been some really nice carpets of garlic but it had gone past its best. We decided as a last ditch effort to head there. On the way Dave assured me it was a simple little wood to get into……….he lied!
Now at this point I must explain I am not your typical looking landscape photographer. Most of the ladies and gents I see out are like gazelles. Slim athletic folk who can leap over a style in a single bound and traverse a gate like a high jumper. Me……I am more like a shot putter. Big……realllllly big! I am 6ft 4in tall and weigh northwards of 145kg and also have a knee that rightfully belongs to a ninety year old. I am in fact a plodder. BUT, I do get around okay most of the time….unless its my nemesis…..hills. Now its not so much the muscles that let me down but the lungs. I used to be an incredibly fit young man right through my teenage years and up into my early thirties but bad habits and a general slowing down mean I no longer retain those levels of fitness I once had. My lungs are very used to supplying oxygen to a fifteen stone man but not a twenty something stone one! So I quickly start to struggle on an uphill section of any kind. Yes, I need to lose weight. Yes I enjoy my food way too much. But I can still do it! It just takes me a little….longer lol.
Anyways after moaning and groaning and huffing and puffing my way up the hill into the woods we were greeted by some really stunning wild garlic woodland and all my troubles faded away like my lactins as I went about finding the compositions. Below is my favourite from this session.
I had a day off yesterday, couch potatoing for the entire day and snoozing which I like to do now and again (probably doesnt help with the above state of health). And today I have been pootling around the house doing some little jobs. The weather has not been the best but Dave did go out yesterday and found some fog at last in our secret bluebell wood and seemed very chipper when he spoke to me about it last night. I am pleased for him!
Tomorrow (Saturday) I am headed to Savernake on the promise of mist and potential light rays. It could just be the best session ever and I think thats partly why we love this hobby, the anticipation of great conditions. Keep it all crossed for me please folks and as ever, many thanks for reading!