Bluebells

Spring is such a beautiful time of year, everything is bursting into life. Birds building their nests, blossom on the trees, and Spring flowers emerging from the ground. Probably the most iconic of our Spring flowers has to be the beautiful  and fragile Bluebell. Who can resist a walk along a winding path through a deciduous woodland on a warm Spring day, the leaves and branches scattering light across the floor, a shock of blue as far as the eye can see. It's a truly spectacular sight, and one that you never tire of. There are many images of such magnificent scenes but this year I thought I would try something a little different. I wanted to isolate an individual flower or two but still portray them as they are to be found, amongst the grass jostling for position along with the tens of thousands of others.

I shot using a Nikon D4, Nikkor 105mm F2.8 macro lens, tripod and cable release. I tried to isolate individual plants, which was quite tricky as they grow so close to each other, and I also wanted to show them as part of a much larger group whilst maintaining the focal point of an individual plant. The deep green of the grass worked well with the blue of the flower and it was interesting to see the way the light affected the blue, turning it a light purple colour at times whenever the sun caught it. It was also amazing to see just how many insects use the plants as their home. Many tiny spiders could be seen, their intricate webs sparkling in the low sun. There was a slight breeze and because I was shooting so close to the subject, an aperture of F11 or greater was needed to give me any kind of depth of field, resulting in a slow shutter speed at base ISO. The only answer was to boost the ISO to 800. No problem for the D4, images are clean at this sensitivity and it gave me peace of mind knowing that I would freeze any movement in the subject should it arise. 

Bluebells in the sun

The sun shines down on this one plant, the deep blue of the flower becoming a paler sky blue as it becomes almost transluscent. 

Bluebells and Cobwebs

The Bluebells in the background are lit up by the low setting sun, clearly showing the way the light affects the colour of the flowers. Threads of a spider's web glint in the low light of the main subject.

       

Delicate Bluebells

My favourite image from the set, taken a couple of days before the others, under a leaden sky. I love the slightly sombre feeling to the image, the deep bluey purple of the flowers contrasting nicely against the grass in which the plant grows.