Beautiful butterflies

With the weather warming up and the days getting longer, now is a great time to take a stroll down to your local woods to try and capture images of the many butterflies that are on the wing. There are many different species, all flying at different times of the year, so a little guide book will help you with their identification and the best places to look for them. Best times to photograph are first thing in the morning or later on in the evening when it's a bit cooler and the butterflies are less active and likely to be resting. Try and get in close and use a tripod if you can, this will help in capturing sharp images and the subject will fill a large part of the frame. Wider shots, taking in the immediate surroundings of the subject can also work really well, and shooting towards the sun can give glorious results, as the light provides a halo effect around the insects wings.     

Common Blue

A glorious male Common Blue butterfly at rest. Getting in close and using a macro lens and tripod helped me isolate the subject from the cluttered background. It was vital that the butterfly was parallel to the camera's sensor to ensure a pin sharp image. The slightest breeze would have ruined the shot so patience is key. I find that a cable release is also an essential piece of kit.

Marsh Fritillary

This beautiful Marsh Fritillary was at rest on a long piece of grass. It's quite difficult to believe that the subject was surrounded by a great deal of clutter, bits of grass sticking up everywhere. A macro lens can help isolate a subject and allow you to capture a really striking image. It just needs a bit of patience and lightness of movement getting yourself and your gear in to position, otherwise you risk scaring the subject. Shots like the two above are great images to have in your portfolio as identification guides and magazines are always on the lookout for pictures like these. 

Meadow brown

This shot of a Meadow Brown beautifully backlit by the sun was taken hand held. As I was a bit further away from the subject, capturing a pin sharp image was much easier, depth of field being less of a problem. Unlike the other two photographs, the grasses in this image help enhance the subject, showing the butterfly off in it's natural environment. It has been used in magazines across double page spreads and has been a good seller for me.    

All images Nikon D200 with Nikkor 105mm F2.8 macro lens.   

Woodhall Spa 40's festival 2015

Just a quick post from me today. Last year I wandered down to the 40's festival, in my home town of Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire. I had a great time photographing the many characters and activities that could be seen throughout the weekend. I did a couple of blog posts on my time at the festival, which you can view here. Hopefully, they will give you a flavour of this fabulous event.

http://brettgardnerphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/woodhall-spa-40s-festival.html
http://brettgardnerphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/canon-av-1.html

You may also be interested in the official website for the festival, which can be found by clicking the link below.

http://woodhall-spa-40s-festival.com/

This time I went down with the intention of just soaking up the atmosphere, and not really bothering with taking many photographs. However, as always, I did keep a camera by my side, 'just in case', and I'm rather pleased that I did, as I took two images that I quite like.

The first is of a typical woodland scene from the event, where many re-enactors camp out in the woods for the weekend, dressed in full military costume. I love stumbling across such scenes like this, and try and take candid images where possible. The Fuji X-T1 is excellent in such situations, as you can adjust the exposure 'to taste', using the incredible EVF. The camera was coupled with my Fujinon 35mm F1.4, a cracking, sharp lens. 

Home Guard

The second image was taken on Sunday, when we were treated to a magnificent display from three of the BBMF's  fighter aircraft. Two Hurricanes and one Spitfire entertained the large crowd, which had been completely brought to a halt by the plane's low level antics. I had my trusty, old, Nikon D200 coupled with my Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8, and managed to fire off a couple of images as one of the Hurricanes banked in for another low pass. I would have preferred slightly more prop blur, but for a grab shot, I'm pretty pleased. I particularly love the way the light catches the Hurricane's right side. As I moved the camera up to my eye, I dialed in +1 stop of exposure compensation, otherwise the image would have been horribly underexposed, and the plane silhouetted. 

Hawker Hurricane PZ865 (MK IIc), 'The Last of the Many', from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight

The two day festival is a great day out for all the family, with much to see and do. Why not pop along next July, (dates to be confirmed) I'm sure it will be another fabulous event.

Male Adder closeup!

Male Adder

A beautiful male adder came to check out the front of my camera, and I was lucky enough to quickly capture this image. I adore snakes, my dream job growing up was to become a herpetologist. But photographing them is the next best thing!

Pretty Panache

These images are taken from a photo shoot a while back, for bridal company 'Pretty Panache' who are based in Lincoln, U.K. The brief was to capture detail shots of the wedding dresses, veils and accessories. It was a great day's shoot, and one which proved to be very successful, both for me and my shooting partner Julian, as well as "Pretty Panache", who continue to use our images for publicity and marketing, to this day.  

It was a lovely, warm summer's day, but this in itself, caused a few problems. The light was very harsh, causing dark shadows and tending to give unflattering results. We decided to move the models into the shade, and using a reflector, bounce light back towards them. The ambient light in the shade was far more even, and gave a beautiful, softer look to both models. The angled reflector 'lifted' the light and provided gorgeous catchlights to the models eyes, which is most apparent in the first image below.     

Woodhall Spa 40's Festival

Now in its third year, the Woodhall Spa 40's Festival appears to be going from strength to strength. Celebrating the rich history that the village shares with the Second World War, for one weekend in July, Woodhall is transformed back to a dark and turbulent, yet romantic time, some seventy years ago. 

This was the first time I had managed to attend the event, missing the first two years due to work commitments. Not really knowing what to expect, I was pretty much blown away by the amount of effort that had gone into organising the weekend, and the sheer amount of people that had made the effort to get into the spirit of things, and dress up in period costume. The crowds across the two days were simply unbelievable, I don't think I've seen the village so busy. Moving to Woodhall Spa when I was eight years old in early 1979, I have grown up loving the place. Mucking around in the woods as a kid, using false I.D. to get into my first drinking establishments, ( I won't mention which ones ), and learning to drive on the many country lanes around the Spa, it really has been a big part of my life. But I have to say, I don't think I've been quite so proud of the village as I was this past weekend.

From soldiers camping in the woods near Jubilee Park, smoke from their stoves gently wafting skywards towards the leafy canopy above as they made another brew, to people on the pavement in the heart of the village, spontaneously breaking into dance as one of many singers belted out another 40's classic, there was quite literally, so much to see and do. One of my personal  favourite things I kept seeing over and over again, and one I just didn't get bored of, was the site of an American army jeep cruising up and down the Broadway, soldiers hanging from any and every imaginable part, gun in hand, chewing gum. Just as I had imagined it would've been all those years ago during the war. 

There were flypasts by the many planes of the Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight. Lancaster, Spitfire and Dakota were all present, as too was my own personal favourite, the Hurricane. There was a fantastic simulation of an air raid, which was organised with the help of the Golf Hotel. Using smoke canisters to simulate a real fire, three old fire engines quickly arrived, and the many spectators were treated to a reenactment by the fire brigade as to how they would have dealt with a blaze during the war. Once the fire had finally been extinguished, who else but Winston Churchill arrived in a lovely old, blood red Bentley, escorted by four army motorcyclist outriders. After thanking the fire crew for their hard work, he proceeded to give a rousing speech to the onlookers, which went down a storm. It really was a crazy 30 or so minutes, and considering I hadn't got a clue what was about to unfold, it made for an even more enjoyable and immersive experience. This was the sort of attention to detail that really made the weekend the special event that it was, and one I can't wait to visit again next year... Heck, I might even dress up.

Roll on 18-19th July 2015

Proper American jeep, proper gun.

Vintage Austin and ration book

Almost timeless. In many ways Woodhall Spa hasn't changed that much...  for the better, in my opinion

Shiny old car and tiny caravan

Road closed

Boot closeup. Look a bit like Redwing Iron Rangers

Dancing in the park

Forties dancing at the Golf hotel

The Yanks take over Woodhall

The Americans move in with their heavy machinery, while Churchill watches on

General Patton even made an appearance

Camp in the woods

American Army truck in the woods

Here come the cavalry, crowds are massive

Balcony on fire

Preparing the fire engines

Up high

Cleaning up

Fire, smoke and water

Waiting

An important guest

One of Churchill's army outrider motorcyclists

Winston arrives

Two of the injured guests from the Golf Hotel raid 

Young nurse

The fire brigade salute Churchill

A Winston Churchill or Timothy Spall lookalike delivers a rousing speech

How rude... Not really. Churchill's V for Victory sign 

Doing the 'penguin'

Strictly come dancing, Forties style

Monty returns, after a quick detour to the cash and carry

Laughing at Monty's hairy legs, no doubt 

Boot detail, again

Shopping, Forties style

Many jeeps along the Broadway

Taking the 'no access except for residents' to a completely new level

        

Lone Wolf

I haven't photographed much in the way of nature and wildlife for a few years, working more recently on Weddings and now Landscape images. I really enjoyed it though, photographing in and around the Nature Reserves of Lincolnshire. I concentrated on butterflies and dragonflies in the main, utilising the rather superb Nikkor 105mm F2.8 macro lens mounted to my Nikon D200. Occasionaly I would venture further afield, sometimes to a zoo or wildlife park and this image of a Grey/Gray wolf was taken at one such park in Aviemore, Scotland, in the heart of the beautiful and rugged Cairngorms Mountain range. The enclosure is one of the biggest in Europe and it afforded some very impressive views of these majestic creatures. I always try and capture as natural an image as I possibly can, avoiding fences and wires wherever possible. I had watched the wolves for about 30 minutes and noticed that occasionally they would stop and stand on a small hillock, staring down towards the viewing enclosure where I was set up, Nikon D200 with Sigma 120-300m F2.8 all ready and attached to a sturdy Manfrotto tripod. It was cold, snow had been falling throughout the morning and I was getting a bit fidgety, standing still in the rather exposed and blowy vantage point. Finally a wolf willingly obliged and stood in the perfect position, staring down towards me, a backdrop of tangled branches and snow. I just had time to fire off a couple of shots before he decided he had had enough and trotted off.

The image has been quite successful for me, selling amongst others to a National newspaper and art poster site. It's one of those iconic pictures you quite often see of a lone wolf, a rather haunting depiction of such a beautiful animal, and one we need to protect at all costs.

Beautiful Lone Wolf

Colour Impact

Another post on flower photography, again shot in a simple small studio setup. This was one of my first attempts shooting indoors under 'controlled' conditions. This time I used a Gerbera flower on a white background. I was drawn to this particular subject because of its bold colours and beautiful symmetry. Again, natural light was used coming from a window to the left of the flower as we look at it, and a small reflector was used to the right of the flower to fill any harsh shadows. A white background was employed as I felt this suited the subject and showed off its colours to best effect. This image has been quite successful for me, winning a distinction in a national competition, printed in a national publication, and also selling on craft sites. It's amazing what you can achieve with a bit of space, a few camera accessories, a bit of imagination and of course a beautiful subject... Go on, give it a go.

Nikon D200 with Nikkor 105mm F2.8, tripod and cable release.