Framedlight

I am interrupting the Chicago blogs to bring news of bluebells, while they are still in bloom. Last week I went on a work shop with Valda Bailey and Terry Gibbons based in a wood where there were a mass of bluebells. Unlike the woods around her it was quite tidy which made for less distractions. The morning entailed a 5.00am meet up so I stayed overnight at a B&B in Pewsey in order to lessen the shock. We photographed until around 9.00am and then went back to Marlborough where we had breakfast and spent a few hours developing and printing our pictures with the help of Valda and Terry, and also Toby from Fotospeed (feel a bit of a traitor here as I have always been a Permajet girl). The sun came up with a lovely warm glow and there was even a little mist coming through the trees. Here are some of the finished images, with some ICM and multiple exposure ones at the end.

Seeing a lovely bluebell wood picture from Jane Goodall, I was anxious to know where exactly the wood was. A quick bit of googling showed it to be only about a quarter of an hour from my door, so we went there on a late Sunday afternoon and took a few pictures. The sun was filtering through the fresh beech leaves and the wood was a calm tidy place, giving space for the blankets of blue bells, now reaching the end of their flowering. A few more abstract images follow the main bluebell ones. Afterwards we went down to the tiny church at Strethall, which lies off the beaten track, in a farmyard. Here we saw a rather interesting grave.

I thought I should publish some flower pictures before spring has run her course. Here they are followed by some bluebells from our local, rather untidy wood. I have finished the series with some sundown pictures from my local dog walk. The last four pictures are multiple exposures as is the third amelanchier one.

Early in May we went down to Surrey for the weekend as Alan was riding in a cycle event based near Dorking. We stopped at a large campsite, Henfold Lakes and were pleased to find that the woods behind the campsite were full of bluebells. And really blue bluebells, more intense than the more purple ones  seen near home. The Saturday afternoon we walked in the woods and as the sun was going down I went to an area by the campsite entrance that was full of wild garlic, very beautiful.