Framedlight

The second day of our weekend in Surrey, Alan got up early and went to his cycle event. I took the van just down the road from where we were staying to Holmwood Common, an area of National Trust woodland near Dorking. I have found this website from the Woodland Trust very useful for locating woods near you  http://visitwoods.org.uk/en/visit-woods/Pages/get-involved.aspx#.VswCqsdrGOv After lunch I drove to the rather old and tired Herne Hill Velodrome, where the event was finishing . Unfortunately the traffic was terrible and I missed Alan doing his celebratory circuit of the stadium. The first two photos in this series are focus stacked images. When the sun got out I managed to get some quite nice effects with the sun filtering through the leaves.

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.

While we were in Lindfield Alan took part in a cycle race on the Sunday morning which took him about 4 hours. I wondered where I could go to take photographs while he was racing. It was quite hot and I thought I would like to keep away from tourists, so I took a walk along a footpath leading out from the farm which led through cool woods. The light was lovely drifting through the trees and it was quite windy at the field edge of the wood. Here are the results.

I promised more bluebells - and here they are, taken at the peak of their flowering in my local wood which was full of their gentle scent. I did take another set a week later, but by that time they were going over and I could not find a good composition without repeating myself. The last few are taken with ICM and multiple exposure.

I am behind in publishing blog posts so am a little out of time with the season. I have been to our local wood three times while the bluebells have been out this year and I have not seen them look so good before. A wet winter has agreed with them although the wood is still very scruffy after the storms. I promise you you will be sick of bluebells by the time I have finished, but here is the first set taken when they were just coming out.

We were to leave our comfy cottage in Rhyd Ddu a day earlier as the forecast was so bad for the Friday we thought we may as well travel home during the rain. On the Thursday our friends and old neighbours from Nannerch joined us and little photography was done but more eating substituted. As we motored home we stopped in a little wood at the side of the road near Beddgelert to take a few snaps - and that was it. So only three pictures, and one of these is a black and white conversion.

Furneux Pelham is a small village in Hertfordshire, around 20 minutes drive away from my house. My daughter discovered a nice circular walk there which starts by the church and goes through some beech woodland. We went back to give the dog some exercise and for me to again bag a few trees, travelling light with the Nikon D800e, 24-70mm f/2.8 lens and a tripod. The first picture has been subjected to some alterations using Nik Color Efex Pro foliage and glamour glow filters