A good streak of favourable weather allowed me four opportunites at this scene. On the fourth morning, the light behaved as I needed it to.

I was incredibly pleased with the result and it kind of took the pressure off. One of the reasons that I am so interested in this composition is because it forms the backbone of a larger project that I have been working on for a few years. It was nice to have had the opportunity with the weather as the leaves turn so quickly. A few days after this image was taken, they would have dulled significantly in colour as the chlorophyll took hold. It was, by now, late March and the bluebells were now coming into their own. As wonderful as they are, I find that they are very difficult to photograph. Not being a macro photographer, I have personally settled on a strategy of treating the bluebells as a seasonal indicator as opposed to the main subject in an image. Moving forward, I had another image in mind that I had found during one of the many walks over the past few weeks. I spent a little bit of time here as well but I was not as fortunate with the weather. It is a complicated scene with many trees in the background and it will only really work if there was mist to simplify it by hiding all of these distracting elements. The shape of the trees in the area that I was interested in were incredible and the carpet of bluebells would look amazing if it materialised. As much as I prayed for the elements to come together this Spring, the deities were not going to give this scene up so easily and I will have to wait another year at least.

I tried to capture this scene with the bluebells in bloom. Without the mist though it just did not work.

The initial colour came and went and soon the woodlands were starting to take on a fresher feel as they transitioned into summer. The Spring storms started passing though and the opportunities became scarcer. The wild garlic was in bloom and I had a few attempts but a bit like bluebells, I find it a difficult subject to master. I suppose the reason is down to the colour effectively being a simple combination of white and green, it’s aesthetic appeal is nowhere near as strong as it’s aromatic fragrance. I ventured away from the woodlands for a bit and started engaging in some walking. The meadow fields were starting to colour up and the countryside in general had that tangible freshness too it. One of these walks resulted in the most bizarre day on the Herefordshire beacon (Malvern Hills) that I have had in a long while. I took a chance and left the house reluctantly as the weather was miserable. A northerly wind was bringing with it a chilling breeze and rain. The forecast was for it to break up though so you never know! Multiple layers and full waterproofs were needed as I headed up the short climb to the top. After a close encounter with a pair of Roe deer on the Beacon itself, being pelted with hail stones and then being buzzed by two low flying fighter jets, I found myself within what felt like touching distance of a rain cloud as the sun broke through. The light was incredible and it is one of those moments that you can not script. It did not last long but to bare witness to multiple rainbows and the clearest “Alexander’s dark band” I have ever seen was pretty special. These are the moments that reset your motivation count to 1000 and give you the impetus to keep venturing out.

A completely unscripted moment as a storm cloud passes by within touching distance of my location.

I revisited the woodlands once again, this time focussing my energies on different locations. The initial colour had now gone and we were really into the tertiary phase of spring. This is where the oak and beech start to blossom, the ferns start to fully establish themselves and although it is green, the volume of growth is not quite in effect. This allows for some nice back light images.

The final stages of Spring. The foliage is starting to establish but it doesn’t have the volume to block out the early morning light allowing for some pleasant opportunities.

I persevered with the 4am starts for as long as I could and for as long as the weather forecast was favourable. We would soon be heading into summer and June which is traditionally a time when I put the camera away and focus on the behind the scenes work. I am going to migrate the website to a different platform. There are articles to write, products to design and a lot of printing to achieve ready for the the picture framers.

One of my final spring images. 4am starts and increasing difficulty finding favourable conditions meant that the season would soon be coming to an end.

The spring itself was fruitful. My plans for the summer are modest. I wish to capture some images of the heather, especially on the Malvern hills and I would also like to spend time on some of the lowland fields walking. I hope to conclude one of my long term projects this year so the summer time will be prepping myself for the next one. Enjoy your photography and I will see you all again soon.

Mark.

Spring 2024

As a photographer, the major benefit of spring above all of the other seasons, is that it affords me the opportunity to produce globally interesting work in a local environment. To photograph the mountains and the seaside, I need to obviously be in the mountains or by the seaside. Spring, with it’s atmospheric mornings and colourful palette can be found on my doorstep. Woodlands and grasslands with their displays of flaura and coupled with the acer greens of early spring provide me with all of the elements for meaningful work.

A still morning in a local woodland.

My preparations for Spring always start early. There is nothing complicated about it as It mostly involves just walking and looking. I am interested primarily in monitoring how areas have changed over the past year and wether that has had a positive or negative impact. It is just as important for me to discount places as it is to find promising locations. The peak of spring occurs during a very small window and I do not wish to be spending that time in locations that do not work. Examples of areas that I have discounted locally this year would be both Tiddesley wood and Trench wood. There is a lot of work happening in Tiddesley wood. The woodland trust there do an amazing job there and maintain it to a high standard. The woodland itself is home to a few roe deer and as the trust have been busy clearing away parts of the woodland, they have had to cordon off another part of it to give the wildlife some sanctuary. This included the area that I would normally consider working on. Trench Wood has also had work doing to it but in stark contrast, this has been left looking like a battlefield with all of the felled trees left cluttering the environment and massive tank tracks through the area. (It is worth noting that Trench wood for the most part is privately owned). I am sure that it will regenerate over time but not this year.

Early spring exploration is an important part of my work. The green shoots in this image are the bluebells starting to flower. Taken on the 06/03/24, it was obvious to me at this point that the peak was going to be earlier then normal.

As luck would have it, the first real hint of spring colour coincided with some wonderfully still mornings. My initial plan was to work on a composition that I had first captured two years previous. The image I had captured back then in itself was pleasing but I felt that it was missing some ambient light. The scene relies heavily on the really early colour in the birch which develops much earlier in this scene than it’s surrounding brethren. I set my target to capture one image of real quality this spring and this modest target meant that I was happy to return to this same spot every morning. The recapture of original composition was non starter due to the growth of an adjacent tree encroaching heavily into the scene. This meant a slight adjustment but I do not feel that it was too detrimental. It took me four consecutive mornings before I managed to capture what it was that I was looking for. The Sky on this occasion was clear so the ambient light was at it’s best as it allowed the the first direct rays of sunshine to sweep into the back of the scene. Moments later those rays would hit the foreground and the image was gone for another day at least.