Signs of spring

 I love spring, with its ever changing weather throwing snowstorms, rain showers and increasing sunshine, combining to give us rainbows, it seems unpredictable but we know that it heralds the promise of things to come. With frogs starting mating in our ponds, birds displaying comical courtship behaviour and other wildlife coming out of hibernation. The arrival of Hellebores, Snowdrops, Crocuses, Daffodils, Dwarf Irises certainly brighten up February and March for me and give me plenty to keep myself occupied whilst waiting for spring blossoms.

 This year I have discovered a new favourite Crocus -"Firefly" with its fresh colours, a sunny yellow centre and delicate pale lilac and white petals. Who could not be delighted with these?

Whilst its been less than favourable conditions outside for photographing plants in the garden ( too windy) I am taking advantage of our mini studio in the dining room and trying out the new backdrops Ive made, so spoilt for choice with the combinations between plants and backgrounds. This has resulted in experimenting with colour palettes and making some surprising discoveries on what works. 

The image below incorporated 5 of my textures/backdrop images.

Our outhouse has become a great holding zone for plants that are not quite ready to be planted out, or flowers that I am trying to make last longer in a cool room so that I can eek out as much use of them as possible. It looks like a cross between a florists and a garden centre with 3 types of Tulips, Crocus, Snowdrops, Primula, Hellebores, Lilies and more.

 So I am starting out with close ups and aim to include a few still life creations as I go. Below is a Dwarf Iris photographed against one of my new out of focus backdrops.

I actually had my 2nd trip out to a local nature reserve a few days ago, just a couple of miles away from home, so took the camera along too. Unfortunately my mobility scooter decided to choose that day to stop working, so we were not there as long as I hoped. I did capture some spring Catkins though and opted for creating  interesting bokeh with Catkin silhouettes in the sunshine. I think these work nicely in black and white too.

Another subject caught my eye as we passed Bullrushes with their brown velvety heads split, dispersing their seeds in the wind, set against a backdrop of sparkling waters. This gave further options for producing eye catching bokeh. I actually photographed these in black and white for the forms and shapes, but I think they work well in colour too.

 

 I recently watched a very informative webinar by Guy Edwards on fungi photography, where he explained how to achieve the silhouette shapes within bokeh - something I dabbled with last year and have attempted again, more successfully in the last week or two. This was the perfect opportunity to try the technique, you can see it in the above Catkins images and some of the images below.

 I had a brief play in the garden with the bokeh technique too, it is easier to make it work in larger outdoor spaces with bokeh through vegetation and trees though. So far it seems to work better with a longer macro lens than a shorter one, I think the blur from the item causing the silhouette is too pronounced in a shorter lens, it becomes less obvious using my 150mm. I am keen to try a longer lens to see the results. You can see from  the Grape hyacinth image below how the snowdrop used has caused quite a distracting pale blur. The bokeh was from nearby vegetation sprayed with water, hence smaller bokeh, in a larger open space where the bokeh can be further away it becomes larger, making it a bit easier.

This one is a Snakes head Fritillary using fern for the bokeh. I stuck with F2.8 for the bokeh which wasn't ideal for getting the flower fully in focus, but it was just an experiment  and there were limited options space wise and where the sun hits the garden. Definitely something I will practice more of.

Below I used my Meye Gorlitz Primoplan vintage lens plus an app on my camera which produces rays of light. With a little editing. I have added a selection of other images I have taken in the last couple of weeks.