Although the lake was in a fairly urban location, I was struck by the fact there were still plenty of flowers around and, apart from the noise (and litter), it could have been almost anywhere.  I therefore wanted to take a photo that showed the flowers in the context of the busiest motorway junction in the country (urban flowers feature quite a lot in my 300 photos).  I took a few photos from the grassy bank, showing the poppies with the motorway behind, using both my wide angle lens and my compact camera to try and get them all in.  When asked to see some of the photos by the tutor his first comment was – look at your foreground – and he was right (see photo at the bottom of the page).  This is one of my continuing problems – I focus on the idea and getting the subject sharp that I rely on cropping to deal with anything else, but it does not make for a good photo.  Then, suddenly a lightbulb came on and I saw the photo in my head – use my 50mm lens, get down close to the poppies to make them the subject (rather than the poppies and the motorway) with the motorway just about recognisable in the background to give some context (there is even a truck whizzing by).  We were about to leave the area, so I had to run all the way round the lake, take the photo and run all the way back – and I managed to scrape the skin off my elbow in the process whilst trying to get in close to the poppies.

I am not sure whether this is the photo that he had in mind, or whether using the 50mm lens was the right thing to do (ISO200, 1/320mm, f/6.3), or whether the background should be sharper, but I think the photo was worth it and am quite pleased with the outcome as it was close to the image in my head and a vast improvement on the original concept.

The woods (Woodland Trust’s Everdon Stubbs) are full of bluebells and stitchwort, but this one flower stood out, probably because of the way that the sun was lighting it.

I have cropped the picture in so there are fewer distractions and think that the tall thin crop reflects the elegance of the flower.  I like the way the sun catches the petals, but also the simplicity that comes from just having green and white (plus a tiny hint of yellow) in the photo.

I had my macro lens back on (although only briefly) and the settings were 1/800 secs (on aperture priority) at f/5.0 (to blur the background) at ISO200.

A few weeks ago these were just in bud, the weather was gloomy and I had no chance of hand holding a camera attached to my macro lens.  Then the sun came out.  I like the shape of the petals and the richness of the purple contrasting with the yellow of the centre.  They are the very essence of spring.

The settings on the camera were 1/500secs at f/7.1 with the aforementioned macro lens attached at ISO200.

It was a photo that had to be taken.  I have cropped in, but that is all.  It is not an exciting photo, but I still like it.  It is an example of what is out there if you take the time to look around.

Taken on my compact camera, the settings were (in macro mode) ISO80, 1/30secs at f/2.8.

I don’t visit the gardens much in Winter as they are, quite frankly, mainly muddy and dull.  However, this time I went with the express intention of photographing seed heads (hoping they hadn’t been chopped off yet).

I am not sure what type of plant this is.  I can recognise it in flower and have taken photos of it, but I think it is better as a faded, brown, seed head.

I had my 50mm lens on with a wide aperture of 2.8 to blur the background.  I specifically positioned myself and therefore the seed head to have the others in the background to give a bit more interest without interfering in the picture.

With such a wide aperture I managed with ISO100 and a shutter speed of 1/125 secs.

I used a wide aperture on the lens (50mm of course).  I didn’t want to chop too much out of the scene, for example, I think that the picnic table and the other trees show some context and situation for the shot, after all, it is a public space.  However, I didn’t want them to intrude on the main photograph, so I settled with f/3.5mm and focussed to the front of the picture to ensure that enough of the snowdrops were in focus to make the picture look intentional and not fuzzy.  This also keeps the smaller trees sufficiently focused that they almost act like a screen across the diagonal – marking the boundary between sharp focus and soft.

No, the reason that I have included this is because I am just stunned by the quality of the picture.  I have shunned my macro lens due to bad light and have had my 50mm lens fitted since I bought it a few months ago.  It is a great, fast lens, but it does not focus as close up as the macro lens.  I was therefore a good foot away from these when I took them, but the detail on close up is fantastic.

I am not saying it is as good as the macro, and is certainly not a substitute, but when viewed up close, the purple really shimmers and looks like velvet and the veining in the petals really stands out.  The aperture was quite large, at 5.6 with ISO100 this meant that the shutter speed was 1/400 secs.  In hindsight I should have tried it with a smaller aperture …..

Despite being tempted to go and visit one of Northamptonshire’s snowdrop venues, I resisted the lure of the car (not hard) and decided that I would stay local instead and went to the Country Park.  Strangely enough, I hadn’t been there since before Christmas.  I have been at this time of year before and knew there would be some snowdrops out so thought I would see what I could find.

I came across a big carpet of them under some trees not far into the park.  (Funnily enough they were here last year!), but as you can see they are only just starting to open.  I took several pictures of groups of flowers, tried to get something to show a carpet of them (although this may work better in a couple of weeks when they are fully open and much more carpety) but I think this is my favourite.

Often, if you are having a photo judged there are comments about moving this leaf, cropping this bit out or rearranging the scene.  Many times though, nature comes up with something much more aesthetically pleasing – I don’t think the snowdrops on either side of the branch, with the brown oak leaves scattered around and hiding the mud, could have been better arranged.  The only thing I am not sure about in my picture is the emergence of the branch from one of the corners, although I do like the s-shape it makes across the diagonal, leading the eye into the picture.

Despite the fact that I was going looking for flowers I was deaf to the call of the macro lens and kept faith my new friend, the 50mm lens.  After all, it is Winter and the light is in a woodland setting would not win any brightness prizes.  I opened up the aperture because I wanted the focus to be on the snowdrops and the branch to disappear out of focus.  Too much depth of field could leave the scene looking a little messy.  Therefore, set on ISO200 I used f/4.5 which gave me a shutter speed of 1/250secs.

I was tidying up the garden on Saturday and discovered this cyclamen hidden by hellebore leaves.  I liked the coppery coloured stems and the tightly would spirals.  I also like the contrast of the new growth and green leaves of the cyclamen against the grey-brown of the clematis leaf that the spiral is resting on.

I left the edges of the cyclamen in the picture to put a bit of context in and make it more obvious what the subject was.  As it is winter my 50mm lens is on the camera and the settings used were ISO200, 1/250secs at f/2.0 (the wide aperture used to make the subject stand out a bit more from the background).

I felt that I needed to try and take some shots of something different, and so I have some shots of the estate and associated warehouses, but this is my favourite shot.

I took it because I was struck by the way the light was catching all of the mosses and lichens – it made them almost shine and look like crushed velvet.  However, I couldn’t seem to capture that in a picture, it just seemed to look too flat.  I therefore settled back to my natural instinct, crouched down and took a close-up shot.

I like the different textures, the soft, fluffy moss and the hard pavement.  But I also like the different colours, and the fact that lichens and mosses are taking over something so man made and hard as tarmac.  I also tried to convey how the moss just seemed to stretch away, covering quite a large area.  I think the photo also captures a little of the feeling of the light – it just doesn’t capture the feeling of the cold that came with it!

The settings on the compact were ISO80, 1/320 secs, 6mm, f/4.0.