Wood Anemonies

When the sun shines in spring the Wood Anemonies sparkle like a field of stars under the coppiced woodland. They always face the sun and the harsh light does little to promote them in photographs. So to soften the images I photographed them from ground level looking through the heads of other flowers.

When the sun disappears the flowers turn their heads and sleep.

From Telephone Exchange to Book Exchange

This is one of Britain’s tiny libraries that are springing up around Somerset starting at Westbury-sub-Mendip. From telephone exchange to book exchange they are former British Telecom public phone kiosks.

Telephone Library – Dinder, Nr Wells, Somerset, UK. ID JB5_0853.

Deerleap Tree – Day 8

DAY 8: Deerleap Tree – Mendips, Somerset, UK. JB5_0767.
A quick drive of a couple of miles from my home to capture the Dearleap Tree on Day 8. This was the first evening with a good sunset. Unfortunately, the sun was not setting behind this tree! For that from my fixed view point I will need to wait until 8 minutes past 9 on May 24 (Day 102). By then the tree will be in full leaf and the scene will be much different.

What a Difference a Day Makes

DAY 1: Deerleap Tree – Mendips, Somerset, UK. JB5_0571

DAY 2: Deerleap Tree – Mendips, Somerset, UK. JB5_0657

One tree, two pictures, 24 hours apart. Day 1 is a colour photograph not that there was much colour that day. But is does make for a detailed and simple image. Day 2 is also in colour but in beautiful winter sun! What a difference a day made, what about in a month, what about a year? Suddenly I had a new project to keep me busy – One Tree One Year. A year in the life of a tree.

Mother and Child

Mother and Child – Priddy, Somerset, UK. JB5_0549

Snow finally arrived in Somerset.  Not much by any measure but by luck I had the day off work.  So I set off to the Mendip in search of a winter’s scene – but instead I find a love story.  The trees are icons of the local landscape and famous on Flickr which Celebrates the Priddy Tree.  Traditionally these two trees are not the best of friends – but today I saw the true side – the love of a mother for its child, an arm of comfort on a cold day.

Wells Cathedral HDR

Wells Cathedral – Somerset, UK. ID JB5_0116

While most of Britain is having snow we were still waiting in Somerset.  So whilst I could still drive to work and earn money I was missing the opportunity to capture the winter scenes.  So I decided to play with the Lightroom Enfuse HDR plugin from the Photographer’s Toolbox.

This plugin allows you to blend multiple exposures together into a single fused image. It aims to provide a natural looking image with a higher dynamic range.  It also supports the stacking of images at different focus points – something I need to try with my macro photographs this summer.

I thought this image would be a challenge for the software as it is vital that the images can be correctly aligned by the software.  Whilst a tripod kept the camera steady the fine twigs on the trees could have been moving in the breeze.

To my surprise the images aligned perfectly – or perhaps Enfuse only used the trees from a single image.  I thought the image looked pretty natural, although my son easily noticed it had been HDR’ed!

Sniper!

Snipe (Gallinago gallingo) – Graylake, Somerset, UK. JB4_1613. The RSPB Graylake Reserve in Somerset is a great place to watch wetland birds in winter as the hide has glass windows and keeps the wind and cold out! This patch of ground was only about ten metres in front of the hide. At first it appeared empty but after a while I realised it was full of Snipe – I found eleven, how many can you count?