Bluebell Season
Roseberry Topping. Nikon Z7. 14mm, F13, 1/130 Sec, ISO 64.
It’s a great time of year for landscape photography. Spring brings vibrant greens, potential for dramatic skies and arguably Britain’s favorite wildflower – Bluebells.
Finding bluebells is relatively easy here in the UK. In fact, almost half the bluebells in the world can be found here. Many woodlands have them, but they really look their best if you can find a larger area covered by them. A carpet of blooms across the woodland floor really is spectacular. They only bloom for a few short weeks, so you need to be ready to get your images when they appear. When they actually appear varies from each location and year to year, depending on the weather conditions during early spring. From around mid-April is the best time to start keeping a look out for them, by the end of May the show is all but over.
For this little adventure I headed up to Roseberry Topping in North Yorkshire. This distinctive hill is a fabulous subject in its own right and I’ve spent many enjoyable hours exploring around it and grabbing some great images. On one of these previous visits, I’d come across the woodland to the south of the peak. I immediately recognized the location as I’d seen images from other photographers taken from here with a fantastic sea of bluebells in the foreground. I made a note of the location and now I was back to try and capture the scene for myself. For most of my compositions I kept the camera relatively low. By doing this you don’t see the patches of green between the individual flowers and it creates the appearance of a more condensed carpet of blooms. With the first flowers just inches from the front of the lens, I had to focus stack the images.
Walking back to the car, I noticed the soft sunlight coming through the trees and casting fingers of light across the woodland floor. I took a couple of shots, handheld. I must admit that I missed the focus on these shots, so they are a little soft. I still love how the images look and feel but in hindsight I should have set up the tripod and taken more time to nail down the composition.
This time next year I’ll be back again, hoping for more of the same.
