Perspectives

Spring means bluebells

18/04/2014
If you live in the UK, there's nothing quite like the first sign of bluebells to make you really feel that spring is in full swing. Every year I try and get out to find the 'perfect' wood, and this year I've found a real contender for my favourite so far...West Wood, just south west of Marlborough, Wiltshire. I visited it just after dawn this morning, and even though the bluebells aren't quite the full-on 'carpet' that I would like to see, it was enough to really lift my spirits... The combination of relatively clean floor, the simplicity of the trunks of the predominantly beech trees in most of the wood and a few lower branches with the first spring leaves make it an almost perfect location.
Because there were only a few blooms fully flowering, most of my shots were taken from a distance with the longer end of my 70-200mm lens. This combination of distant viewpoint, and the magnification of the lens, 'compressed' the scattered blooms together to make them a bit more impressive. Still, if the weather plays ball I intend to revisit the wood in a week or so, and hopefully the display will be even more impressive...