If, like me, you photograph bluebells every year, and often visit the same favourite woodlands to do so, you may find, also like me, that after a while it feels like you're taking the same photos every year. With this in mind, I was conscious of the fact I needed to look for something different, and the addition to my kit of the Pentax DA*300mm lens, which allows me to focus down to less than 5 feet, opened up new possibilities. All the photos in this blog post were shot using it, and all were taken at Swan Wood, in Stock, Essex, which has huge swathes of bluebells.
The first 'proper' shot I took there this visit is shown below, taken with my 300mm nearly wide open. It's still my favourite bluebell shot, and for me the shallow depth of field highlighting the texture of the focused areas makes it stand out amongst my other bluebell images.
Pentax K10D, DA*300mm f/4 @ f/4.5, 1/15s, ISO 100, Tripod, Polariser
A nearby bracken shoot caught my eye, and careful positioning of the camera allowed me to isolate it against a dark background. I love bracken shoots for their texture and patterns, and increasingly I found myself looking at these, rather than the bluebells.
Pentax K10D, DA*300mm f/4 @ f/5.6, 1/60s, ISO 100, Tripod, Polariser
Use of the polariser really helps bring out the vivid greens of the bracken, taking shine off the foliage. It reduces the light entering the lens though, so shutter speeds drop right down, in this case 1/6s, so a tripod is essential.
Pentax K10D, DA*300mm f/4 @ f/4.5, 1/6s, ISO 100, Tripod, Polariser
At its minimum focus distance, the 300mm will fill the frame with a subject such as this. I was simply walking around looking for interesting shapes amongst the bracken, here I carefully placed the camera so that focus could be achieved across the upper and lower elements of the shot.
Pentax K10D, DA*300mm f/4 @ f/5.6, 1/30s, ISO 100, Tripod, Polariser
I had the idea of shooting across the bracken with out of focus bluebells in the background, but this first effort didn't really work for me, so I continued looking for a better subject.
Pentax K10D, DA*300mm f/4 @ f/5.6, 1/30s, ISO 100, Tripod, Polariser
This subject was better, with a simpler shape and a less fussy background, and and I explored it in several shots, after the first photo using a reflector in different positions to bounce extra light in and help it stand out.
Pentax K10D, DA*300mm f/4 @ f/5.6, 1/6s, ISO 100, Tripod, Polariser
Pentax K10D, DA*300mm f/4 @ f/5.6, 1/6s, ISO 100, Tripod, Polariser
Pentax K10D, DA*300mm f/4 @ f/5.6, 1/6s, ISO 100, Tripod, Polariser
I still wasn't happy with the subject or composition, so I continued to look for a similarly shaped bracken shoot, and saw this one, which being much shorter and with a more open curve to it, allowed me to include some foreground vegetation (Wood Anemone leaves), 'grounding' the subject. My Manfrotto 055ProB tripod allows me to position the camera flat on the floor, and the 300mm gives me great control of what's in the background – small changes in camera position can alter the background quite significantly. I used a reflector again to bounce some light into the subject.
Pentax K10D, DA*300mm f/4 @ f/8, 1/6s, ISO 100, Tripod, Polariser
Essentially the same shot again but in a landscape format, I find this one a little more cramped than the one above, so prefer that one as a final image. I shoot in portrait format about 75% of the time, so it's no surprise to me which one I prefer.
Pentax K10D, DA*300mm f/4 @ f/8, 1/6s, ISO 100, Tripod, Polariser
So hopefully that in some way answers the question “How do you do it?” It's very much a walk in the woods, keeping an eye out for potential subjects, and being open to how those subjects may suggest the ways in which you can photograph them.
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