The writes of spring...

You make me feel like spring has sprung, sang Frank Sinatra in 1956, and to a large extent it has, but not in a spectacular way. More of an indecisive crawl, to be honest, possibly due to spells of mild weather interspersed with very cold snaps during the early part of the year. Daffodils, for example have been sprouting and blooming since mid-January, and there are still some not open at one of my favourite locations.

This year the display is less than unified, and many at Branksome  on Poole bay, Dorset, are withering whilst others are in their full glory (photo) or yet to open at all. Of course, a late spring means a longer spring, so maybe that's a good thing, but it's nothing to write home about and I'm struggling for good images. I try all the usual approaches and angles before opting to shoot wide. Very wide.

I dig out my fisheye lens - specially brought along for the purpose - and get down to ground level, with the trumpets almost touching the front element of the lens. I'm shoot by framing the blooms using the display screen on the back of the camera (something I rarely do) but this technique undoubtedly produced the more interesting images of the series on this occasion.


10.5mm f/2.8G Fisheye Nikkor. 1/1000 secons at f/6.3.  -0.33 EV compensation. ISO 200


© 2012