Fun with Forest Flowers

I took an early spring visit to Garston Wood on Saturday.  The weather was very changeable, with sun and hail intermixing weather wise.  After a brief walk round part of the reserve, I decided the cold weather had discouraged most insects, so went around with my Manfrotto Befree Tripod and Canon 100mm Macro lens to photograph the spring flowers.

The changeable weather, bought some advantage, the sun giving chances to take some back lit shots, whilst the hail and rain left some nice water drops on the flowers.

I took two types of flowers – Bluebells and Wood Anemones.  I will show you the bluebells first.

This first image – is a blend of two shots.  The first an out of focus shot of the foreground bluebells, with then a in focus shot blended in on a top layer in Photoshop CC.

This next one, is nearer a true macro shot than any others in this post, being a shot of a single bluebell flower.

And from up close, to a more wide shot on the same lens, this time I took the shot to create a vision of the early spring.

The final bluebell shot is of a single flower taking prominence, with the light reflecting in the background water drops on other flowers and leaves.

This first Wood Anemone shot features some out of focus bluebells in the background, as the sun hits the anemone flower.

These next two shots are of the same flower, first a portrait of the whole flower and then, just the flower itself.

I also found this pair of flowers rising above the woodland floor, taking in the late sun.

This other flower was nearby, and I took this face on and from the side to give two different views of it.

Finally this other pair really caught my eye, with one facing towards me and the other in the opposite direction.  In addition the foreground one was really lit up by sun rays reflecting of its back.

I processed the two original shots in Topaz Texture Effects, to create different background colour effects.  Here are my 3 favourites.

 

Map of Location