Bluebells @ Ranscombe

 

So this Off Friday saw me & Dad go back to Ranscombe to try and park in the small car park and head off in search of Bluebells. Despite it being a working day for most people the little car park was still full so this time we used his sat nav to take us to the alternate entrance in Albatross Ave.

A walk through the underpass and over the railway bridge and we were on the nature reserve grounds, but a while away from any decent swathes of bluebells it seems.

We did see a few here and there, hence the image above, but hoping that 3rd time is lucky and we'll perhaps try a Friday morning rather than mid-afternoon. Where we went in before, just over a year ago yielded a good crop of flowers and not far off the pathways, so a crouch down on the path led to the usual "sea" of blue.

I love these delicate blooms which are a far cry from the more traditional Spanish Bluebells we see in our gardens at this time of year. Along with the wild Primroses and Cowslips they are pretty spectacular. I hear there are some within Walderslade Woods which is again pretty much on the doorstep so that might also be a fruitful place to try. At this rate we are going to run out of Fridays before these flowers start to die off!

Oil Paint Filter in Photoshop

So this is a quick edit in Photoshop to apply the Oil Paint filter at its default setting, twice, to get this somewhat painterly effect. I love this filter but don't use it very often, usually it's almost always reserved for these Bluebell images because I never seem to think about using it on anything else ;-)

This was about as close as we came to a "carpet" of flowers and even this was a zoom in from the pathway and not the cleanest of sights through to the Bluebells. Still I quite like the balance of it. One has to take ones opportunities where one can find them. As amateurs we're not paid to keep trying until we "bag the shot" :-)