Regain your composure…

Ansel Adams is quoted as saying “A good photograph is knowing where to stand” and it pretty much comes down to that! The tricky bit with Ansel’s pared down pearls of wisdom is the “knowing”.

Judging by the amount of magazine articles, blogs  and books published on the subject, composition is as important to good photography and an interesting subject and good exposure – and rightly so. Unlike the other 2 components though, composition is the grey area where creativity and a gut feeling for a balanced image come into play, and this isn’t as easy to pass on to another enthusiast. Composing a great image is an intensely personal process – there’s just you and the view finder – and you have to conjour up something from the elements presented, that is more than the sum of it’s parts…that’s the plan anyway!

With the recent popularity in photography, more people are enjoying the creative outlet and trying to make better images, but the majority of people don’t have the benefit of any formal art school education, so advice on composition is always popular. This also accounts for why the Rule of Thirds has become such a sacred commandment. It’s easy to explain and by following the guidelines, you will get a pleasing image.

But, if you have any kind of appreciation for painting, you’ll know that there are all manner of tricks used in composing an image and they’re all applicable to photography. Some are more tangible and easily grasped than others – some are just gut feeling or emotion. At the end of the day, if an image feels right to you, then compositionally it will have been elevated in some way over just snaps.

I have a few things that I tend to do when I work and I was only dimly aware that I was doing them – they were just part of my process, but I find them helpful in getting a composed image. Here’s a few things that I find useful when making an image:

Compose handheld – then set up your tripod when you have an idea for your composition

I tend to start by using the camera hand held and composing through the eye piece – I find it easier than starting from the camera back. This way you can move around to find a good angle and explore high and low viewpoints much easier – when you have something you’re excited about, then set up your tripod and fine tune the composition. This way you’ll find unexpected happy accidents and not get trapped in a pattern of producing the same eye level image over and over.

If you’re happy with the rule of thirds, put it on your screen

I know many cameras now come with the ability to show the rear screen divided into 9 sections, making composing to thirds a simple task. If you don’t have this feature you can still add the rules to your LCD screen using thin strips of electrical tape, to give you an on-screen guide. The tape will come off easily afterwards – just measure the width and height of your screen to get the accurate thirds.

Go one step further and keep it old school – Golden section

There is a similar but far more pleasing compositional guide that is thousands of years old – think of it as the “father” of the rule of thirds – the Golden Section. It’s a slightly more complex version of rule of thirds, but I find it gives an much more pleasing composition – the whole of Ancient Greece and Renaissance painting can’t be wrong!

Instead of dividing the width and height of the LCD screen into equal thirds, you divide each length into 13 parts – then place your guide rules at 5 and 8 units. That’s basically how the ratio works – 5 : 8 : 13.

You can see from the diagram, the centre section is much smaller, so an element in your image placed on one of the verticals has a much better balance of space on the opposite side - it just looks right! Try it for yourself and I guarantee that your images will have a more pleasing overall composition than if you used thirds. I’ll go into a bit more depth in a future post.

Look for strong curves and "S" shapes

I looked back at my portfolio recently and found that this is something I tend to look for again and again. It gives a movement through the image and adds a dynamic quality that’s pleasing to the eye. The arcs and S shapes don’t need to be obvious but they will create a more powerful composition.

Visit galleries - feed your head

There are far worse ways to spend your time than in art galleries and looking at paintings is a great way to learn many of the compositional tools that you can then apply in your own work. Exposure to culture will have a beneficial impact on your own images.

Alternately, if you’re too busy, try finding an artist who’s work you like, select one piece if work that you’re particularly drawn to or like – look at it and try and work out why the painter put the elements where he/she did. If you do this enough, you will start to unlock the process of the composition and get an understanding of the process.

Sounds arty-farty, but go with me on this – it’s what all painters do and it makes them better!

Pick up a pencil

Finally, I sometimes pre-visualise an image (particularly still life or food shots) by sketching out a quick thumbnail. This is usually when I get an idea for an image and don't want to forget it, but I sometimes use this process to get a composition right before setting up. Don't be put off if you're one of the millions who haven't drawn anything since they were 14 - it's quick and easy and can save time setting up later.

Hopefully, some of these methods will suit your process. Everyone's creative process is different and personal, but sometimes trying something new can have a positive impact on the end result! Good luck with your photography and please do leave me a message if you're finding any of these posts entertaining or instructive - I'd love to hear from you.
Cheers! 

Strange encounters in the woods…

I had a strange morning yesterday and I’m still struggling with the aftermath a bit. 

By way of back story – I’ve been meaning to explore the Peak District a bit more, as it’s on my doorstep and there are plenty of great locations for a day’s shooting. After visiting a recent exhibition, I’ve been following the work of Dav Thomas (check him out – inspirational) who shoots a lot of his images in the Peaks, and the location of “Padley Gorge” cropped up regularly. It wasn’t a place I was familiar with and after seeing more images in a magazine, I decided to head out early on Sunday and check it out for an autumn colour location.

I got there early and as a location, it had almost everything you could want with mature woodland, moss covered boulders and a river tumbling through the rocks – wherever you looked there were great opportunities for making beautiful images – you don’t even have to walk that far from your car! I worked my way into the woods, enjoying the “newness” of seeing a place unfold for the first time and looking out for a first shot. I spotted a likely subject and started to set up my tripod and get everything ready to shoot. As I was readying to compose my first shot, an older couple walked past on the path above and I shouted a “good morning” (only polite after all). The woman replied, but her partner ignored me and proceeded to set up his gear right in front of me, in my shot.

I was a bit taken aback – had he just not seen me? I decided to pack up and move further into the woods – there were plenty of other great subjects. Unfortunately, he then did it again repeatedly – walking into my frame while I was shooting, looking at me and standing there until I basically gave up. This was not accidental behavior. After 3 or 4 of these, I decided to go far deeper upstream and shake him off, I found a great subject and spent a half hour composing and shooting unmolested – before it happened again and a completely different couple did exactly the same thing. 

By now I was getting pretty fed up – I explored for locations a bit further but by now it was about 11.00am and I decided to call it a day – I turned and retraced my steps back down the gorge. During the 10 minute walk back, I then encountered more people with cameras than I’ve ever seen in one place - even at weddings! You couldn’t move for tripods – people were even shooting in the footpath – I couldn’t get past without waiting for them to finish (a courtesy that I hadn’t received earlier). There must have been 40 plus shooters crammed into one small area, with a frantic undercurrent as they all competed for space. It reminded me of images you see from some of the African game reserves, where 15 Landrovers full of tourists are snapping away at one tortured lion! It’s just not right.

This is the bit that I’m still bothered about. A great location that also has easy access and parking is going to be popular, but there seemed to be a frantic nature to the way people were snapping away – like they didn’t care who they pissed off to get the shot – they were taking it! A year ago, in Barcelona, I’d set off early for Parc Güell to get some Gaudi shots and even at 8.00 am the park had started to fill up. I tried to get a shot of the famous  lizard fountain, but tourists kept getting in the way, until an oriental woman stood directly in front of me – I still have the close-up shot of  the back of her head! I can understand this kind of thing from tourists – you’re only there for a short time and everybody wants the same shot. They've paid to be there - they're taking it!. What still bothers me is that the exact same thing was happening in the woods…

As I’ve said before – I came to photograph as an offshoot of loving the outdoors first. I would be as happy just walking the woods without a camera, enjoying the spectacle of such a beautiful place, and as all hill walkers know, if you pass somebody out in the hills, everyone is polite. It’s a pity that this attitude doesn’t seem to be universal amongst outdoor photographers…it doesn’t make any sense to me. So far I've not met another photographer in the field who's returned a "hello", which is fairly worrying! As a group they don't seem happy to share (maybe they're all only-children??) Also photography has become so popular recently (and I know I’m just adding to that), I can see how difficult it would be to make a living from landscape photography, without having a niche and extraordinary talent. As a graphic designer, it reminds me of the late 80s/early 90s, where everybody with access to a pc thought they were suddenly graphic geniuses.

I’d encourage anybody to visit Padley Gorge – it’s a truly beautiful spot and you can get a bacon sandwich when you’ve had enough of the creative process…

But do get there early!

Be polite and considerate – we’re all just trying to get the shot but it's not a competition – I wouldn’t want to get mine at the expense of yours.

There’s definitely something to be said for a long walk in and as far as I’m concerned, the peace and solitude of a location definitely feeds into the final image. It sorts the men from the boys! I’ll be returning to Padley in 3 weeks or so, when the autumn colour kicks in – I’m sure it’ll be beautiful. Judging by the undergrowth, I'll bet it has a great show of spring bluebells too, but next time – I’ll be there on a week day, hours before the mob.

Enjoy your outdoor photography and to quote Keanu Reeves:

Be excellent to each other…camera dudes!

HDR - just 'cos you can doesn't mean you should!

You're intelligent people, you can probably see where I'm going with this, but I'll set out my stall from the outset - I'm not the biggest fan of HDR photography.

It didn't take me long on google to find the image above - I have no idea who's work it is and I'm not singling it out at all - it's just a good example of the kind of imagery that's becoming more and more popular, particularly on the web based social sites like 500px and flickr.

A while back I was watching a video blog where the author described the process of HDR photography as "puking colour all over his sensor" - it's pretty funny, but also hits the nail on the head. If I was walking on that farm trail I'd be soiling myself - it looks like the end of days!

For those who are unfamiliar, HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. Dynamic range describes the range of lighting conditions that a camera sensor (or film?) is capable of recording before sending the extremes to solid black of blowing out the highlights to white. If you shoot into the sun, you're going to be struggling with dynamic range and either the sky will blow out or your foreground will be black. Adding an ND grad is a way of compensating for this and stretching out the dynamic range to get a more pleasing image.

The HDR process takes a set of images - say 3 - one overexposed, one in the middle and one under exposed (as you would do bracketing a shot) and combines them using a proprietory HDR software title, into one image where you get the extremes of highlight, shadow and contrast available in one image. Great right! What's not to like?

Well, the problems start to creep in with the application of this process. There are, as with everything, varying degrees of subtlety that can be employed when making an HDR composite. Used in a subtle way, HDR images can look fantastic and there will always be a place for this. The popularity of the online social sites combined with popular tastes and the "flavour of the moment" factor, means that this kind of imagery is starting to dominate. When your uploaded images are shown in a 30mm square on screen, only the super saturated images pop out, so this has understandably led to these kind of images getting more views. They're eye catching, there's no denying it.

I find myself coming more certain that this approach is not for me. I'm not at a stage where any definitive style is asserting itself in my work, but the super saturated fakery of this kind of work is not for me. There are ways of achieving greater range without going down the HDR route, by hand-blending a couple of exposures for instance, that gives a much more pleasing result. I've meen checking out the work of Fran Halshall and Dav Thomas lately (google them up - their work is beautiful) - who are producing the exact opposite kind of image - beautifully lit, subtle muted light that celebrates the landscape.

If you're into shooting machinery or cars, part of the growing urbex movement that seems to love HDR, or just like the retina searing colour saturation that makes all your landscapes look like your on the way to throw a ring into a volcano - then stick with it! I'll be taking it easier with the saturation and contrast sliders to try and celebrate the natural beauty in the landscape - it's what drew me to pick up a camera after all!

If you agree or disagree with any of the above - why not leave me some feedback? I'd love to hear from you and keep shooting!

Experimental Green Glass - the results…

It's been a few months since my original posting about a do-it-yourself budget long exposure filter, but - finally - here are some of the results…

To be fair, this is a photographic project that pretty much relies on access to moving water, so my excuse is that I've had to wait until I was on holiday to try this out, but I think it's been worth the wait.

I've just got back from a week in Northumberland, followed by a day's shooting on the Gower Peninsular, so I've had plenty of time on the coast to try this out and as you can see above - it definitely works! Here's a breakdown of how the glass filter unit performed:

I set up my filter holder with a 10 strength piece of glass for a first try in the field and in practice, this required a 45-55 second exposure (depending on the light conditions). I set up my camera as usual - compose your shot with the camera on your tripod, with cable release, set your zoom and manually focus, live view on so the mirror is up. I set up initially in aperture mode - set my aperture how I wanted it (f20 for this) and did a test shot to see if I was getting any blown highlights. When you're happy with this set up, you need to change the mode to full manual - this will keep the aperture you set already, but will automatically set the exposure to bulb (if it doesn't - you can dial it in manually).

Then, with the adapter ring already screwed into your lens thread - carefully attach the filter housing - you need to be careful not to de-focus the lens, move the camera, touch the glass etc. Once the glass is in place - you're good to go! On my cable release, you can lock the shutter button down so you don't have to hold it for the 50 seconds, but on some models you may need to keep the button held down. I bought a cheap digital stopwatch for timing the exposure and then found that my cable release counts up the seconds on it's display, so I didn't need it, but you could use one if your model doesn't do that, or just time it on your watch or phone. With exposures this long a second either way isn't that critical.

When your exposure time is done (I'd start with 50 seconds), release the button to shut the shutter. I have my camera set for "auto noise reduction" so it then sits and processes the image in-camera for the same time as the exposure - another 45-50 secs. After that, you can review your image and see if you need a longer or shorter exposure. I'd add or subtract 5 seconds and try a second shot.

Your image on the back of the camera will have a bizarre green cast to it - this is due to the welding glass. The best results for your final image are - I think - to convert them to monotone after processing as normal. The green cast goes away and you can then dodge and burn to your heart's content to get a dramatic effect. It is possible to colour correct for the green, but it's not going to give you the best quality colour image and it's a lot of work - mono is the way to go!

The long exposure has blurred out all the movement in the sea, and retained the static rocks in crisp focus, just as a more expensive 10 stop ND filter would, showing the waves as a smokey ghosted area. The swell wasn't huge in these images, but there was plenty of motion in the water.

There were a couple of things to report in use:

I found that screwing the whole assembly and ring onto the set up camera was too difficult and took to leaving the ring on the lens. This was a bit tricky, as there's a retainer bump on the Cokin style holder to keep it from falling off accidentally and you need to snap this on, which sometimes made me move the camera and I had to start again. I got round this by adapting the holder by carving off the bump with a scalpel - so it slides on easier.

Also, in bright light I found that I got a weird lighter stripe down the right side of the image:

You can see it above on this test image - and at first I couldn't get rid of it. I assumed that some light was getting in at the top of the housing or maybe down the top edge of the glass sheet. Between outings I modified my set up by using black duck tape to tape up all the exposed edges of the glass and also tape over the foam gap just as extra insurance. This worked and reduced the problem by about 90% and I was able to fix the rest in photoshop. I would also try holding a small piece of card above the glass (in the way a lens hood would work) next time I'm out - see if that improves things.

All things considered - it works, it's great fun to experiment with and the images are dramatic! It's really the most basic form of photography (open the shutter - count - close it - see how it looks) - but I found that made it far more creative - almost like using a pinhole camera.

These glass sheets aren't manufactured with optical quality in mind, so the final images are not pro quality, but at the same time, the kit cost under £10 instead of £150 and I can still get a great print off these images. They are a little noisy, but I think that's part due to my camera and the glass does add a lot of fringing along the highlight edges (such as where cliffs meet the sky) so I had to fix this after - but nothing insurmountable.

I'm looking forward to shooting some waterfalls and fast moving rivers with this and will update you in future posts, but for now, if you fancy giving this a go - it's cheap, fun and easy to use! Look back to the previous post for details on making your own rig and get out there and give it a shot yourself!

I'll be posting completed images on my tumblr page, so why not give it a look if you fancy:
www.re-photography-posts.tumblr.com
If you like any of my images - let me know with a like or leave me a message below this post!

Good shooting!

It's been a busy year…

It was around this time last year that I bought my first DSLR and kicked off what, for me has been a really productive creative period. I hadn't really owned or used a decent camera since art school 25 years ago, but the quality and affordability of digital cameras along with their user friendly nature meant I could hit the ground running - and never look back!

Without getting preachy on you, I'd like to share a few insights that I've found have really elevated the quality and creativity levels of my images and can help us all progress towards better photography…

Learn to use your camera's features - they're there to make your images better:

To start with - I really was using only a small percentage of the camera's features. I knew from the outset that shooting on auto wasn't the way to go, and that the in-built flash isn't great, but that was about it.
Your camera is packed with features to make your images come alive and elevate them from snaps to something worth looking at twice. To beginners, the amount of technical information we need to absorb is daunting, but if you take time to practice, refine your technique and knowledge, over time the benefits are invaluable. Photography magazines are great for learning good technique, especially the technical camera related stuff - find one that suits you (there's dozens available) and absorb the good stuff - then practice it yourself. Your images will definitely improve.

Go to an exhibition:

Culture feeds the soul and we should all take time to gorge ourselves. I recently went to a great free exhibition at Southwell Minster - "Masters of Vision" - here's a link to their site:
http://mastersofvision.co.uk/

It's on throughout August and if you have any interest in landscape, nature or travel photography it really is worth a trip.

Seeing the work of accomplished established artists is a sure fire way to stoke up the enthusiasm and get you to think tangentially. I came back with a whole bunch of ideas and things I wanted to try - one of which was - "keep things minimal" - leading to the image above.

Take time over your compositions:

The accessibility and ease of use of digital cameras is the very thing that can ultimately diminish your images to "snaps". I recently read an article written by a photographer who had started out shooting film and was now shooting digitally, who was scathing about the way some photographers now shoot off hundreds of frames to get an image. If they were using film, this approach isn't an option so they would be forced to consider their exposures more to get the shot.

Spend a bit of time on your images, refining the composition or merely waiting for the right light or cloud formation - to get my image above I spent about an hour, moved about a bit until I was happy with the framing and shot off about 20-25 frames to get the best sky and crop combination. Taking things slower forces you to consider all the factors and your images will benefit. Using a tripod forces you to do this and the act of setting it up and framing your image forces you to consider composition more that you would shooting hand held.

Show your images:

Showing your images to an audience (that isn't your immediate family - who love/tolerate you and are therefore not objective) is great for bolstering your confidence and improving your body of work. You'll get feedback from other enthusiasts and get to compare your work with theirs - always a good acid test.

Start yourself a tumblr  or 500px account and get your images out there - if you're interested and have 5 minutes - here's mine:
http://re-photography-posts.tumblr.com/

Have a look - leave me some feedback!

Make time to shoot just for the sake of it:

It's all too easy to take a camera with you wherever you go and shoot off a bunch of frames - and that's great - but making time for your photography and shooting in a structured way is guaranteed to make the final images better.

Before I had a camera, I was definitely in the "anti-snapping" camp - I could never see the point of going to a beautiful place and then spending the whole time just documenting it with a camera or even worse, video camera, strapped to your face. You quickly stop experiencing things and are just recording them - leave that to Google earth. If I go out, with no plan to shoot any images, I rarely take a camera - this flies in the face of advice to shoot everything as practice, but I prefer to plan a shoot and devote that time just to making the pictures. If an image is worth capturing - it'll be so much better with planning than a rushed snap. This obviously depends on your subject - street photography and war coverage can't be tackled this way, but the majority of subjects (landscape / travel/ portraiture / food / nature / even sport) benefit from some forward planning. Do one thing at a time - do it better!

Sell your images as royalty free stock:

This is not for everyone and nothing sucks the fun out of a thing faster than trying to make money from it, but this was a big reason for me buying the equipment in the first place - and I've found the process of getting approved to sell images and having each one scrutinised for imperfections has been a major factor in the elevation in my work.
I have sold vector artworks for a few years and already supplied two libraries, but wanted to add photography to broaden my portfolio. My first submission for approval was in the autumn and was immediately rejected - you get invited to go away, take better pictures and come back in two weeks!

I was pretty depressed by this but instead of re-submitting another set of images right away, I waited 6-8 months and spent that time refining and learning. On the 2nd submission I got the green light, only to then get all my images rejected for a whole bunch of reasons (some valid / some not). Rather than get downcast - I kept plugging away and I now have a growing online portfolio, that is helping fund new lenses and kit - it's a slow build, but I'm in for the long game. The most important aspect of all this is - putting your work in front of a qualified expert will show up it's short-commings in a brutal impersonal fashion, but it will point out where you're going wrong and you will have to improve in order to get an approval.

They may not be the most creative sources and are prone to accepting safe images, but stock libraries will only take an image that comes up to their technical standards and I've found the whole year long process to be fantastically beneficial on my technique. Also, selling your images gives you a great buzz and you get to learn what sells and what doesn't.

If you fancy giving it a go - istock and shutterstock are good places to start from (other royalty free image libraries are available yadda yadda).

So - if you've read all that, you must be bored by now! Go out and take some pictures, then take some more! Show people, get better and succeed! That's my long term plan anyway :-)

Good shooting - here's to the next 12 months

Business as usual…

First off - apologies for leaving such a big gap between posts - I've been pretty busy (shooting images) and although my intention has been to post at least weekly, things have slid a bit.

My reasons for coming back to photography were really two fold from the start - a love of the outdoors and capturing landscape images and to make money. I'm not greedy - this is a long term goal and things take time, but in the period between postings, this is where my time has gone.

Making money from your hobby is a tricky and perilous thing! The business can take over and destroy the pleasure - before you know it, the thing you loved to do in your spare time has become the thing you hate to face on monday morning. Or worse - it doesn't take off and leaves only disappointment. There are many ways to make cash from your images, but I'm targeting 2 distinct streams to begin with and starting small. The money I've made has funded equipment purchases which in turn have led to more images - so it seems to be on track.

Landscape photography is difficult to sell - a lot of people are doing it and creating great images but at the same time, the perceived worth of these images is low. Most people can get an interesting image out of their smart phone so they think twice about spending £15 - £25 on a print - they see it as something they can do themselves. In reality, the photographer has driven for 3 hours and slept in the car and walked 4 miles to get that image of a mountain sunrise, then spent an hour processing the RAW file to get it to pop. Looking at the websites of established big names in the landscape genre, even they seem to make the bulk of their living running courses - I guess people are happier to pay to be shown how to do something than to buy images.

I have been a contributor to a couple of royalty free stock sites for a few years - initially I produced vector illustrations and uploaded those, but last year I decided to broaden my portfolio to include photographic content. If you're unfamiliar with these library sites, they take uploaded content from their roster of approved contributors and sell it on their site - you get a pre-agreed percentage of the royalty. The plus points with this are that your image copyrights are protected, you can sell an image as many times as possible and the library looks after everything else - you just take your royalty payments. The downside is that they take a fairly hefty percentage cut from your sales for all that, so you need to make a lot of sales to get rich!

Also - to become an approved contributor to these libraries, you have to go through an approval process, submit test images and if these are accepted, you're good to go. I had assumed this would be easy, but in reality, it turned out to take longer than I'd first thought it would. In hind sight, this is as it should be - if anybody could pick up a DSLR, shoot any old thing and get approval, it makes a mockery the skill and craft of people that have spent years refining their art. My fists submissions were batted straight back to me with an invitation to come back with something better!

Instead of re-submitting as soon as the 14 day time limit had elapsed - I decided to wait a while, and work at being a better photographer - I'm no Bailey or Rankin, but I've worked steadily at it and got steadily better. After waiting around 8-9 months from my first submission - the second one was approved within 6 days. It goes to show that if you want to be good at something, time spent going away and just doing it is never wasted.

If you're looking to make some money from your images, the stock library route is a reliable way to go. To start with the sales are slow, but this is a long game and the more images in your online portfolio - the more sales you'll pick up. Eventually the income will build and even out to become more reliable - you just need to find that image that will sell like hot cakes! Also - it's a different discipline to shooting an image just for yourself - many times the image will need to work with text added or be shot on a white background to be cut out - these are not really impulse snaps - they need to be planned for an end use, pin sharp and not over filtered or processed.

So that's what I've been busy with - I've been shooting a lot of food photography and still life images (see chili image above) and not getting out much, but every shoot there's something to learn and it's all interesting. Give it a try yourself - by having your work scrutinized by industry experts forces you to raise your game and your images will definitely improve, which can't be a bad thing - and you may earn some beer tokens!

Now that the weather has finally got better - it's out into the wilderness for a summer of landscape action - watch this space for future postings.

Spring is finally here…

…and about time too!

I don't know about you, but I can't remember a winter that's hung in there so tenaciously - I was beginning to think that this was the new normal now - cold/wet/grim/snow/frost - it's like we only have one season now!

A couple of weeks ago, I was looking for a woodland site for a future shoot - I was just hoping that it was dry and maybe I'd get some light shafts between trees - that kind of thing. I parked up and wandered into the gloom and was confronted with a wonderful carpet of early spring blooms - wood anemonies covered the ground and as the tree cover was mixed pines and Beech, the leaf canopy was still bare - plenty of light was filtering in. It was as if Spring had been happening in secret and I'd blundered into it accidentally!

The image above was made up from 2 exposures merged together for the foreground and sky. It was so low down, I had to lie on the floor with my tripod laid over on my camera bag and fired with a cable release.

So - make the most of these fleeting displays - if you're lucky enough to be need a site with bluebells, they'll be in bloom about now and wild garlic will be in flower within the next 2 weeks - blink and you'll miss it. We've all been hunkered down for months - seize the day and get in amongst it for some great spring images!