Heath Spotted at Hothfield Heathlands

As a kid it was always Hothfield Common but it's got a smart new name now and is very well managed by the KWT.

I'd been over a few times during the winter to do some landscape photography and was drawn there again by reports of over 1,000 Southern Marsh Orchids on the reserve. I arrived just before 6am and located them shortly afterwards, but there was a problem. The orchids were growing in a marshy area that was a few inches deep in water with even more inches of mud. Furthermore, the resident highland cattle appeared to frequent this area so there was the cow dung to contend with too. I had my walking boots on but it was going to be a 'wellie' job for sure.

I made my way across to the main bog and as I approached, I could see it was covered in Bog Cotton. On getting closer I could make out what I thought were Common Spotted Orchids but on closer inspection, turned out to be Heath Spotted. This was a real bonus as there were thousands of them with many being easily accessible. I spent about an hour photographing them before the wind got so strong as to make things impossible.

Heath spotted orchid flower spike

A trio taken from above

Close-up showing the beautiful flower detail

Back in my wellies

I returned that evening with the appropriate footwear to photograph the Southern Marsh Orchids. I could not lie or sit down so had to squat precariously, ankle-deep in slurry. Focusing was very difficult, even with live view, to the extent that I only managed a few record shots.

Southern Marsh Orchid flower spike

Although rarer than the Heath Spotted, they are not as photogenic, exacerbated by the fact that most of them had 'gone over', with brown tinges appearing on the lower petals.

Images from the natural world

I've been busy at work recently but managed to get a couple of hours this morning to process some images for printing so I did some JPEGs too for the blog.

A reminder of warmer times

Starting off with one of the later flowering of British orchids - pyramidal. Taken early on the morning of 10th July at Park Gate Down. The added bonus with this image was the brief appearance of a hover fly adding some interest and colour to the scene.

At the time I was experimenting with using my 500mm lens and a full set of extension tubes rather than my standard 100mm macro lens. This one was taken at f/11, 1/80th second exposure, with the lens resting on a large bean bag. I managed to achieve the diffuse background that I had hoped for and will try to refine this technique further next spring/summer with other orchid subjects.

Pyramidal orchid with hover fly

Cotter Force (Yorkshire Dales)

I spent a week on the Yorks/Lanks border in September and took a few photographs of the Cotter Force waterfall. The first time I processed them I was not happy with the results so I had another go and it all worked a lot better.

The problem I had was that I wanted to keep the rocks nice and sharp and the water really soft and when I applied the final sharpening, the water lost its feel. In the end I did a very hard noise reduction with Topaz DeNoise to take out a lot of fine detail, followed by some aggressive sharpening which boosted up the rocks and foliage but left the water almost untouched. I'm sure there was a more elegant way of doing this but I got there in the end. Anthony will know...

Cotter Force

Hothfield Common 

The autumn colours have been fantastic and with a day off last Thursday I started off with a few hours at Hothfield Common. Yes, I know I should call it Hothfield Heathland but old habits die hard.

I used my 70-200 lens to pick out some detail in the woodland, with the bark of the silver birches to give some structure.

Autumn on Hothfield Common

Oare Marshes

After lunch I headed over to Oare Marshes to check out the wader situation to coincide with high tide.

The East Flood was hosting many golden plover and lapwing with a few ringed plover and dunlin as supporting cast. The light was fantastic and the winds were very light so I took the opportunity to get some reflections of the waders as they roosted up.

Roosting Lapwing

I did use a Topaz Adjust to give this a slightly impressionistic feel as it was a bit too 'in-your-face' in its native state.