Searching For Spring (but shooting buildings)

This Tuesday had the flattest light I’ve seen this year. Flat and dull, but not moody enough to be effective and not bright enough to give good light. I missed so many misty and foggy days of shooting over Christmas and hoped that being January I’d get some more but no luck. However, the flat light forced me to be more creative with my edits and I’ve come out of it making 2 of my favourite presets, getting closer to honing my editing style.

I had no plans to take pictures of the church on this visit, I only want to find examples of life budding. I’ve missed the beginnings of spring for so many years because of working full time and now with my Tuesday mornings free I’m determined to follow it from bud to bloom. I was meandering down the paths of Halesowen church, hoping to pick up from where I left off the week before, and I happened to walk past a spot where the church wasn’t completely covered by trees. The colour of the church against the grey sky was awful so I thought I’d mess with a black and white edit and somehow created this almost sepia look which I love. It has a creepy feel, like an old photography, and I like that the gravestones at the bottom right corner are leaning back into the image and draw the eye up to the church.

After taking my first successful shot of the church I couldn’t resist taking a few more. I love that the edit makes it look like these are images taken of the church back in the early 1900s. I tried to make sure there was good layering, using the gravestones and the railings, and framing with the tree. There was a handy little gap in the branches so I had to do a precarious lean to make sure I wasn’t walking somewhere I shouldn’t.

I carried that idea of layering into this image. I wanted it to feel like this had appeared as you were walking past, but I also love that the church in the back gives in context and the little iconography that the cross subtly shows. Clearly these flowers aren’t real and they’ve been on this grave for quite a while but because of the softening over time the colours were muted and fit well.

Eventually I did find what I was looking for: signs of budding life. After a dull morning where I wasn’t expecting to see anything, I couldn’t believe that I stubbled upon these snow drops. I love the creamy backgrounds that f2.8 gives (yes I’ve fallen in to old habits) but I think it adds so much depth and helps isolate the subject. In the last image I like that the bokeh (background blur) also makes the rest of the branches look ghostly. I knew that this present was coming along well when it applied so easily to these images.

After my 45 minute parking was up in Halesowen I came back to my go-to place, Haden Hill park. It’s just so convenient being close to home and there’s a lot of variation to shoot here. After seeing how cool the trees looked in the church images I thought this shot of the house would look good too. I always struggle getting good shots of the house so I was over the moon with this.

I’d taken a ton of shots of buds coming up but it was mostly experimenting with angles and trying to find something interesting but I’ve not really like anything but this one. I love the tones and colours in this shot and how the buds are nestled in the leaves.

I couldn’t decide which of these images I liked the best so I thought I’d post both. I like that the left one gives more ground and a balance inbetween the trees in the background, but the one on the right has better compression and depth.

As I was walking out of the park I had to decide whether I was going to walk straight out or do a small detour and just on a whim I walked down some steps on to the edge of the woodland and I am so, so glad I did. This little robin was pottering about on this trunk and looked at me and didn’t seem to care I was there. This is a ridiculous crop as I was quite a way from the bird on the path but the quality you get from the Z7 is everything I’ve ever wanted so I was able to come out with one of my favourite images so far this year.

From a day I thought was going to be a bust with no pictures, I came out with 2 presents and a bird.