British Bluebells, Again

I think, given they’re not around for long, it’s perfectly OK to keep making bluebells the focus of my photography in late April/early May. And if you don’t agree, well, shame on you.

I’d forgotten about this trio of trees in my local woods, but was pleased to rediscover them as an interesting backdrop to the purple carpet in front.

At one point I noticed a couple of muntjac deer in the distance behind me snaffling their way past the coppice next to them.

Bluebells in Britain's Woodlands

Hi there, Blog. How are you? I’m sorry for not writing.

And with apologies to my Blog for not updating it out the way, here’s an update. This week, I have been mostly photographing bluebells. That’s because they tend to only be at their most blue for a couple of weeks before they wither away and disappear for another year. These were all taken in a woodland local to me in Warwickshire. Each year I tend to gravitate to the same areas in the woods, as this is where the light falls as the sun sets, and coincidentally/fortunately the most photogenic spot anyway. I thought I might have got tired of going to the same areas several years in a row, but no, I still love it.

I’ve also decided, in an attempt to update this space more often, I’m probably just going to post photos I like from now on, with less in the way of tags and words and thinking and all the things that put me off posting.

Ironbridge Photography

As my family live ten minutes away, I often find myself taking a wander through the town of Ironbridge in Shropshire. It’s always picturesque and I can’t help but want to take some photos. Due to lockdown, during my last visit a few months ago, the streets were mostly empty of the usual tourism you would find there.

One thing that stuck out of me on this occasion is the church. Whilst the Iron Bridge is always impressive and nice to see, the light at the time I arrived happened to be illuminating St Luke’s as it looked down from higher up the gauge.

The Iron Bridge is a bridge that crosses the River Severn in Shropshire, England. Opened in 1781, it was the first major bridge in the world to be made of cast iron, and was greatly celebrated after construction owing to its use of the new material.

In 1934 it was designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument and closed to vehicular traffic. Tolls for pedestrians were collected until 1950, when ownership of the bridge was transferred to Shropshire County Council. It now belongs to Telford and Wrekin Borough Council. The bridge, the adjacent settlement of Ironbridge and the Ironbridge Gorge form the UNESCO Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site.[1] The bridge is a Grade I listed building, and a waypoint on the South Telford Heritage Trail.

All photos of The Iron Bridge in Ironbridge were taken on the Fuji X-H1 with the Fujifilm XF16 - 55mm f/2.8 Lens, processed from RAW with Capture One.

Please visit the rest of my website, www.lukebennettphotos.com for much more content, including further landscape and nature photography from the UK and visit my Print Gallery to buy high quality prints of my UK landscapes.

Also, if you are interested in hiring me as your wedding photographer in Solihull, Birmingham, Coventry, Warwickshire, the Midlands or Beyond, please say hi!

Finally, please Help Support This Blog by Buying Photography Equipment on Amazon via this link and following me on social media.

Snow Photography in Warwickshire - Woodlands, Sheep and Horses Braving the Cold

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - I love snow!

I love the way it looks when it’s falling, all gentle and hypnotic. I love the way it looks when it has settled, coating everything across the land in a clean white sheen. I love the way it reminds us that nature doesn’t care about our systems or our road network or our need to do things. It just comes along, plonks itself down and causes a beautiful chaos.

Obviously it’s got some pretty strong competition in terms of the chaos part lately - For anyone reading this in the distant future (where hopefully the human race still exists in a renewed state of ignorant bliss), I’m writing this just after having had my first COVID-19 vaccine dose…

I made the most of the snow over the mid January weekend and ventured out, first on Saturday to Hay Wood in Solihull, one of my favourite places all year round. There wasn’t a huge covering of snow, especially deep under the cover of the trees, but it was lovely and cold and crisp, with a slight lingering mist in the air.

On the Sunday I took a walk locally around the block and off down a nearby footpath cutting through some farmer’s fields. Here I encountered a lovely horse and some sheep, grateful for their woolly jumpers.

All photos of the snow in Warwickshire were taken by Luke Bennett.

Please visit the rest of my website, www.lukebennettphotos.com for much more content, including further landscape and nature photography from the UK and visit my Print Gallery to buy high quality prints of my UK landscapes.

Also, if you would like me to photograph your wedding or event in Solihull, Birmingham, Coventry, Warwickshire, the Midlands or Beyond, please say hi!

Up Above the Streets and the Houses, Rainbow Climbing High (over the Wrekin)

I took a much needed walk up to the top of the Wrekin in Shropshire just before Christmas. It was a very cold and wet day, with huge muddy puddles everywhere and very slippery under foot. The kind of conditions where you need to be careful how you hold yourself and mindful of your surroundings. The best kind of conditions! Luckily, the sun was also out from time to time, for some lovely lighting at the top and clear-ish views over the surrounding areas.

As seems to be a common theme lately, I almost took a tumble a couple of times whilst scrambling around on the icy rock face. As I’m sure many other photographers can relate to, my immediate priority whilst slipping was to hold my camera out of danger, ignoring the potential breaks and bruises awaiting me on impact. Luckily I was fine and some well chosen swearwords seemed to aid my balance.

On the way back the light suddenly changed, covering everything in an orange glow and a lovely big rainbow could clearly be seen arching from one side of the Wrekin to the other. I could almost see the gold at the other end it was that close.

On the drive back, satisfied with a good walk and some nice photography opportunities I had to pull over for one final shot as the sun came down. This is (I think) part of the Long Mynd as viewed from the road by the Wrekin, looking very atmospheric in the cold winter light.

All photos of the Wrekin were taken in Shropshire by Luke Bennett.

Please visit the rest of my website, www.lukebennettphotos.com for much more content, including further landscape and nature photography from the UK and visit my Print Gallery to buy high quality prints of my UK landscapes.

Also, if you would like me to photograph your wedding or event in Solihull, Birmingham, Coventry, Warwickshire, the Midlands or Beyond, please say hi!


The Stiperstones

I took the opportunity to re-visit the Stiperstones in Shropshire a few weeks ago. I’d been before and took what I think were a nice series of photos, only in a moment of what can only be described as ‘stupidity’, I formatted my memory card before uploading them anywhere. Not my finest hour. But, a lesson learnt - always back up, always double check before deleting!

This most recent visit, whilst sharing the same rainy atmosphere was about 10 times as windy! It looks pretty nice and peaceful in some of the photos, but I’ve never experienced such windy conditions. At one point I was actually kept on my feet by the severe gale blowing against my back when I ended up losing footing on my way down the rock formations. So, thanks wind, I owe you one.

According to Wiki -

The Stiperstones is a distinctive hill in the county of Shropshire, England. The quartzite rock of the ridge formed some 480 million years ago. During the last Ice Age Stiperstones lay on the eastern margin of the Welsh ice sheet. The hill itself was not glaciated though glaciers occupied surrounding valleys and it was subject to intense freezing and thawing which shattered the quartzite into a mass of jumbled scree surrounding several residual rocky tors.[1] At 536 metres (1,759 ft) above sea level it is the second-highest hill in the county, surpassed only by Brown Clee Hill (540 metres (1,772 ft)). Stiperstones' 8-kilometre (5 mi) summit ridge is crowned by several jagged outcrops of rock, which may be seen silhouetted against the sky.
The general area has a long history of lead mining, most notably during the Roman occupation of Britain. Several pigs of lead have been found nearby, and the tradition continued into Victorian times.

The area around the Stiperstones is rich in myths and folklore relating to the rocks of the Devil's Chair. According to one legend, the ghost of Wild Edric, a Saxon earl who held lands that were confiscated after 1066 and successfully defied the Normans, for a time at least, rides the hills whenever England is threatened by invasion.

Aside from the incredibly blustery conditions and the spitting, cold (surprisingly painful) rain, there were frequent breaks in the cloud where the sun lit up the land through the atmospheric haze. I look forward to visiting again in the future.

All photos of the Stiperstones were taken in Shropshire by Luke Bennett.

Please visit the rest of my website, www.lukebennettphotos.com for much more content, including further landscape and nature photography from the UK and visit my Print Gallery to buy high quality prints of my UK landscapes.

Also, if you would like me to photograph your wedding or event in Solihull, Birmingham, Coventry, Warwickshire, the Midlands or Beyond, please say hi!

Bluebells in the Warwickshire Woodlands

I’m a bit late posting this, given that bluebell season is now well and truly over, but I thoroughly enjoyed photographing this year’s batch. My local woodlands is a lovely place for walking and photography throughout the year, but for a short window somewhere around April/May it takes on a whole new character. The air is alive with the sounds of bees and insects performing their duties, the spring sun provides beautiful light and shade through the trees, and the carpet of bluebells adds a sprinkle of bright, refreshing colour to the scene, like something out of a fairy tale.

All bluebell photos were taken in woodlands within Warwickshire.

Please visit the rest of my website, www.lukebennettphotos.com for much more content, including further landscape and nature photography from the UK and visit my Print Gallery to buy high quality prints of my UK landscapes.

Also, if you would like me to photograph your wedding or event in Solihull, Birmingham, Coventry, Warwickshire, the Midlands or Beyond, please say hi!

Concrete, Canals, Reflections and Graffiti

Last month as part of my recovery from surgery, I took a walk down my local stretch of the Grand Union canal. It was a nice clear day, cold and bright; good photography weather. In fact, looking back, it was probably the last week where the vibrancy of autumn was still visible - the leaves have now all dropped from their branches so everywhere is looking a bit dreary and devoid of colour.

After a little while I came to a section of concrete overpass where the motorway crosses over the top of the canal. I’m not a fan of graffiti, as a rule (unless there’s an element of skill or thought behind it), but it can certainly make a photo more interesting. It just so happened that I’d arrive at the overpass as the sun was low enough in the sky to shine through brilliantly, creating severe areas of light and shadow and illuminating the tags on the concrete. Unfortunately I didn’t have my tripod with me, or it might have been fun to combine multiple exposures for more control over the balance of shadows and highlights in post production, but I think they came out OK.

All photos of the Grand Union Canal in Warwickshire were taken on the Fuji X-T2 with the Fujifilm XF16 - 55mm F/2.8 lens, processed from RAW with Capture One.

Please visit the rest of my website, www.lukebennettphotos.com for much more content, including further landscape and nature photography from the UK and visit my Print Gallery to buy high quality prints of my UK landscapes.

Also, if you are interested in hiring me as your wedding photographer in Solihull, Birmingham, Coventry, Warwickshire, the Midlands or Beyond, please say hi!

Nesscliffe Hills

I recently went for a walk around Nesscliffe Hills in Shropshire. I’d not been before so was really pleasantly surprised by how nice a woods it was. I’d taken my Fujifilm XF 10-24mm f/4 and Fujifilm XF 16-55mm f/2.8 plus a Lee Circular Polariser and 0.9 ND Filter.

Nesscliffe Hills is apparently famous for being a hideout spot for ‘Shropshire’s Robin Hood’. Wild Humphrey Kynaston, the Robin Hood of Shropshire, is reputed to have lived in the cave up 24 steps cut into the rock face on the west of the hill with his horse, Beelzebub, stabled alongside. Here, he could watch out for rich travellers on the road below.

According to folklore, to survive, Sir Humphrey took up with local highwaymen who robbed Welsh wool traders on their way to and from the Oswestry markets. His knowledge of military strategy made him and his gang highly effective and soon he became notorious, though endeared himself to the locals by redistributing a good proportion of the stolen money and goods amongst them.

As hideouts go it’s not a bad one, I found myself thinking, as I took a relaxing walk up the hill and through the woods in the early autumn sunshine. The views from the top as the sun was setting were especially nice.

All photos of the Nesscliffe Hills were taken with the Fuji X-H1 and with the Fujifilm XF16 - 55mm f/2.8 Lens and the  Fujifilm XF10 - 24mm f/4 Lens, processed from RAW with Capture One.

Please visit the rest of my website, www.lukebennettphotos.com for much more content, including further landscape and nature photography from the UK and visit my Print Gallery to buy high quality prints of my UK landscapes.

Also, if you are interested in hiring me as your  wedding or events photographer in Solihull, Birmingham, Coventry, Warwickshire, the Midlands or Beyond, please say hi!

Finally, please Help Support This Blog by Buying Photography Equipment on Amazon via this link and following me on social media.

The Iron Bridge of Ironbridge

Until writing this blog entry, it hadn’t occurred to me that the town of Ironbridge had a different spelling to Iron Bridge, the bridge made of iron located within the town of Ironbridge. Ahem.

Anyway, for those that don’t know, I shamelessly lifted the following from Wikipedia:

The Iron Bridge is a bridge that crosses the River Severn in Shropshire, England. Opened in 1781, it was the first major bridge in the world to be made of cast iron, and was greatly celebrated after construction owing to its use of the new material.

In 1934 it was designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument and closed to vehicular traffic. Tolls for pedestrians were collected until 1950, when ownership of the bridge was transferred to Shropshire County Council. It now belongs to Telford and Wrekin Borough Council. The bridge, the adjacent settlement of Ironbridge and the Ironbridge Gorge form the UNESCO Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site.[1] The bridge is a Grade I listed building, and a waypoint on the South Telford Heritage Trail.

I recently had a mosey on down one summer evening whilst visiting my family who live ten minutes away. The lighting wasn’t as nice as I’d hoped it would be. Greedily, I was rooting for one of those colourful skies and long shadow kind of evenings, but what I got was nice-ish but pretty flat.

The Iron Bridge underwent a lick of paint in 2018 in a dark red colour, thought to represent the original paintwork of the bridge when first constructed.

All photos of The Iron Bridge in Ironbridge were taken on the Fuji X-H1 with the Fujifilm XF16 - 55mm f/2.8 Lens, processed from RAW with Capture One.

Please visit the rest of my website, www.lukebennettphotos.com for much more content, including further landscape and nature photography from the UK and visit my Print Gallery to buy high quality prints of my UK landscapes.

Also, if you are interested in hiring me as your wedding photographer in Solihull, Birmingham, Coventry, Warwickshire, the Midlands or Beyond, please say hi!

Finally, please Help Support This Blog by Buying Photography Equipment on Amazon via this link and following me on social media.

Wheat Fields and Sunsets and Why I love IBIS (In-Body Image Stabilisation)

I’ve been enjoying the balmy summer evenings of late and whenever possible I try to get out for a stroll in the warm setting sun. It’s probably my favourite part of the day and there’s something calming about watching the world around you slowly winding down for the night as the light gradually fades.

On this occasion, I took a walk through Berkswell, Warwickshire (the small picturesque village perhaps best known for its church - St John Baptist Anglican - parts of it dating back as far as 1150 AD) and it’s wheat fields.

As on most occasions when I’m having a walk, I had a camera with me, and I was lucky to be rewarded with a beautiful sunset. I love these big impressive trees and think they make for great subjects against the colourful sky.

Now, camera nerds are a funny bunch… I’ve noticed a lot of debate around the merits of IBIS (In-Body Image Stabilisation), with some people saying it’s a pointless gimmick and a waste of time, only serving to compromise image quality and add extra size and weight to your equipment. “Why bother? I have a tripod!” they smugly exclaim. These people, clearly have no imagination, foresight or lateral thinking, because there are plenty of scenarios where IBIS is massively useful to have.

Take these shots below, for instance. At least two of them are shot handheld at 1/50 of a second. Whilst not a really slow shutter speed to be shooting handheld, certainly one you’d want to be holding your breath for, ensuring good technique and keeping as still as possible. With IBIS enabled, I feel confident that I won’t see any camera shake at this shutter speed, and so I feel comfortable to click away without a tripod. No lugging one out, adding extra weight to my bag, no setting up, adjusting the height and angle and composition. Just quick and easy handheld shooting with no restrictions.

If that’s not a reason to have IBIS as standard, I don’t know what is.

All photos of Berkswell were taken on the Fuji X-H1 with the Fujifilm XF16 - 55mm f/2.8 Lens, processed from RAW with Capture One.

Please visit the rest of my website, www.lukebennettphotos.com for much more content, including further landscape and nature photography from the UK and visit my Print Gallery to buy high quality prints of my UK landscapes.

Also, if you are interested in hiring me as your wedding photographer in Solihull, Birmingham, Coventry, Warwickshire, the Midlands or Beyond, please say hi!

Finally, please Help Support This Blog by Buying Photography Equipment on Amazon via this link and following me on social media.

Photos from the Clent Hills

Last Saturday I took a trip to the Clent Hills in Worcestershire, near Stourbridge and Halesowen. Amazingly, it's somewhere I've never been before, despite being a big hill fan (read that how you will).

I was pleasantly surprised to find that in reality they're much more impressive than I'd assumed they would be in my head for so many years previously and I definitely will return for a longer exploration some time soon.

Embarrassingly, I had agreed to meet friends there, but in some bizarre episode of self sabotage, my brain was convinced that we had agreed to meet at the Lickey Hills near Birmingham. So upon arriving at their visitor centre and finding no one I recognised therein, it dawned on me - I simply had not listened properly. For any potential wedding clients - I will listen to you intently and will not turn up at the wrong venue.

Anyway, eventually I arrived at the correct hills, where my friends had already set off on their route, so I headed for the highest point to take some photos.

It was quite an overcast day but visibility was pretty good still. I only brought one lens with me to keep weight down - the Fujinon XF 35mm f/2.0. It's not known for being a landscape lens or even focal length, but I must say it performed really well, providing good clarity and definition.

All photos of the Clent Hills were taken on the Fuji X-H1 with the Fujifilm XF35mm f/2.0 Lens, processed from RAW with Capture One.
Please visit my website, www.lukebennettphotos.com for much more content, including further landscape and nature photography from the UK and visit my Print Gallery to buy high quality prints of my UK landscapes.
Also, if you are interested in hiring me as your wedding photographer in Solihull, Birmingham, Coventry, Warwickshire, the Midlands or Beyond, please say hi!
Finally, please Help Support This Blog by Buying Photography Equipment on Amazon via this link and following me on social media.

Poppies in Worcestershire

After seeing some excellent photographs on social media over the last week, I went off in search of poppies on Saturday evening for my own attempts at some poppy photography and to test out my sorely underused wide angle lens.

I had a vague idea where they were and after about 20 minutes of walking in the wrong direction down a busy A-road in the sweltering heat I ended up turning around and then seeing them up on a hill back near where I started. By the time I got there I wasn’t looking very photogenic, but luckily the poppies were.

This was a rare occasion where I’d actually planned to take photos specifically of a particular place, so I made sure to bring a tripod, my polariser, ND filters and Fujinon XF 10 - 24mm lens for some wide angled fun. It’s a lens that I don’t use as often as I would like to, purely because it’s too wide to be very useful for more generalised shooting, but it performed well and suited the location and the look I wanted to achieve.

The lighting wasn’t ideal, with the sun concealed behind cloud for most of the evening, but when it broke through I took my chance to play with what was on offer. There were a few limited occasions when the sun did dip under the clouds to create a beautiful illumination through the sea of red petals making for quite a striking contrast against the overcast landscapes in the background.

Towards the end of my evening when the wind had picked up quite a lot, I took the opportunity to try some long exposures, ranging from 10 to 30 seconds at a time, picking up the frantic movement of the flowers and wheat. I think these are probably my favourites from the batch.

All poppy photos taken on the Fuji X-H1 with the Fujifilm XF10-24mm f/4 Lens, processed from RAW with Capture One.

Please visit my website, www.lukebennettphotos.com for much more content, including further landscape and nature photography from the UK and visit my Print Gallery to buy high quality prints of my UK landscapes.

Also, if you are interested in hiring me as your wedding photographer in Solihull, Birmingham, Coventry, Warwickshire, the Midlands or Beyond, please say hi!

Finally, please Help Support This Blog by Buying Photography Equipment on Amazon via this link and following me on social media.

A Black and White Cloud Study

So, just as the UK enters a mini heatwave - as I type the sky is basically all blue - I get round to editing a small cloud study from a couple of weeks back. I'm nothing if not contrary.

Whilst I love the sun, I really love a good cloud! And on this occasion they were particularly tall and fluffy.

During processing in Capture One, I decided to go for a low key black and white conversion as it suited the scene. An interesting thing that occurred to me during the editing process was that out of all the things we photograph over time, clouds are some of the most transient; never remaining the same, always moving through the sky and eventually falling away into rain never to return in the same configuration again. And that's why I love a good cloud.

All cloud photos taken on the Fuji X-H1 with the Fujifilm XF50-140mm f/2.8 Lens, processed from RAW with Capture One.

Please visit my website, www.lukebennettphotos.com for much more content, including further landscape and nature photography from the UK and visit my Print Gallery to buy high quality prints of my UK landscapes.

Also, if you are interested in hiring me as your wedding photographer in Solihull, Birmingham, Coventry, Warwickshire, the Midlands or Beyond, please say hi!

Finally, please Help Support This Blog by Buying Photography Equipment on Amazon via this link and following me on social media.

Wild Welsh Ponies on the Shropshire Hills

A few weeks ago I spent a couple of days visiting my parents over in Shropshire. I'm lucky that they live in a very scenic part of the country, not far from some reliably lovely views and walks. On my first day I spent the afternoon walking up and around the Long Mynd. It's a place I've been a few times before and it hosts a number of footpaths and routes, with wide open views to all the surrounding Shropshire Hills.

I didn't really have a plan of action with regards to the type of photos I wanted to take whilst I was up there; I'm not much of a planner when it comes to taking images in my own time - I tend to just go with the flow and hope that I've brought the most suitable lenses with me for whatever situation or subject happens to present itself. Spontaneity is a wonderful thing I think, but I had a vague notion of getting some landscape photography done - When in Rome and all that... It came as a genuine surprise, then, to find myself taking portraits of horses for the majority of the excursion! I genuinely had no idea they were up there or that they'd be quite so photogenic.

In fact, after a bit of research, I think what I saw were actually ponies rather than horses, specifically Welsh Carneddau Mountain Ponies (please do correct me in the comments if I'm wrong!). Either way, they were beautiful, rugged looking creatures with quite an impressive range of  colours, textures and hairstyles.

Unfortunately the sun didn't really break through at any point so the lighting was rather dull and flat, but I'm still very pleased with how these turned out. All taken on the Fuji X-H1 with the Fujifilm XF50-140mm f/2.8 Lens, processed from RAW with Capture One.

Please visit other pages on my website, www.lukebennettphotos.com for much more content, including further landscape and nature photography from the UK.
To buy fine art photography of my UK landscapes visit my Print Gallery.
Also, if you are from Solihull, Birmingham, Coventry, Warwickshire or the West Midlands and are interested in hiring me as your wedding photographer, please say hi!
Finally, please Help Support This Blog by Buying Photography Equipment on Amazon via this link.

More Spring Lamb Photography in Warwickshire

I know I've posted a fair few lamb photos recently, but working through my current Capture One catalogue today, I can't help but want to post a few more!

I can honestly say that watching the lambs this Springtime has been one of my favourite nature photography related things of late. In fact, it never fails to put a smile on my face.

Take these little bundles of joy for example. The amount of energy and enthusiasm they have for play as well as the curiosity they have for the environment around them is just lovely to observe. Especially when contrasted against the almost deadpan seriousness of the fully grown sheep, who look to have long forgotten what it's like to be young, happy and carefree.

It turns out humans and sheep aren't that different after all...

Please visit other pages on my website, www.lukebennettphotos.com for much more content, including further landscape and nature photography from the UK.

To buy fine art photography of my UK landscapes visit my Print Gallery.

Also, if you are from Solihull, Birmingham, Coventry, Warwickshire or the West Midlands and are interested in hiring me as your wedding photographer, please say hi!

Finally, please Help Support This Blog by Buying Photography Equipment on Amazon via this link.

Horse Photography in Warwickshire

This week, I have been mostly taking photos of horses…

Horses make pretty great subjects, especially when the sun is low in the sky and the last light of the day creates a nice shimmery glow around them.

I encountered these particular beasts in a field in Warwickshire that they were sharing rather harmoniously with some sheep. They seemed pretty content, being largely left to their own devices, exhibiting a lot of the natural behaviours you’d probably expect to see from a wild band of horses - drinking from a large area of pooled rain water, moving as a herd from one area to the next and following the vocal instructions and body language of the dominant male.

I really love taking my time to just observe when taking photos of wildlife. The longer you stay and the more patient and calm you are, the more natural your animal subjects end up behaving. This in turn tends to present the best photographic opportunities.

Please visit other pages on my website, www.lukebennettphotos.com for much more content, including further landscape and nature photography from the UK. If you have a horse or any other pets that you’d like some beautiful photos of, please contact me for a quote.

To buy fine art photography of my UK landscapes visit my Print Gallery.

Also, if you are from Solihull, Birmingham, Coventry, Warwickshire or the West Midlands and are interested in hiring me as your wedding photographer, please say hi!

Finally, please Help Support This Blog by Buying Photography Equipment on Amazon via this link.