The problem with nature is that it's just so messy!
There are a few places near where I live in North East Wales that, for a couple of weeks in spring, become blue wonderlands of bluebell carpets, and I'm always dead keen to get out into those woods to photograph the flowers during the brief time they're at their best.
On this occasion Liz and I were exploring the woods at Wepre Park in Connah's Quay, and found some lovely wooded slopes carpeted in blue to photograph.
But could I find a decent clean composition? No!
Every time I thought I had a shot there would be an inconvenient tree branch, patch of weeds or dead bracken in the way, preventing me from getting my nice clean composition of tree trunks surrounded by bluebells.
Grr!
I was getting quite frustrated, not a good frame of mind to be in for creative endeavours, but then I remembered the old panning blur technique I'd used in similar situations before, with some really nice abstract results.
So I found myself three trees with a vivid patch of bluebells at their base and took several slow exposure vertically panned frames.
On reviewing all the images I took that afternoon, it was only the blurred abstracts that appealed to me, with this being the best of the bunch.
I'm glad in the end that I didn't let my frustration ruin the moment, and a shift in mind concept got me the image with the 'feel' that I was looking for.
Filename - bluebell blur 01.jpg
Camera - Canon 6D
Lens - 100-400mm zoom @ 105mm
Exposure - 1 sec @ f32, ISO100
Location - Wepre Park, Connah's Quay, North Wales
This image - 640x800px JPEG
Conversion - Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop CC
Comments - Camera panned vertically during the exposure
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