I’ve wanted to photograph a poppy field for ages, and a couple of weekends ago one of my friends came upon a wonderful poppy, cornflower and daisy field. The phone image she sent me looked amazing - poppies, cornflowers and daisies filling an enormous field in South Oxfordshire. I decided that I should go and look for myself so a few days later, on an amazing hot summer’s evening, I headed out of London for a taste of the countryside…
Although this was only a few days after the sighting, the poppies were mostly gone. The fallen red petals scattered amongst the barley and cornflowers were nearly all that was left of them, aside from the last brave handful that had endured the hot spell.
The field was still utterly gorgeous, even without most of the poppies. Bright blue cornflowers covered the field, swaying in the wind. The field was bathed in warm, evening sunlight, and although there was no obvious vista to capture, there was clearly potential for some macro photography.
I walked through the field along the path, down the hill to a gate into a woodland. Might as well have a look at what’s in here I thought…
Inside the woodland was dark and shady, it took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the dimness. Once my eyes had re-calibrated, I could see that the woodland was amazing. It was so GREEN! There was a tiny path - not much more than a rabbit path - that caught my eye. A lovely composition with a strong tree in the left foreground, the path leading off into the green, and the wonderful higgledy-piggledy trees further away.
I’m already getting the tripod out of the bag, it’s such a lovely sight. Camera on the tripod. Switch the lens to manual focus and get the shot set up.
My remote shutter release is already plugged in. I do this every time I go out with the camera, even if I don’t think I’ll use my tripod. The reason being that it’s a proper pain to get the shutter release cable into the socket. It’s exacerbated by the fact that I’ve got an L bracket on my camera for the odd occasion that I shoot portrait compositions. Squeezing the shutter release plug into the socket, with the L bracket on, is a nightmare. I can spend several minutes messing around, which is why I always do this before I leave the house. Once it’s plugged in, i wrap the cable around the bracket, and it stops it dangling around to much, or falling out.
The shot is set up. I press the remote shutter release button to take the photograph. Nothing happens. The stupid thing has come half out of the socket. I ram it back in. The live view on the back of my camera goes dead. Bugger! I switch the camera off and on and switch live view back on. Nothing. I press the camera shutter to see what happens. No sound of a photograph being taken. I press some more buttons, and turn it off and on some more. Nope, still not behaving.
I take the camera off the tripod and after pressing some more things, off and on again, swap to another lens. Suddenly it’s all working! I take a look at the images on the memory card and I have, somehow, some photos of the wonderful woodland composition. Hurrah!
Back into the field the light is low and very soft and part of the field is in shadow. I have a play with my old second hand macro lens and the light slowly fades and eventually it’s time to head home.
The next day, and with the photos from the evening loaded into Lightroom, it was clear when I zoomed into the woodland image that it’s actually slightly soft. It was a 2.5 second exposure, and with all the button pressing I suspect camera shake has been at play. So for now this is just a work in progress, and I’m putting the image up here as a mark of intent to return to this spot one day, and not suffer a camera malfunction.
The last poppy in the poppy field….
Amongst the flowers and grasses there were new poppy buds growing that hadn’t yet flowered. Perhaps another variety of late flowering poppies, and a reason for another visit…?