Olympus Evolt E1 – A Quest for Bluebells, Fairies and a House for Essex – Local Photo, Walks Pt2

This part 2 of a short series I decided to write, about local photo walks, some sort of inspiration for those looking for an excuse to pick up the camera and shoot something rather than what I’ve been doing for ages; namely going through old stuff or random crap in the garden. You can read part 1 here

I recently posted a short piece on Bluebells and Poppies and I thought as Spring isn’t Spring here in Britain without the sight of a Bluebell wood in bloom, and last Spring being a washout, I decided to go hunting for some around here, somewhere within a 10 Minute drive.

There’s something magical about seeing a quiet corner of a wood, with a carpet of blue flowers. Bluebells, or rather English Bluebells are a thing of beauty; in form and colour, added to the fact they spring into life almost overnight then are nowhere to be seen again until Spring comes around again adds to their mystery and wonder. The feel and atmosphere of a Bluebell Wood also brings the magic.

Needles to say, Bluebells are associated with myth, legend and folk lore. In English folklore, Bluebells were said to be able to be used to call fairies…If you “rang” a bluebell, it was believed fairies would come to you. But fairies are dangerous bargainers and the need to call fairies for aid must be great to risk the summons, children are notoriously at risk….

There is another folklore that states if you hear a bluebell ring, somebody close to you will die. Bluebells growing en masse in a field were best avoided. Needless to say, I didn’t ring one!

The best bluebell woods are those with little to no undergrowth and tall old Beech or Oak where the carpet is flat and full, I was hoping to find something like this rather than one with messy young trees and tangles which get in the way.

Bluebells are like Gold for anyone with a camera; especially with a lower sun, where shafts of light illuminate the carpet giving it texture and feel which you could stand and look at forever.

Anyway, I looked at the Map and as there were none to be seen in the wood opposite and nor in any of the other woods I’m familiar with locally, I decided to go to the village of Wrabness which is down the Harwich Road and nestles the Stour Estuary. I’ve been around Wrabness many times but never into the village and through to the coast on the other side of it, here I saw two copses; East and West Grove.

We had just watched an entertaining movie called Unwelcome, about a couple who move to Ireland and are then haunted by Redcaps (Far Darrig or Powries along with many other types and names). My son enjoyed it but was too scared to go into the garden and bury the poor half decapitated bunny the cat had brought in as a present, I was going to do it anyway, but being a bit of a mischievous gnome myself I dared him to go out – he obviously refused, being scared that the Far Darrig would pop out of the boshes! hehe!

But he jumped at the chance to go to find a Bluebell Wood and some Fairies, brave lad!!

Self use Level Crossing on The Mayflower Branch Line

Wrabness is a short but very picturesque drive, through Bradfield where we stopped at the small self controlled Level Crossing, where The Mayflower Line; a branch line of the Railway runs from Manningtree to Harwich International about 11 Miles down the Stour coast until it meets The North Sea. We had some fun lifting and lowering the gate until the siren started and the lights turned red, when a train then passed a minute later. The Harwich Road on Sunday’s has the odd old git of 50 odd (like me) in a midlife crisis riding his Superbike (or a 50cc Moped like me), zooming down, a sound you can hear minutes later booming in the distance like an F1 car race track.

A House for essex

We then drove to Wrabness. After parking the car at the Railway Station, it was a short walk down Blackboy Lane, where to our surprise we saw A House for Essex,

A House for Essex is designed by FAT Architecture and Grayson Perry. It is both an artwork in itself and the setting for a number of works by Perry exploring the special character and unique qualities of Essex. The building has been designed to evoke the tradition of wayside and pilgrimage chapels. It belongs to a history of follies, whilst also being deeply of its own time.

It’s a strange building, full of grotesques and images which I find disturbing. It is however beautiful in a strange way. The light was quite harsh so I thought I’d take some snaps of it on the return, which you can see just below.

The stour estuary

A path ran by some fields, looking over to the West you can see yellow fields of Rapeseed towards the banks of The Stour Estuary upstream towards Dedham, with the Suffolk side opposite. Over to the right you can see fields and copses, with horses grazing, your eyes then lead you to the distant features of Harwich International – quite an eyesore after the rural tranquility and beauty, which horses grazing in a paddock make a nice contrast.

The fields were soaked with sun, the trees lining the bank were lit up and accompanied by bright yellow flowering Gorse.

Around a corner, the path lead, over a tiny bridge and through a Waymarked path winding by the banks Where the late afternoon sun created some lovely warm streaks of gold amongst the trees, with woodland encroaching the banks. It was then that we were greeted with a magical sight;

Looking to our right into the sun kissed woodland we noticed the floor covered in purple, interspersed with white, a lush carpet of beautifully formed blue bells, lit up in places by the sun as it streamed through the trees! I admit there’s nothing like it. I carefully walked along the smaller path leading in and was then surrounded by wonder, which mingled with a sweet aroma left me standing for a while lost in a reverie.

My trance was cut short by a shout from my son who had found a rope swing tied to a tree. I took some snaps then joined him playing on the swing, I even with a dodgy knee and extra weight had a go..

The Bluebells wood wasn’t perfect – the trees were short and had many trunks branching outwards, they weren’t the type of trees which make for a perfect Bluebell wood (for the picture taker) but made up for it by the wonderful light, the undisturbed forms of the flowers, the nearby Estuary and the fact that we had the place to ourselves.

The East grove itself was small and quaint but had a lot of peace and charm. I’ve also photographed much more pleasing close ups of Bluebells, my knee meant I couldn’t get down low and as I had to play with my son I didn’t have time to find the perfect model! I also lacked a really long lens, the trees got in the way for more pleasing compositions, so I gave up trying to capture the glory of the carpet in other parts of the Grove. I guess most of the time these places have to be experienced and no photograph can express or portray the feeling.

The leisurely walk back was even nicer than the journey there, as the light had warmed becoming more golden. The view of the estuary was very beautiful indeed, a white sail boat was making it’s way upstream and we stood a while to see whether there would be a shipwreck of sorts, and debated as to who would swim out to save the crew..

Back to the car at the Railway Station and the short drive home, but not before taking a few snaps of The House for Essex and some colourful sights along the way. We even espied some people walking their dog.

And a little featured Station Garden with a giant Wasp thing.

Our quest to find some local Bluebells was very much rewarded, we didn’t spot any fairies, but I did start spinning some yarns with my son when the walk was interrupted by gentle rain of dandelion fairies as they floated past in waves.

In some ways I really enjoyed this new style of Photography (for me) and concentrating on form, highlights, shadow and colour and of course the subject matter. Since 2018 and 2021 with the death of my Dad, my style has been changing, iI’ve noticed it reflects the way I feel, so is less daring, gentler and a lot more boring in many ways (to others), but I photograph things I want, like, and mainly for me – so it’s an added bonus if someone else enjoys them. I’ll continue to write as long as people enjoy my articles and pictures, I’ll likely give up if I that feeling disappears in both me and the viewer.

The camera – Olympus E-1 5 mega pixel kodak fft ccd dslr from 2004

My camera of choice was my Olympus Evolt E-1 Four Thirds 5 Mega Pixel DSLR. It’s has fast become my main camera (and my favourite Digital of all time), followed by the Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D which has nicer more refined shadow detail and thus better in lower light or where shadow detail is required. This on the other hand has more contrast and nicer Kodak colour. That classic Kodak Color Science CCD look.

Countless people can try and re-create this evocative look in LR or PS, but the issue with that is they have no such thing as a IT8 type Film target (digital equivalent) to get the exact look and colour – so any reconstruction or processing of a modern CMOS image is pure speculation.

Why bother trying to get this look when you can buy a Kodak CCD DSLR for peanuts (such as the E500) – though I’ve noticed prices of the E-1 and the E-300 have risen sharply and now almost twice as much as they were a year ago. The same reason why those wanting to mimic Film should just shoot Film instead of using Film look plug-ins and/or processing to make their image look like Tri-X or Velvia.

I took my two lenses, the Zuiko 50mm f2 Macro which is a sublime portrait lens, and my new 12 – 60mm f2.8 – f4 Zuiko. This is a new acquisition. I previously shot with what I thought was the outstanding Zuiko 14-54 f2.8 – f3.5. The guy who sold me that said he had the 12-60. The 14-54 is 28 – 108mm equivalent and is a large heavy weather proof lens. This is even bigger and heavier, but half a stop slower at the top end. it makes up for it with a wide 24 – and longer 140mm equivalent focal length. I was sceptical at first as the 14-54 was fantastic. But this is even better – sharper with a nicer look, and with a longer 120mm making it better for portraits and at times meaning the 50mm f2 (100m equivalent) is used less so. It also focusses faster and accurately than either the 50 f2 or 14-52. The 50 tends to hunt a lot when shooting in to the sun.

As I’ve written elsewhere, the E-1 has a wonderful gentle look to the photos. It’s a pleasure to use, handles and feels better than any other camera I’ve used – with a wonderful design which Olympus spent decades developing (an evolution of the design of their 80ies AZ300 to is3000 to the Camedia E20 and C-8080). They foolishly abandoned the design after the E-1 (They also abandoned the Side on Porro prism design of the E300 and E330) leading to the boring E-3 and E-5, which I presume was because of the popular photographic press who gave the camera bad and unfair reviews.

It’s tricky to shoot with, having limited shadow detail and limited dynamic range – but oh so satisfying. The Jpeg output is very nice and people swear by it – I shoot in RAW + Jpeg and use the Jpeg as a reference.

The Camera Press is a corrupt cartel anyway, they bias their reviews in favour of who gives them the most funding. To give you an example, I handled and shot with the Sony A7 and had a Sony SLT A55 recently for 1 day. The SLT in particular was probably the worst camera I’ve ever used. Built like a rattly plastic toy, with an awful grip which hurt my hands, a crap user interface and on off switch placed where the aperture toggle should be. Sure it was quick and had high resolution but the output wasn’t in any way better or comparable to the Konica Minolta Dynax 7D nor the Olympus E-1. I felt the same with the A7 – another one which was disappointing, which I returned and replaced with a Panasonic Lumix GX7 back when they were both newly released. Of course they’re great if you want to shoot events, sports, inside or catch badgers copulating at midnight, or track a pigeon dropping one mid-flight on your car roof,  or take a zillion frames a second, or want to make billboards for the family album, of course they’re excellent cameras for those who want the features, but not for me and I lack such interest. These are of course my  subjective opinions based on my own (limited) ability and experience and others of course feel differently so please no debates. Anyway these cameras are highly praised by the press as being very special, though they’re a far cry from the solid Minolta designed A900 and probably Minolta designed A200 (I have the Sony A200 and it’s a fine camera, I also had the A900 which is a lovely hefty well made piece albeit too bulky, bulkier than the similarly sized Minolta a-9).

Anyway enough controversial rants and back to the day out. I enjoyed it immensely, as my knee is recovering and now I’m able to actually enjoy my photography.

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