After 30 years I finally get the photo I have dreamt about (despite the blue sky!)

This is Headless Chicken Nigel. Everyone seems to like Headless Chicken Nigel. I was so excited to set off on my final leg of photographing every county in England in the Southeast. But I had no idea just how incredible this would be. The weather forecast was blue skies every day for 2 weeks. But would that mean that I get the elusive blue bell shot I've been after in that morning mist? Jackpot. It doesn't get better than this. A big thanks to Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. So, back with my camper van and I've just driven all the way from Cheshire to Bookinghamshire and hopefully, fingers crossed, there's going to be some good blue bells. I'm going to have a check now. I'm going to just go and scout it a little bit and if I find them, I'll show you. I'm not going to take my camera. Um, and I am just going to go and have a look and then hopefully in the morning I'm going to go out and photograph them. Um, I'm quite tired. Um, just spent three and a half hours in my camper van. Not easy with my back, but um, yeah, I made it. I'm so excited to be back in this doing this countish project cuz it is so enjoyable and the spring is one of my favorite times of year to photograph. So, you can probably see behind me. Um, this is looking really good. Um, there's some quite mature trees as well, which is good. And yeah, I think in this bit here, um, I've been told there's some really good blue bells. Rian, my friend, pointed me in this direction. So hopefully Oh, there is. Look at that over there. Wow. This looks really good. This woodland was exactly what I was looking for. So I got my phone out, found out where sunrise was going to be, something I'd always recommend you do, and I was getting super excited about the following morning. So, my plan is for the next couple of days is to explore some of these blue bell woodlands in probably two or three counties and see what I can find. Um, I'm lost. Completely lost now. If I can get through here, but yeah, and just see what I can find. Um, I'd really like to get a really nice blue bell shot. If it was foggy, it'd be fantastic. I don't think I can get through there, can I? Um, and that's the plan. So, I'll see you tomorrow morning. If I don't get lost morning. Oh, the birds are singing. It's blue sky, which means we're going to get some sunlight. So, I'm quite excited about this. Right bag. Oh, and I've just tipped everything out of my bag. Right. All right, let's go. Wow, the bird song's just amazing. So, it's going to be completely different than last night. Now, obviously, the sun um was setting over there and casting light in this direction. Sure, I shooting in that direction, but now the sun's rising over there, so I'm going to shoot in that direction. And I'll quickly show you what that means. So, I've got basically I'm going to be shooting into this here. And um yeah, I've just got to try and find a composition in the dark. It's always hard at sunrise like this, but I'll find something. Okay. I always like getting a starter image and this is a pretty good one. Um, I got this log that's fallen. Now, there's not a lot of blue bells in this middle section here, but there's blue bells here and they connect together quite well. There's definitely better shots, but I always like trying to get a shot at the beginning of a shoot like this just to get my eye in a little bit. So, I'm just going to work this a little bit more. And as sun comes up, I'm going to rush around like a headless chicken. Right, I found a really nice shot, I think, and it's just a great example of why you need a slightly longer lens when you're shooting in woodland, especially with blue belts, I find, because you really you get a much better image when you zoom in just a little bit. Um, so you know, you have to have a huge field of blue bells to not have to do that I find. So here, if you just look

at this, this is 35 mm. This was this would be 24. Way too much sky. Um, and at first when I saw this, I thought, oh, it's not going to work. Um, but then if I just zoom in on this, you can see that if I just keep going here, then I get to about there. And I really like this. I really like that bit there. And sort of a nice diagonal across. This is beautiful. This is 85 mm. I've got my 24 to 120 surprise on. And yeah, this just looks amazing. That light that you get before sunrise where you get like a real glow like I've got over there. This big glow coming through just creates this really nice sidelight on the trees and that just looks amazing. There's a spot here which is really cool. Um, there's obviously some traffic that comes through this area. Um, so there's two sort of paths that you could walk down which is good cuz I can get into more of the woodland, but it actually creates this really nice leading line. I've gone a little bit higher with the tripod and that works really well. And I've got this lone tree at the end. The only problem is I'm not sure about this tree, but jeez, this place is amazing. There's actually some mist on the field over there, but I don't think it's going to come into the woodland. This is so cool. Okay, I think I found something that's pretty nice here. Only thing I'm not 100% sure about is the sky at the top left. So, this bit up here. But I really like this sort of dead branch that's fallen across. I've got this really nice path. I'm shooting the opposite way now of what I just showed you. And then I've just separated these trees. It's a really good example of you just need to move left or right a little bit. If you look at this tree here, then if I before I was just shooting there, can you see how that's doesn't look as good? If I just move this way a little bit, then I give that some space and it just looks way better. Now I I've dropped down a little bit as well because I feel like too high and then there's too this separates too much from the top. So height and adjustment so important when you're doing woodland makes such a big difference. This looks so good. road to slow down. Right, I can see sunlight on the trees now. So, I'm going to head back down here and then hopefully I can find a composition that isn't too bad. And Rian's with me. wave. So, oh no, the sun's coming up. It's too scary. Where we going to go? This is Headless Chicken Nigel. Everyone seems to like headless chicken Nigel. I don't There's a path here. If I can shoot through there. Basically, the sun's coming up now, and I want to try and get the sun sort of I don't know what I want. What do I want? What do you want, Nigel? Oh, Lord. What about here? This is pretty good, isn't it? Yeah, this is This will do. Right. That was a grand failure. Um, I'm going to go back down here. I think it's way better here. So, I think this is quite nice. just this view here. So, I'll show you what I've got. So, basically, so just shooting down there looks really good. So, I'm just going to shoot this now and pray. Really care for the war now. Rest with me close to curtains. brew some tea. — So, there's a path down here which looks pretty good. But I think what's really good is there's just a lone tree a little bit further down. So, I'm going to use a long lens to get that. The light's changing so quickly. I'm not stood in any blue bells here, by the way. There's a path that you can walk through. Stood on that bit before anybody tells me off in the comments. Um, but I think this looks pretty good. Um, the light's changing so quick.

Right. So, um I'm trying something a little bit different here. I've just got these um branches. You can just see in front of my camera here and just trying to have some focus bits. I think it works. Um it might just be really crap, but it's worth a go, isn't it? And so, I'm going to do that and then I'm going to move further in front. I'm going to go low and get some blue bells out of focus. I think that's the next plan. So, the tree out of focus didn't quite work, but I really liked where the blue bells were out of focus at the bottom of the image. I think it's quite good. Right, the light's getting so harsh now. Um, I think this is a good shot. Um, there's no light on this tree at the end, which is good. I think I don't want light on the tree at the end. Um, you can see that there's bands of light, which I really like, where you go from light to dark to light to dark. And I've got this really nice tree on the left hand side here. So, I think this works. Um, but it is quite a complicated shot. So, I'm not 100% sure. Oh, it's been difficult. discover. — This was definitely my favorite shot of the morning, but in my head, I still quite hadn't got that blue bell shot I was after. But would that happen in the coming days? So, back in my van. Um, and I'm off to see a lone tree. Yes. So, tree cuz I know there's a rape seed field there. Thanks to Mark, I'll put his Instagram here for helping me out in this area. This is going to be Bedfordshire. I've just come from Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire I'm going to shoot tomorrow morning. So, I think I'm going to maybe do three counties in one here, but I'm probably going to stick around cuz I want to shoot the blue bells a little bit longer. Um anyway, so I'm heading to this lone tree on top of a hill to decide whether I think it's worth coming back to. I think um or whether it's worth staying here tonight and then coming back in the morning. The hardest thing with this project is just time management and just knowing where to go cuz obviously you got to wait around a long time. Um you got to plan it. It's just it's really tricky. But anyway, um it's beautiful day and um yeah, hopefully I'll see you. Now I'm going to The problem is when you follow satnav is that you always go down little roads and hopefully this won't be too bad. Now this road looks okay. Although it does have a weight limit on it, — right? So, I found the rape seed fields. And if you look over there, there is a lone oak tree. So, I'm trying I'm going to walk down here and see if I can get a shot of it um down this road. It should work pretty well, actually. So, I think I'm going to have to drone it because I can't get to the spot I need to get to get a good shot. um without walking through the field and I don't particularly want to do that. Uh it is I think this is a bridal way that I'm on but I don't obviously can't just walk into a farmer's field. So yeah, I'll just drone and see what I can get. So, I flew around the field a little bit and then eventually found a really nice composition and waited for the tree to be illuminated and it worked pretty well. I am now off to Surrey. But before I get to Surrey or through I'm going to go through sorry slightly. Uh and I'm going to rogue alloys because one of the things I've not done on the van yet is pimp the outside of it. And I need I've got winter tires on at the moment. It's not winter. Not good. I need to get some different um tires. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to keep these winter tires on these steel alloys, these steel rims. And then I'm going to get some good looking rims for the main ones I'm going to be using through the summer. Um, so somehow I'm then going to store these four wheels in my camper van and the heavy and I don't know where I'm going to put them. So that's going to be fun. Next stop, Rogue Alloys through the I've got to go down the M25. Not looking forward to that. I hate motorways. I

just want to look at the countryside here. It's absolutely amazing. Okay, bye blue bells. — So, onto the M25, which is the motorway which circles London. A quick call to get some super cheap petrol and then in to get my new alloy wheels. Right, so I'm at Rogue Alloys at the moment. And I've just been in there, show you some video. I've They've got so many different alloys to choose from. And because it's so difficult, what they've agreed to do is get three out. I'm going to bring them out and sort of try them against my van so I can see what they look like because at the moment I've got these still steel alloys on. And we're going to make sure that the wheel size is the same as well cuz that's like really important. So I chose a couple of different wheels and they had these really cool sort of lift tools so I could see what they look like on the van and eventually chose one. — Right. So, I've decided this is what I've gone for. Um, fairly tame, I would say, and I've gone for the General Grabber tires. But, yeah, they're 17in alloys, but the tires are a bit thinner. So, basically, the overall dimension that the diameter of the wheel is the same, so it shouldn't affect anything that way. And, um, yeah, they're all terrain. Exciting. Going to put them on now. So, I grabbed a coffee and they sorted it all out whilst I was waiting. So, with my new tires on, my old ones next to me in the passenger seat, it's on to Surrey. All right. Well, I've just been I've spent 3 and 1/2 hours driving around. There's a tire. Um, Surrey Hills and um, you know, walking around as well. It's blue sky, so that makes it a lot harder. But I'm trying to The hard thing is, right, I've got sunrise and sunset obviously best options. I need to find somewhere to park or stay at a campsite, but campsites are rubbish because they don't let you in and out at the right times. And then I need to find a location in a place I've never been before. And it's just super hard when you get close to London because everything's more restricted. Um, and I'm really struggling. So, I'm going to drive around a little bit now and hopefully find something that I think either I can shoot my drone or I can shoot in a woodland. I mean, it's beautiful here, but I just I spent an hour and a half walking around this woodland. I couldn't find anything that I thought at this time of year would work in dry, sunny conditions, even when the sun's down because yeah, so struggling. After another hour of driving, I eventually found this amazing church with this beautiful woodland around it. Right, another day, another woodland. I'll put the name of the church that I'm going to walk to now. But as I'm walking there, I'm going to fly my drone there. Um, it's just a beautiful oak tree here. And I'm I think I've seen another one just down there as well. And I'm just wondering whether these might actually make I shouldn't just keep photographing woodland, should I? But, you know, photograph what you love. That's And what I think so beautiful about this country is the woodlands. They're just so stunning. So, yeah. what I find. Oh wow, this looks amazing. Look at these trees here. They're so cool. I'm back lit as well. Got lucky here finally. Oh my word. So I don't want to take off where the church is. I don't want to disturb people. So, just going to find an opening over here to take off in. But to be honest, I think I can probably get a shot here. Might have to I'll wait a little bit. I'm going to fly first then come back to that. I think I'm just hoping I can find an opening up here cuz not knowing the area. I always worry with flying my drone. I don't I never want to disturb people. Um never want to do anything illegal. I want to disturb people, you know, just keep it fairly incognito and that's the best plan in my books. Yeah, this is pretty good. This is a lot of fern, some silver birch. I think if I take off here, I'll be good. Just hope I don't lose signal. So, one of the great things about flying a drone is you can sort of get a lie of

the land. But I really wanted to check out if there was a shot for the following morning where there was fog forecast. There's tons of roadendron bushes here. I'm probably about 3 weeks too early, but this is this would be so cool. Um cuz it's got nice trees and roaded bushes and I've always struggled to find that. There's another flower. Look. Um so yeah, this would have been amazing. So this is one of the problems with so little time in one location. you find something like this incredible oak tree. Just I'm just at the wrong time of year. I feel like we need a little bit more undergrowth growing. Some of the ferns are just starting to sprout. They look better. And just some fog here would just look amazing or low cloud, just rain in fact. Um but you know, it's blue sky kind of helped. I'll take a photo, but it won't be great. But that's all part of this project, isn't it? really just trying to struggle a little bit and see what I can get. Oh my word, I found something really good. I didn't think I would. And then suddenly you come across something. Just I always say this, the more you do something, the luckier you get. And this tree just catching the light nicely. I've got a really nice background. There's another straight tree to the left of it which balances it so nicely. I'll show you what I'm talking about on the camera. Then I'll show you the finished photo. I'm also going to fly it and try and take a shot with my drone from a little bit higher up. This is great. If I don't get anything else, sorry you've been difficult, but that's a tick. So, I'm just flying my drone just this morning at the church, just expecting not to get anything. And it's foggy. So, I'll show you some footage now. And I think I'm going to get a good shot of the church. I think it's absolutely spectacular. And also, the woods are a little bit foggy as well. Didn't expect this. Well, that fog was so incredible. It was rolling over the hills. Got some great shots. And I was going to come back to Surrey, so I thought I'd head down to Sussex to the coast because there was a lighthouse I really wanted to photograph there. So, I've arrived at the coast now and um these are the chalk cliffs that are along the whole of this coastline going into Kent as well um to the white cliffs of Dover. So, pretty cool. What's really cool is some blue bells just here. So, I'm going to try and get a shot here um of these blue bells. And I wish I could jump over this wall. But I don't think I can. I think it's somebody's garden. So, I probably shouldn't do that cuz there's some houses down there. So, today is more of a scouting day or certainly this evening. I think it there's a really nice lighthouse down here, a beachy head, which is like um red and white lighthouse. And I've always wanted to photograph it. The tide's not right. So, it's a tricky one because I can't really come back in like a week. So, I think I'm going to have to shoot a different thing which is going to be a sunrise shot because I think the tide will be better then and shoot it from the different direction. Um, so I'm just trying to figure out how difficult that is and I'm not sure cuz I've not seen many photos of it from there. Now, I may be able to fly my drone, but I'd prefer to just photograph it with my, you know, looking at it with my eyes. So, yeah, that's what I'm doing. But there's no clouds. I mean, it it's literally the photographers's worst nightmare of a of weather. Beautiful, though, so I shouldn't complain.

Right, it's the next morning and I'm just walking to the coast again. It's 5:05. Sunrise is at 5:40 and I want to get that sort of pre- sunrise shot with my drone if I can. Um, I think that'll give me the best angle. And again, there's just nothing in the sky. So going down to the beach just not going to give me anything cuz I'm going to be shooting more up and I'm going to have a lot of sky in and um clear day like this it just isn't the thing to do. So I've got about a 5minute walk where I can see the lighthouse um from scouting last night. I think where I'm going to be I didn't come here but it's going to be perfect. There's nobody around tonight either. This morning last night was so busy. Ah, right. Oh, I didn't want to get out of bed this morning. This is the fifth sunrise on the trot. This counters project's tough, but I'm getting there. So enjoyable, though. So, as I stood watching sunrise, I flew my Mavic 4 Pro over these amazing white cliffs. First of all, I took this shot of the second lighthouse here at Beachy Head, which also took later when the sun rose, which I think is a little bit better. Then I flew a little lower and played around with the composition into the sun. Think this works. But my favorite shot came from shooting the other way and including both lighouses. Which is your favorite of these? And if you're enjoying this video, please don't forget to like and subscribe. I did also get some great shots with my camera. And that was it for my time at the lighthouse. I decided to head back to Surrey because I noticed that there was a likelihood of fog in the morning and I really wanted to get that blue bell shot, but I just wasn't prepared for just how good it was. Right, I am super excited this morning. There is actually fog in the woodland. So, I've scouted this last night. Can't speak cuz I got to be quick. Um, and yeah, it's a blue bell woodland in Surrey. It's pretty cool. And I'm just on the chem border. Let's go. I am so excited about this. Um just listen to the bird song. It's just so amazing. And um yeah, there's just enough fog. It's not dense fog, but there's enough fog to be able to get a brilliant woodland shot. Yes. Yes. I've got a first start of a 10 and it's this one here which is just everything just becomes easier when it's foggier foggier. I was here last night and it was so complicated this. So I've just got a selection of shot shots here. But what I really like is the really green greens on here and then down here and it sort of creates this diagonal that connects the two. So your eyes sort of bouncing around. That looks absolutely beautiful. I'm going to do a wider shot as well cuz I think there's a bit of a pano here as well. So, going to do a wider shot and crop it. But jackpot. It doesn't get better than this. Oh, it's so good when it's foggy in a new woodland you never been to before. Yes. So, I'm here with Trevor, whose local woodland it is, and he's been kind enough to sort of show me around a little bit. Last night, I had a scout for a couple of hours as well. I found that composition down there. He just pointed out this tree here, which I thought is really beautiful. Quickly got this. There's a beautiful um sort of set of blue bells below it. But also, I've taken a wider shot with this path on as well, which I think looks absolutely amazing. Right, I'm gonna go up there. See what I can find up this path. Right, so here's another shot that um Trevor pointed out to me. Actually sent me a pin last night and I checked it out last night just to work out exactly where it was. Um I I'll show you Trevor's work actually. I'll put a link here and to his Instagram. Um, he's got some amazing photos of the all woodlands in Surrey

which are just incredible. Fun fact, Surrey has got the biggest percentage woodlands per percentage area, I think, or per area. Um, which is amazing. I never knew that. Anyway, onto this composition. So, we got this really sort of gnarly oak tree in the middle, and I think it's all about that tree really, but the background trees just in fog like this just set it off. And then you got this beautiful blanket of blue bells. And I'm shooting it's around about 5 seconds about f8 which I think will be a fine round about 70 mil which is sort of usual for woodland between sort of 40 to maybe 90 mm. Doesn't get better than this. Fog's gone. As soon as it arrived, it went. But it's still nice. So, I'm still obviously looking for good compositions. Um, I think I might just go back down here and see if I can just see something again. I think there was a nice shot down here that I didn't take cuz I saw a different composition. So, I'm going to go back down here. I think when I drop lower as well then there is more fog. So yeah. So I'm back at this composition, but I think there's some things back in this direction as well back behind me. So I'm going to stop just here. Okay. So I've come back to this shot now. The fog's not as good. It's still the fog sort of coming and going, but still a tiny bit. It's a little bit more dense over there, I think. But I really like this path. So I've come back. I've just flown my drone here just to get some B-roll, but I really I saw this path and I really like this path coming through it. So, I've got a little bit wider further back and um yeah, the sun's coming from over here. So, you get this light coming through which is lighting all the side of the trees. So, the sun's in the perfect position. If the sun was behind me, it wouldn't be as good this. The sun needs to be sort of over in that direction. Um I've got to say that's pure luck. Right, I found another lovely composition. Um, the blue bells are just catching the light as well, which looks really nice. So, I've got the blue bells here, this oak tree, which I shot from the other side before, but the light's coming in from sort of this direction. This is just amazing. You get certain days like this, I'd say one every 3 years, and it's incredible. And I've been lucky enough to get it in what is an amazing woodland in blue bell season, probably the last few days of blue bell season. God, just get out. And this is amazing. I'm so happy. Oh, wow. The fog's got a lot denser again. Um, I think as the sun gets up, but I think we might get light rays. I think the sun gets higher, I think it's going to break through the fog a little bit, and there's going to be light rays. Just got to be in the right place at the right time. Right onward. We've worked out that basically the fog is near where the openings are. So, we're just close to the sort of an open in a field here and the fog's just sort of coming in. It's probably two and a bit hours since I came out, maybe two and a half hours and we still got a little bit of fog. Um, and I just found this nice little composition here um with a selection of trees. So, yeah. So, the blue bells are just blanketed here and in this spot here, the blue bells are looking pretty good. In other areas, the blue bells aren't quite as nice. And then, yeah, the lights just coming in from the side again. It looks absolutely amazing. That was one of the most incredible mornings I've ever had doing woodland photography. It's my dream for a while to be able to be in a great woodland with great blue bells and have fog with

sunlight coming through there. all those elements just have such a narrow window of opportunity to come together and it worked. I was so lucky that I took so many good shots and I sounds bigheaded but I really I'm really pleased with loads of the shots I took. I can't show them all in here in the book that I'm going to be able to create from this counties project which if you're interested in by the way there's a link below and I'm going to be announcing that book to um my email audience a week before I announce it to everybody else. And that means that if you're on that list, you've got a bigger chance of getting it because it's going to be super limited edition. It will sell out, I think, fairly quickly. So, make sure you sign up to my email newsletter link below. I'm going to do a blog of this because I just want to share these photos in one place cuz I'm really pleased with them. Um, and I made that blog with Squarespace, who are the sponsor of this week's video. So, creating a blog, super easy to do with Squarespace. No technical skills needed and it's great for when you do things like this where you've just got a little project where you maybe went out and did a shoot and you want to just talk about it. I find a blog's just great and blogs are a great way of promoting your photography as well. So, make sure you head over to Squarespace. They've got loads of tools to help you with SEO and stuff like that. It just make everything really easy. And if you're interested in setting up your website with Squarespace, you can go to squarespace. com/nigel to get 10% off or use offer code Nigel. I just want to show you just talk about a couple of photos from here. So, this was the first photo I took when I first got there and I was really excited about this um composition, but it's interesting how it developed over the day, both compositionally and with the light. So, this was like probably half an hour before sunrise. Um, and you can see that this branch here I've cut off and it comes back in. Um, when I went back to see it, I think I noticed that and then I got this shot a bit wider. Now, it could be that I cropping a bit from the right hand side, but this is a much better composition because I've got that branch all the way around leading back. And also where those end there, I feel like that's a really nice place to end. Then I went back again because the fog got a bit thicker. So, I took this shot. So, this was like a little bit later, which again, I've gone a little bit tighter. I feel like I've improved it a little bit more. And then I went back again and the sort of final time that I went back I um I think I sort of perfected the composition. I cut it quite nicely at the left hand side. Um I had a little bit of the path in there which I could cut leave in or cut out and I was really pleased with that. So I think that worked really well. Some of the other shots and I don't know which ones I'm going to show in the video yet but I was really pleased with were I really like this shot. I don't think I talked about this in the video. Um, but I just love these beach trees here. And be able to take a vertical shot because there was so much foliage was really good. Just a hint of blue bell so you know when it is. Um, I really like this shot as well. Um, I love it when the light's coming in from the side. So I still had that fog. I got this light coming in. The beautiful greens and the blue purples of the blue bells. Just looks absolutely amazing. Um, and I quite like this one as well. It's very messy here, but I quite like that. I quite like complicated woodlands that almost come together if you see what I mean. The sort of order in chaos. I think that works really well. Anyway, that's Surrey done. Now I am now in Kent. Um I've just driven a little bit and so Kent is right down here. So in Kent, I'm going to be sort of heading um first of all around this area in the high um well national landscape. So, I'm going to be going around here and then I'm going to push up into the Kent Downs, I think, and maybe do some of the coast around the northern part of the coast here. And then I'll be up to Essex. And then in Essex, I'm quite excited because um in this area here um I think there's going to be some really nice top down drone shots as long as I can fly my drone cuz I've got to obviously fly it um within the rules around airports. One thing I want to say about blue bells, I didn't say it in the woodland, is please, if you're going to blue bells, don't walk into the blue bells. Um, basically it kills them uh and they don't grow back. So, it's tempting as a photographer, but just follow the path. Stay on things that have been trotten before that got leaves down. If they've got any blue bells there, even if it's been trotten by some other people, just please just don't walk on it. You know, we've got to look after these blue bells. Um, especially in England where we've got, I think, 50% of the world's blue bells. That's it for this video. Hope you've enjoyed it and until a week on Sunday when I'll finish my counters project and tell you a lot more about the book.