My first On Location mini session day in 2021 was in the beautiful Narrow water Forest, known locally as Bluebell Woods. Each year a huge carpet of Bluebells grow up under the trees and attract countless visitors. A lot of photographers ascend on the area and lots of families shooting with their mobile phones to capture the amazing sight.

It is a favourite spot of mine for family portrait photography late April. This year, just as lockdown was eased, it was a lovely feeling to be back.

Staying Environmentally Mindful

The paths have been very much improved and quite a few felled trees make great perches so that laying blankets on the flowers isn’t necessary. If you stay to the paths, the Bluebells will last for years to come and won’t be trampled.

It’s important to protect these little flowers, after all, they are a protected species of flower and should be enjoyed by all. Photographers like myself work hard to spot the best intersecting tractor tracks and paths to pose our clients in. We make it look like they are standing in amongst the flowers when they are safely on a path. Little boys & girls love picking flowers for their parents and photographer friends, so I admit it is almost impossible to stop little ones from picking a few. But being careful about where we stand protects whole areas from being trampled.

I saw another photographer posing a family of 5 by encouraging them into a beautiful patch of these flowers, they all took a different route in. I am sure that the photographs were beautiful, however, the area was flattened by the time they moved on.

When we are visiting, we all need to do our part to protect these breath-taking places so that they can flourish and grow, but also so that others can come behind us and enjoy them too.