"Field of wheat, so full and fair, ... "

[Birma]

"... Shining, with thy sunny hair,
Lightly waving either way,
Graceful as the breezes play-
Looking like a summer sea,
How I love to gaze at thee !
Pleasant art thou to the sight ;
And to thought, a rich delight.
Then, thy voice is music sweet,
Softly-sighing Field of Wheat. ..." From Field of Wheat by Hannah F. Gould.

Last Sunday provided two opportunities, due to weather and some rare free time, to get out and make pictures. Although on both occassions I hadn't intended to take pictures of fields of wheat, these are what I found. They really did look like a "sea", washing around the hills and trees.

Due to modern crop spraying, and the focus on mono-cultures for high yields, the "weeds" only get a look in at the edges of the fields.


2012 Old Hills - Thistle in the Wheat by Birm, on Flickr

The Three Choirs Festival is an annual choral festival held in rotation at the cathedral cities of Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester. A circular, long-distance foot path passing through the three counties of Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire has been named after this festival; the Three Choirs Way. Either by design, or at this framer's expense, the path goes straight through this particular wheat field!


2012 Old Hills - Three Choirs Path by Birm, on Flickr

Both Nex 5 and CZ 16-80.

[Birma]

Another view of the ripening wheat, also taken from the Three Choirs Way. I only walked about a mile of it as it passed through the area I was in. The woods to the left here had some very hungry and unpleasant mosquitoes in them. A couple of the bites inflicted then swelled and were very irritating for a number of days. The hardships of the outdoor photographer .


2012 Old Hills - Wheat Field by Birm, on Flickr

The Worcestershire Beacon, the highest point in the Malvern Hills can just be seen in the distance.


2012 Old Hills - Wheat Field with Oaks by Birm, on Flickr

Nex 5 and CZ 16-80. The JJC lcd hood was very useful on the Nex, including the "Doug F" diy magnifier attachment.

[Birma]

Later in the same day, in a differnt location, just down the road from hom, more fields.

The Crookbarrow hill is a popular local landmark. It is a natrual hill, and although many still think it was man made, there is has been no evidence of this found, yet.


2012 Norton - Crookbarrow Hill across the Wheat by Birm, on Flickr


2012 Norton - Crookbarrow Hill by Birm, on Flickr

Nex 5 and CZ 16-80. It was a very bright afternoon and so I needed to use my hat as an additional shade to see the LCD.

[Birma]

You may remember this dead tree from previous posts of mine. I had been thinking of Infra Red shots, but it was so breezy that the 30+ second exposures turned in to 'mush'. This is what happns in the bits of the field that the farmer leaves fallow.


2012 Norton - Dead Tree and Crookbarrow Hill by Birm, on Flickr


2012 Norton - Dead Tree and the Malvern Hills by Birm, on Flickr

Sony Nex 5 and CZ 16-80. (I did try a couple IR shots with the old Sony DSC-V1 in IR mode. I'll post these separately.)

[sury]

Birma,
Nice shots. The first one and the last one are my favorites. I loved the small "island" colors
at bottom of the first one in the sea of "gold". The last one is an example of dichotomy of nature
to me. Live and green, and amidst the dead tree. Nice contrast in visual.

Sury

[pakodominguez]

lovely
I've seen fields of wheat before, in Argentina (different scale...) and in the high lands in Peru. but your hills looks beautiful

[Greg Beetham]

Pleasant scenes Birma, I like that first one it has a nice golden tone and the foreground thistle? is pretty, I also like the composition in the third one and the last two also. I think there are some large mounds in England that were man made according to a TV show I remember seeing, I think they had wooden forts on top back before working in stone came to the fore, so that’s a while ago. I liked the poem, a little abstract perhaps but nice.
Greg
Ps wasn’t there a Badger hole under the shrub near the dead tree or am I thinking of a different photo/place?

[Ossie]

Beautiful images. #3 is my favourite.

[Dr. Harout]

Lovely shots Birma. It's quite tough to adjust wheat photo to its real colors. Few days ago I was shooting wheat fields too (and trying to find some blotchy skies with a polarizing filter).

[Birma]

Thanks you Sury, Pako, Ossie, Greg and Doc - your comments are much appreciated .

Greg - your description sounds like early Norman motte and bailey castle, where the motte was an earth mound raised on which a wooden tower was built. Crookbarrow is probably just an unusually shapped hill that was used to mark a territorial boundary. It predates the Normans (11th century). The archaeologists tell us its natrual - but the speculation continues .

You're right Doc, concerning the white balance for wheat. The wheat was still a bit green (not quite ripe) but the camera still wanted to make it look even greener. I'm going to have to start setting white balance manually with a card or something. I wish I'd remembered my polariser, but I packed light as it was hot and I didn't want to carry the full bag.

[Greg Beetham]

Birma the TV show mentioned a mound that was back in very early days (BC) and they found wooden holes of decayed timber using some special techniques in the top of the mound and all around the slope as well. They even had a reconstruction of the fort to illustrate as accurately as possible what it looked like back when it was built, it was quite impressive. I don’t think this was the mound in the show; it might not have been that big http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/silbury-hill
Greg

[aster]

Bautiful fields, Birma. : ) I love seeing the grains at closeups.

I think that shooting these golden-tressed 'seas/oceans' would benefit from panoramic shooting really, much like a seascape panoramic shot would. To empahsize the 'sea' feeling, I mean, as it flows around the solitary trees. That would make it a magestic.

Fields of golden tresses waving in the wind...a great subjet to shoot.

Thanks for sharing, Andy. I don't want to pick a favourite but 'Wheat Fields With Oaks' is close to what I had in mind as panoramic. : )


Yildiz

[Birma]

Hi Greg - I think people are hoping that Crookbarrow is another Silbury, but they just haven't found the evidence, yet .

Thanks Yildiz, I like the panorama idea. I'll give it a go when I'm next in the fields .