Helen Stephenson's Leonardslee Pictures

The Bromley Camera Club visited Leonardslee on 11th May, 2003, when the azaleas, rhododendrons and magnolias were in bloom.

There were extensive woods with bluebells - and other more colourful plants.

There were also a number of linked ponds, one of which boasted a waterfall.

There were lots of opportunities to take close-up pictures of flowers. I used my Tamron 85-210 lens switched to its macro setting for this. I also used a tripod most of the time!

Here is one of the few pictures I took without using a tripod. I used my 50mm prime lens for this.

Here are some more of the flower pictures I took that day, including my first ever attempt at photographing bluebells. I was particularly interested in the ones in this picture because I managed to capture some blue ones, some white ones, and some fading blue ones, which were turning pink.

There was also scope for close-up pictures of tree trunks. It rained during the day I was at Leonardslee and the trunks were damp, which brought out their colours.

There were pheasant in the grounds at Leonardslee. The one on the left has two hens he was guarding, while the one on the right was a single bird, and he was being chased away from the territory occupied by the bird with the hens.

Leonardslee also keeps a bonsai collection. Some of the examples on show were over 50 years old.

The other attraction at Leonardslee is its collection of old motor cars.

Most of these pictures were taken using my Centon 18-28mm super wide angle lens.

The lamp on the left, and the bonnet detail of the yellow car above were taken with a less extreme lens. They are also on print, rather than slide film.