It’s National Meadows Day in the UK today, celebrated each year on the first Saturday in July. It puts the spotlight on those precious patches of flower-filled grasslands that are at their beautiful best right now. Having lost more than 95 per cent of them since the 1930s, wildflower meadows today comprise just one per cent of the UK’s land area with the result that attractive and much-loved wild flower species like ragged robin and harebell, to name just two, are facing steep declines.

We’re fortunate, particularly at the minute, to live in Northumberland National Park, in the north-east of England. It’s one of 10 national parks in the country and one of England’s most tranquil places; characterised by sparsely populated, rugged moors and a turbulent, brooding history. It’s also known for some of the best upland hay meadows in Europe.

We’ve recently been photographing a couple of local meadows- our first really serious photo sessions since landing back from planet Kalahari into the middle of the Covid-crisis earlier in the year. The relaxing of lockdown restrictions here just happened to coincide with our local meadows shaking out their fussy tapestries in gentle summer sunshine; tempting us outdoors properly again with our cameras, certainly beyond the garden walls, for the first time since early spring.

National Meadows Day seemed a fitting time to post some of our results; part of a new ‘closer to home’ project we’re doing during the pandemic while our African photography and safaris are on hold.

What could be more mindful than photographing wildflowers; especially surrounded by nectar-seeking bees, butterflies and a species-rich tangle of blooms?  But it’s not all joyous. Finding a decent picture can be a battle. Hay meadows and wet pastures don’t serve up their treasures willingly. There are few dense colour blocks to sink your teeth into. Their prettiness is dishevelled, ill-defined and extremely difficult to pin down…

The trick is not to fight against that chaotic mix of flowers and grass spikes, but to embrace it.

We got our best results sitting at the meadow margins using a medium telephoto (sometimes with an extension tube) and very shallow depth of field, picking out a single flower, or group of flowers, to focus on. We felt the flowers we’d selected to pick out in this way, photographed through a tousled, colourful and out of focus foreground, really suited our delicate subject matter while the low angle had the effect of leading the viewer right into the heart of this flower-filled habitat, just like the bees constantly buzzing through it.