I think it’s fair to say that i struggle with woodland photography, so i guess it’s something that needs practise. So this weekend we were away for Tracey’s birthday and we were based in Darwin Forest near Matlock. So this would be a good time to get some practise in.
Inevitably when walking around a forest, you usually find some water, be that a lake, a pond or some form of lodge. I’m not 100% sure what this body of water is, but one thing i do know is that this one had a scene that caught my eye. This image struck me when i walked up to the waters edge. I could hear water flowing, and I instantly saw the small “plug hole” and thought, how cool is that! This is actually a crop from a wider image that i took, just to make sure I didn’t restrict the composition. This crop really does make for a good image. I like this one.
I never really knew that the forest that we have in the UK can suffer from some form of disease. That’s exactly what we found as we walked around the trail through this forest. A sign from Forestry England explained that a disease had ravaged this section of the forest and therefore trees had been culled for the sake of the forest. The sign also explained that new trees had been planed to replace the culled ones….phew that’s a relief. I was trying to capture the mist and the devastation caused by the felling of the trees. Not sure I achieved this but this is a decent enough image.
As we walked around we did walk into the forest, and left the trail paths. Somewhere in time this forest was planted in rows. As the forest has matured some of those lines are lost as Mother Nature takes over. As we walked i noticed that a number of these straight lines could be seen. Coupled with a brief dash of light, the scene above caught my eye. Eventually i decided that this image was about light both in the foreground and the background small gap through which light can be seen. I really like this image.
Another straight tree line in this image, a little more of a traditional shot with more of the trees visible rather than focusing on the light.This image does suffer a little from my usual problem in woodland, which is that they are generally very messy. Which this is. I was attracted to the light at the end of the tunnel so to speak.
This last image in this set is definitely a more traditional woodland shot for me. What I mean by that is that it is off trees that are stood up straight and I’m trying to get some space in between each of the trees. I do like the blurred tree on the far right of this image but I have failed to get proper separation of the trees. I did see that there was space as i stood lining up the shot but I haven’t executed this one to my satisfaction.
All these images are hand held on my Sony Alpha 7 IV, with the 24 to 70 f2.8 GM lens.