Autumn Gold
Oak Leaves
After the doldrums of Summer and its seemingly endless days we have the shorter, cooler and sometimes annoyingly wetter days of Autumn. It's not just the time when nature again bursts into colour but the change also heralds a return to more variable weather. And here in the UK that equates to a more interesting time for landscape photography.
Now, if I'm honest I find Autumnal photography difficult. Partially as the weather can't make up its mind what it should be doing, it can be very changeable, but also because I just never seem to be in the right place at the right time to capture those iconic Autumn landscapes that others seem to find so easily. This year I am more minded than ever that Autumn photography or to be a little more precise, Autumn woodland photography is hard and its really important to know of nearby locations.
Now, I like my work to be original; I like to avoid repeating what others have done. Yes, sometimes I have taken that classic but I've always tried to do something a little different and to not copy. So, whilst I know that arboretums around the country will have wonderfully colourful Maples I just don't want to photograph what someone else has done that day, the day before and so on. Any quick look on social media will find literally hundreds of near identical photographs of the same tree from the same position. I need something more original, something a bit more wild! To me photographing at an arboretum feels...well, how I imagine a wildlife photographer would feel photographing big cats and elephants at a zoo rather than in the wilds of Kenya. I am merely expressing that we, as photographers, need to be cognisant that whilst a local arboretum visit may be quick, easy and result in wonderfully colourful images they are unlikely to be original.
Sticks and Trees
So, avoiding the temptation of arboretums, I made a concerted effort this year to explore somewhere not far away, somewhere I really should know much, much better. The Forest of Dean is about 15 miles away and sits between Chepstow and Ross-on-Wye on the Western side of the river Severn. I've been a few times before without success; I always seem to be in dense forest separated by forestry tracks where one can't get enough distance from a subject and the ground is dark and uninteresting. So this year I started by thinking carefully about why previous trips hadn't worked and what I could do better. Pretty soon it dawned on me that you have to find the right type of trees! Boom, there you have it!
Maps by the Ordnance Survey identify three different types of woodland: Coniferous wood, Mixed wood and Non-coniferous wood. It's the latter two which will have nice colourful trees. Obvious really! Those little tree symbols are not just randomly placed on the map either...their spacing can be used to infer the density of the woodland and woodland that isn't too dense is better I think. ;-) Depending on the age of the map it's quite possible that what's actually there and growing doesn't match the map tho. This risk can be partially mitigated by using recent mapping and cross-checking with satellite imagery tools like Google Earth. But I don't think you can be sure until you have boots on the ground!
The result of better preparation, was that with the exception of one, all the area's visited were much more suitable and even had the right type of trees!
Rooted
Still, significant exploration was required at each location but the more I explored the more positive I felt and the more I started to see the landscape around me differently. One afternoon I walked to the top of a rise to find a group of uniformly tall, straight trees and the sun streaming in from the side. It was a lovely scene (above). I also found I was seeing the smaller, intimate, landscapes such as the Oak Leaves (top) which were briefly lit by a shaft of sunlight.
In many places, the forest floor was also interesting and very different to that seen in previous years. It was almost as if the soils had been turned and separated. The ground was pleasant to walk on; it was soft and, well, spongy! In places the fallen branches and sticks where pushed together into what might be described as clusters or groups. It was not orderly enough to be the work of man but something appeared to be lowering the entropy of the forest floor. The area is known for its wild boar and I just wonder if it was them rooting through the soil, pushing sticks aside etc. I never did hear or see any boar tho. :-(
The Forest of Dean aka The Forest covers a large area and I visited less than a handful of locations this Autumn, some locations a couple of times. The work to identify further locations can be done throughout the year, perhaps in the summer months when things are traditionally quiet. So, roll on Autumn 2021. I know where you are and I'll be back :-)
Andy
Below are eight photographs from the Forest of Dean this Autumn. Click on an image for a larger version.
