I normally try and create blog posts in chronological order and to that end, I have two or three in production for this part of my website. But today I am jumping forward in time to this morning which was really my first opportunity this year to photograph woodland in misty conditions. And what a morning it was! crisp with ice on my car's windscreen and curls of mist in the valley. So I grabbed camera, lens, tripod and filters, heading toward my local woodland. This belongs to the local landowner, Tom Hudson, who strangely enough is from New Zealand.
He has packed this Cornish garden full of exotic trees and shrubs from all around the world, some with only a collection number to identify. Intriguing, but I wasn't there for the exotica, no my target was the huge mature local trees planted hundreds of years ago in the mist now illuminated by the rising Sun that was reflected off the carpet of newly fallen leaves below.
Time was short as usual not only because of the rising sun and evaporating mist, but also because this was a work day, so I had to work quickly and choose my compositions carefully from the plethora available. Fortunately, mist is nature's great contrast leveller, so I had a little more latitude allowing the sky into my images, but I still had to be careful. Two basic choices existed; with or against the light, so I did both.
The selection shown here are all from the set with light behind throwing light onto the moss, trunks and leaves, giving a warm rich glow. I had only the one lens for my Fuji XT-2 camera a wide to short telephoto f2.8 zoom. In layman's terms this is a handy carry-round lens, not too big, but capable of sharp results. The one caveat with this lens is that it does not compensate internally for a shaky hand and my camera doesn't have this capability built in. So, I mostly used my Leofoto tripod. However, for this shot, I bumped the ISO up which allowed a faster shutter which removed any chance of a blurry image. I am quite happy with the final image as all the trees lean into the image, hopefully drawing the eye too.
My final image in this short set is another moss covered Beech, this time with twin trunks. It is just this side of the fast flowing Leat and beyond there is an ancient shattered stump just catching the sunlight and beyond that there are evergreen trees leading on to a dark background. It, like all the images in this set need a little more editing, overall I feel that my Woodland photography skills are beginning to improve.
What do you think? I'd love to hear your feedback, preferably positive, but constructive critique is always welcome too. And as always, thanks for looking, liking or commenting.