Blog #4b – Autumnal weekend in Wiltshire – 2 of 2
December 2023
So…..I left you, at the end of part 1, at the Charlton Beech Clumps, where I avoided any shelling or UXO (unexploded Ordnance) from the military, given its location a few metres from the danger area. If you haven’t read part 1 of this blog, and you’d like to, you can find it here:
https://www.lawrencesmithphotography.co.uk/blog/blog-4a-autumnal-weekend-in-wiltshire-1-of-2
Saturday 4th November was supposed to be an early start with my friend Nigel Hudson (Instagram - @nigelhudsonphotography), however conditions were not exactly conducive to photography, so a later morning meet up at his house for chat, coffee & chocolate chip biscuits ensued, we talked a lot about photography, Nigel had recently undertaken some commercial work that took him to the Far East and the south of France, it’s a tough life. By the time we’d talked photography and put the worlds to right, there were a few hours left for me to head out into the Forest again. To put the size of Savernake into some easily recognisable visual perspective, it’s the equivalent of 3, 375 football pitches and when you don’t know it intimately and I certainly don’t, it feels quite daunting. Therefore, in my mind, the best way to tackle this was to just get out there and explore. This approach clearly has its plusses & minuses, discovery is great but if you don’t discover anything that really grabs you, it ends up just being a walk (which is also great) carrying a 14KG camera backpack around (I can’t seem to travel light, every eventuality needs to be covered)! The few hours I had until light faded on that Saturday very much felt like I was grabbing at images rather than making images, in my view anyway. I finally found a composition I liked as below, helped by the wet Beech trunks and that ‘Z’ shaped car track, I feel there’s nice depth in the image, but nothing compared to if that elusive mist had been there.
Wet Beech tress and a nice ‘Z’ curve
ISO100 70mm f/11 1.3 Seconds
Sometimes, I like to have a play with editing and produce some art that pushes the boundaries of realism a touch, I don’t go overboard as I’m not cleaver enough and my Photoshop skills are not that great to enable me to do so but on playing with some of the profiles in the Camera Raw Filter in Photoshop, I created the image below. Clearly a duplicate of the one above but given a very heavy ‘Autumn Colour’ feel, if only this could have been the reality!!
A play around in Photoshop helped me produce a different take on the image above
ISO100 70mm f/11 1.3 Seconds (Photoshop Edit)
I then left this somewhat ‘out on a limb’ area of the Forest to venture to the main section of the forest, the main route through is called ‘Grand Avenue’ and there’s no wondering why, some of the scenes through the Autumn season can be majestic, the light wasn’t right for it on this occasion and I’ve photographed it before, so I chose to move into another area, one I didn’t know. It showed some promise but the lack of experience I have in woodland probably showed here……I resorted to an ICM image, which wasn’t successful but I want to show it, not every trip or image works out with a banging photo at the end of it!
Golden leaves, dark trunk - like the ICM idea but my execution was off on this occasion
ISO100 85mm f/16 0.8 Seconds
My last little venture for the day took me down one of the pathways off Grand Avenue and it presented me with a lovely scene of a road leading through the trees, naturally framed with branches & foliage but it needed something, a human element to bring it to life….well it was there but I, at the vital moment, wasn’t! I desperately tried to get into position as a couple wandered through the scene but no, I was too late……fortunately, I pushed my luck and suggested to them there was an image there, they could have, if only they’d wander back down the pathway, towards the light…..and they obliged, thanks to Christian & his partner (it was all so rushed, I didn’t get her name) and I managed to fire off a few frames, the one below being my favourite. I did share some images with them.
Luckily, a very obliging couple wandered back into this wonderful Savernake scene for me
ISO800 200mm f/6.3 1/50 Second
Time flies when you’re having fun, Saturday was done, and Sunday afternoon was to bring another meet up, this time with a friend, Anya Medlin (Instagram - @anya_earthwise), much like Nigel, Anya produces some lovely images, go check her out. Whilst we did have a nice time wandering & talking, noteworthy images were few & far between, and the light was fading fast. I did manage to capture a nice little scene of some golden colour in a dark corner of the forest, I was pleased with this.
Golden leaves, clinging on to Autumn
ISO400 120mm f/5.6 1/30 Second
Monday was my last day to venture out, I did so early with conditions just OK. I went back to the Beech trees I’d found on Saturday, still standing to attention, I wonder how long they’ve been there…….the call of an ICM image was strong and the form and contrast was something I’d seen was a possible composition for the genre whilst taking images on my iPhone whilst there previously. I set the big camera up and worked a composition I found, I’ve called it ‘The Sinister Wood’, the tones lead you into a natural tunnel shape, maybe taking you along a path you don’t really want to follow…..sometimes my imagination runs away with me!
“The Sinister Wood”
ISO400 50mm f/8 1.3 Seconds
This is where I lucked out but on reflection, maybe didn’t maximise the opportunity the conditions gave me….it was completely unexpected as I passed back down through that tunnel (and I lived), I was rushed but the Sun made an appearance, low and behind another section of the wood, creating some lovely long shadows. I quickly set up and fired off some shots, frantically running around like the proverbial headless chicken, to try capture the beauty I was seeing…..this is where knowing the area and where the Sun would rise could have really helped, I am generally a planner but had to be reactive this time. As I look back on what I captured, they have grown on me, if I’d seen someone else post them, I’d probably hit the like button!!
Beautiful light & shadows…..but did I make the most of the scene………
ISO100 78mm f/11 0.8 Seconds
…and with a 16x9 crop, one of my favourite aspect ratio’s, added a little touch of Orton Effect on this too!
ISO100 85mm f/11 1.3 Seconds
Two slightly different crops, I think I prefer the top one.
Well that’s been a long blog, I needed to get this second part out there and I didn’t want to extend into a part 3, I don’t have the images for that. I enjoyed dedicating some time to Savernake, I don’t think I met my own expectations but there’s always next Autumn!
Cheers for now…...
Lawrence
