Veterans | Weekly Photo #118
Photographically speaking, I’m in a bit of a slump. It feels like such a long time since I’ve stood behind the camera feeling that buzz of excitement that I’ve captured a banger and can’t wait to get it home and see the photo on the big screen or maybe even printed. It seems every time I head out at the moment, the conditions are dull and uninspiring so I’m really having to dig deep to get even an average looking photo. As a result, I’m lacking inspiration and not feeling much love for my photography at the moment.
But what to do? Well, one thing I’m a lot better at these days is reminding myself that “it’s just photography”. I do it for the love of it, not because I have to. This helps remove any unnecessary pressure I put on myself while I’m out in the field with my camera. Next up, I remind myself that this is just a natural process and all creatives will, at some point go through this and they will either wait for the slump to pass on its own, or like me, just remove the pressure to get the camera out and just get out there and enjoy the great outdoors and just be there, ready for when inspiration hits once again.
I appreciate that’s not a particularly positive opening to this week’s blog but I want to keep this blog as open and honest as I can and having been through many peaks and troughs with my own photography over the years, a veteran if you will, I wanted to share with you how I tackle these inevitable slumps by removing any pressure on myself to take photos, being content with just being out there exploring, surrounded by mother nature.
Fujifilm XT2 | XF18-55mm | 28mm | 1.5 Seconds | f/8 | ISO400
If I’m in a trough right now, then back in June when I took this photo, I think that was more of a peak. Morning after morning I had beautiful conditions to photograph the woodland and although I couldn’t make the most of it on every occasion (I still consider myself a woodland photography novice) I did manage to grab a healthy crop of photos nonetheless.
This photo was taken in a National Trust woodland in Kent, just 25 minutes from where I live. It’s not particularly large but with a nice mix of trees and being rather exposed up on the Kent weald it gets its fair share of the changeable weather from misty mornings and if last winter is anything to go by, plenty of snowfall.
After starting off in the eastern side of the woodland, the fog was so thick and the foliage so dense, I didn’t have enough light or visibility to seek out any useful compositions. I wandered around for a good hour, hoping something would catch my eye, but this part of the woodland was giving nothing away that morning so I decided to change things up and head across to the western edge in the hope of something different. The western side of the woodland is a little more exposed and has more open areas which I hoped would allow more light to shine through and help with finding a nice composition.
I decided to head to this spot as I had photographed it before during the autumn and I really liked the strong, interesting shapes of these veteran trees that appear to stand guard on the edge of a clearing. As I arrived, I was welcomed by this beautiful scene with hazy light shining through the thinning fog, creating this fantastic soft light illuminating the side of the trees. Things were looking up so out came the camera and tripod and I started to dial in the composition.
I really like the depth in this scene created by the mist on the left-hand side and the trees getting gradually softer as they get further away from the camera. That along with the strong, partly silhouetted shapes of the trees to the right, I dialled in my camera settings and got to work. I took two or three different compositions in the end and this is one of my favourites from the morning’s shoot.
Until next week (where I hope my slump will have improved somewhat).
Cheers.
Trevor
This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.