Chaotic Rhythm | Weekly Photo #97
This week, whilst waiting for what seems like forever for spring to get out of first gear in my favourite woodlands, I spent some time taking photos down on the Sussex Coast. I’ve paid a couple of visits to my favourite lighthouse at Beachy Head and also photographed the rolling South Downs hills at sunrise. I’m yet to process these photos, in fact, as I write this, they’re still in the camera but you can be sure I’ll be sharing one or two of them here in the future.
Fujifilm XT2 | XF55-200mm | 61mm | 1/60th Second | f/9 | ISO800
A few weeks ago, I was researching some local woodlands, on the hunt for some new locations to capture the spring colours and while browsing the Woodland Trust website, I came across a relatively small (155 acre) area of wood, only a hop, skip and a jump from where I live. Being so close and situated on the side of a hill along the North Downs in a designated area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) I had all the reasons I needed to pay this woodland a visit with my camera.
Top Tip: When researching locations to photograph I picked up a great tip from another photographer so I thought I would share it here. Use Bing Maps when scouting locations in the UK (sorry to my international readers). Although Google Maps/Earth are fantastic tools, what Bing Maps has that Google doesn’t is the option to overlay an Ordnance Survey map on the location you are scouting. This was a game-changer for me as I could now see information such as public footpaths, permissive pathways, nature reserves and importantly, public vs private woodlands which is not always obvious when out in the field. So, if you often find yourself scouting possible photo spots or just new locations to explore, make sure to add Bing Maps to your toolkit.
Fast forward a few days after discovering this new woodland and with a foggy morning forecasted, I took the short drive over to explore this new location. Even if all the usual indicators predict fog, you never really know if it’ll happen until you get on location but every now and then it all comes together and the fog rolls in and this was thankfully one of those times.
With the colours of spring yet to appear and being surrounded by fog, the woodland had a grey, subdued tone about it, but as I walked along the path, I noticed a vibrant green area in amongst the trees, so I wandered over to investigate. The green area turned out to be a carpet of mossy grass that was surrounding the base of these fantastic trees which appeared to twist and turn in all different directions, overlapping each other as they worked their way up towards the light. I wish I could tell you what kind of trees these are but I’ve tried and failed to identify them myself (feel free to educate me in the comments) but as I got closer, they struck a chord with me and I knew there was a photo here somewhere.
I was drawn to how their seemingly random, almost chaotic lines created this natural rhythm throughout the scene and having the fog was fantastic as it simplified the composition, allowing the trees in the foreground to stand out while softening the trees further back so they could still add to the story but not in a way that unsettled the balance of the image.
It took me a few minutes to find the best place to set up the tripod and with the space to step back without obscuring the view, I decided on my 55-200mm telephoto lens. By moving away and then zooming back in on the scene, I was able to isolate this group of trees and avoid the brighter sky which would have only been a distraction. With the camera set up and the settings dialled in, I took the shot. I’m not sure this composition will be everyone’s cup of tea as at first glance, it can seem rather messy but to me, there is a flow throughout the image and with the texture on the trees and the vibrant colour on the ground, I really like it.
You may have noticed I had the ISO set to 800 which I only noticed when I was back home on the computer, but if you are thinking this was a mistake on my part, you will be absolutely right. Beng on a tripod and with no action to freeze, there was no reason for the ISO to be set that high but thankfully, cameras these days are so good, it made no noticeable difference to the final image.
I’ve since explored this woodland even further and found a few other areas with some great potential so I just need to wait for the right conditions and look forward to getting back there with my camera sometime soon.
Until next week.
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.