Tree Tunnel | Weekly Photo #122
This beautiful tunnel of trees is Mill Lane, located in Halnaker, a medieval hamlet in West Sussex. This footpath formed part of an ancient track along Stane Street, a Roman road between Chichester and London.
People have been walking along this route for centuries and it’s due to that footfall and heavy carts being pulled along the road over hundreds of years that the road has sunk, creating this timeless, mystical looking holloway you can see here.
Fujifilm XT2 | XF55-200mm | 181mm | 1/50th Second | f/3.5 | ISO1000
Knowing about this enchanting path for some time, in October last year, I finally got in the car and drove down to Halnaker to walk this path and visit the Windmill at the top of the hill. I left it as late in the year as I dared to give me the best chance of catching the golden autumnal leaves as they surrounded the path, but as you can see, I was probably a week or two early as the leaves hadn’t fully turned. In hindsight though, I was right to go when I did and you will read why shortly.
Weatherwise it was predominantly raining but the clouds were moving fast and every now and then the sun broke through and sent some of it’s gorgeous warm light through the trees, illuminating individual sections of the tunnel and when the light hit landed in the right place further down the path, a focal point appeared and the composition came together beautifully.
As I stood there towards the end of the tunnel, in between taking photos or cover from the rain, I found myself deep in thought, thinking about the ancient road, the people that would have walked it over the years going all the way back to Roman times. It was strange feeling nostalgic for a time I was never a part of but I got a real sense of the history here which, assuming this path survives for generations to come, I guess in a small way, I’m now a part of.
It was getting a bit later in the morning and having already taken a few photos without anyone on the path, it was starting to see a bit more footfall and amongst the few people out for their morning walk, this man walking his dogs caught my attention. Together, they looked at home in this rural scene so I decided to photograph them walking through the tunnel of trees. I didn’t have much time so I pre-focused on a point further down the path where the sunlight was shining through and I waited for them to arrive there, keeping my fingers crossed the light hung around for the few extra seconds I needed to take the photo.
I was already working hard to keep my shutter speed on the faster side as I was trying to avoid too many blurry leaves as they moved in the wind but it was pretty dark down there so I had to open my aperture as wide as this lens would go to let in as much light as possible and with an ISO of 1000, I managed to get it down to 1/50th of a second which was just about ok to keep the man and his dogs acceptably sharp.
Thankfully the light remained in the right spot and with my settings dialled in, it all came together and I took the shot you can see here.
As I mentioned before, it was still a little early in the season to catch those vibrant autumnal colours but shortly after this day, we had long periods of wind and rain and the moment the leaves turned yellow, they were blown off the trees. So, in hindsight, I’m glad I went there when I did as it turns out that was probably as good as I was going to get last year.
With the colours of autumn around the corner, I will probably visit again in a few weeks and I’m keeping my fingers firmly crossed for milder weather so that the leaves can hang on just a little bit longer for me.
Until next Monday.
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.