Wintry Woodland | Weekly Photo #85
One of the very small but positive side effects of this wretched pandemic is how it’s encouraging us to explore the parks and woodlands right on our doorstep and ever since I started my woodland photography side-hustle, I’ve been spending much of that time close to home, forcing me to explore my local area, resulting in me uncovering a few hidden gems to wander with my camera within just a couple of miles from my house.
Fujifilm XT2 | XF55-200mm | 55mm | 1/6th Second | f/10 | ISO200
Last weekend, I visited one of these local woodlands on what was one of the most beautiful, wintry mornings I’ve had the pleasure to photograph. With the temperature at around -3 and an atmospheric fog passing through, what resulted was this beautifully picturesque hoar frost throughout the woodland and together with Holly (my dog), we spent a great couple of hours exploring the forest.
We roamed the woodland while taking a few photos as I went and after about an hour or so, we started to wander down this path and with the misty, frosty feel and pathway leading into the distance, I knew there was a shot to be had. So out came the camera which I used to line up the best composition and once found, onto the tripod it went. I deliberately placed the foreground trees on the left hand third with the path heading into the image and around the back of the trees on the right-hand third and with the tree standing alone in the midground, it subtly added some visual weight and balance to the overall composition. In an ideal world, the trees on the left wouldn’t be overlapping so much as it makes it look a little messy over there but if I tried to move and sperate the trees, the composition didn’t work at all so it had to stay as is. I don’t think it looks too bad really.
I went straight for my 55-200mm lens which is my go-to while shooting woodland. It’s a great focal length range, it produces sharp photos and it’s nice and light so doesn’t weigh me down too much. With the settings dialled in (see under the photo), I went ahead and took the shot.
Although it’s quite a simple photo, I really like the texture on the birch trees in the foreground and back in Lightroom, I made sure I preserved this along with emphasising the misty atmospheric look of the overall photo.
It was such an amazing morning and I was lucky enough to capture a few more wintry woodland photos during the morning and will share these soon enough.
Take care.
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.