This was a simple shoot over in a local corner where a tangle of willow gathers on the edge of a meadow and dips into a ditch. The landscape is boggy and damp at all times of the year so the growth is lush and much beloved by midges.
Deer frequent the nearby glade and have a shortcut through the tangle and up the slope into open country. Today I was simply chasing down the feeling of the place with no real thought as to the outcome. I suppose I could call it a practise session, a reconnection attempt as I ease myself back into my creative self.
Chaotic woodlands have a real pull on me and this tiny scrap of secretive greens helps satisfy that draw. I also put together a short (less than 3 minutes) film using footage captured of the place.
As darkness fell the shadows closed in and the whole area felt edgy. Night time in this place is quite an experience and I hope this video captures my emotions as I hunker down in hiding.
This gallery of images is a fair representation of the shots I took and one day I will format them into a book, accompanied by images from previous and subsequent visits.
I very much enjoyed viewing your “Tangled” Woodland – I’m also currently exploring my own local woodland and like yours “Tangled”is a great description at this time of year. I aim to try and isolate little details rather than the bigger picture which tends to be well tangled at this time!
Lovely dappled light and an amazing depth of green makes for interesting shots especially early morning.
Thank you William. Yes I very much enjoy a tangled wood and enjoy trying to make sense in the chaos. Thank you for your kind comments here. Great to hear from you.
Thanks for the inspiration. Your images are beautiful and fascinating. I too live in Lancashire and have been exploring my local area with a fresh outlook.
Lockdown has given me the opportunity to rekindle my love of photography as well as learning how to use my camera properly. I’m becoming obsessed!
Thank you for your comment Heather. This is all good to hear. There’s so much to see and photograph isn’t there, when we take the time to explore.
What a lovely series of photos and as a project idea really inspirational. Thank you Jason
Thank you for your comment H. Much appreciated.
I am fascinated by those diffusely lit, almost abstract backgrounds, that you achieve. I’m guessing they appear by themselves if you shorten the field of focus and you have patterns reflected on water behind, but I have yet to achieve this. This is all rather tantalising and tempting me to go image hunting…
Hi Ulric, great to hear from you. Yes you are quite right, I get that effect by using a very shallow depth of field and hunting out an interesting background as well as subject. Good luck with your image hunting. Please do share them in the facebook group. 🙂
Love the way you’ve used the light in the video Jason, it really creates an eerie feel! Great set of woodland pics, the way you’ve picked out the small details to create a story of the woodland really works to take the viewer on a journey through the wood!
Thank you for your kind comment Amanda. The music really helps set the emotion too doesn’t it.