At the South Western edge of the Cotswolds, not far from either the M4 or M5 motorways is the old market town of Wickwar. To its East, nestled below the Cotswold edge are several small woods.
With a plan to make the most of Autumn I visited several times during the summer with the intention of identifying possible compositions. Whilst I’d love to say that it was successful, it wasn’t. With the trees swathed in a cloak of green it was too difficult to pre-visualise how they may look come Autumn. But it was far from worthless, it did give a good understanding of the layout, the paths and areas that definitely wouldn’t work. e.g. the small pockets of evergreens. This knowledge was valuable and saved much time once Autumn arrived.
Most of the trees are deciduous, relatively young and very straight but tucked away amongst them are a few more shapely trees! Its those trees that interest me; they contrast wonderfully against the uniform straightness of their neighbours and its easy to project character onto them. Add a splash of Autumn colour and increased visual depth due to less leaves and the results can be very nice.
My woodland photography this year has used a subtle look; Not the punchy, ‘smack it to em’, heavily saturated colours associated with social media. I wanted something more realistic, something softer if you like. I hope I’ve managed to achieve that with the photographs this year and with those in this post 🙂 Please leave a comment below.
This year I’ve been using a Medium format camera system instead of the trusty old EOS 5DSr. The results are just fantastic with increased dynamic range, reduced noise at higher ISO’s and simply better image quality. Due to the different sensor size there is a difference in Depth of Field and its this that has proven the hardest to master. Without knowing it, at Full Frame, I’d become very good at choosing an appropriate aperture for a desired Depth of Field. It’s only with the change to Medium Format that I realised this and as a consequence I’m having to adjust to the difference. But the pain of adjusting is definitely worth it as the resulting images are so good. The detail captured by the larger sensor is amazing but, I fear, lost on small-sized images presented on Social Media and even this web site. But print them and wow they look good!
For me, photography is about making beautiful prints that can be enjoyed over time. Seeing a photograph printed is just so, so much better than seeing it on a computer display. I’ve often thought about why as computer displays are pretty good these days. Anything presented on a computer screen must be transitory as the display is a shared resource. Display something else or switch-off the computer and it’s gone – its too transitory for my liking. Once printed using high-quality inks and paper a photograph becomes a living, physical object. That object can be shared; it can be touched and consumed by people over the long-term perhaps as a framed photograph hung on a living-room wall or in a public space. Suffice to say several of the photographs from this year will soon be available as high-quality prints and greeting cards 🙂
Andy
All images are Copyright Andy Gawthrope Photography.
