Sunlit woodland

As we walked through some woodland on the slopes of May Hill in Gloucestershire we came upon an area of coppiced sweet chestnuts. It's unusual enough to come upon coppicing these days - trees seem to be grown and cropped like cabbages in most places. But why sweet chestnuts, we wondered, as we stopped to get a shot of the sunlight penetrating the trees on the path ahead? I couldn't come up with an answer and I must have a trawl of the internet to see if I can discover the reason. Some of the coppicing is just visible at the left of the photograph.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Fog, frost and sun

On a frosty, foggy morning we set out for a brisk walk over the nearby hills. As we walked down a lane the sun was starting to disperse the fog and reveal the nearby landscape of stubble field, pasture, hedges and woods. A diffuse shaft of light worked its magic on the scene and turned the unprepossessing features into something of greater interest.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Autumn becomes winter

The photograph above was taken in Penyard Park woods near Ross on Wye, Herefordshire, on the morning of the first of December, the first day of "meteorological winter". Yellow tinged winter sunlight was penetrating the woods through trees almost stripped of leaves, and still illuminating the conifers, the dying bracken and the leaves of the undergrowth. The orange remnants of autumn together with the sunlight are what elevates the picture. As winter progresses it will be interesting to see if such a photograph is possible before the spring growth appears.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Dark skies and sunlight

Even the most prosaic photographic subject can assume a certain level of grandeur when it is sunlit against a sky of dark clouds. It's one of the reasons I like to go out with my camera when the forecast is for sunshine and showers. That wasn't what the meteorologists had in mind during a recent visit to Stamford: sun all day they said. Fortunately they were wrong and I managed to grab a shot of this old street as the sun broke through the overcast sky. Here's a couple of other shots that benefit from this kind of weather and illustrate my point.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10