Transformative fog

On a recent foggy morning we walked past a pond that had increased greatly in size following an extended spell of rain. Quite a few of the pond-side bushes and trees now had their roots in water and were making good reflections. However, it wasn't the increased size of the pond that caught my eye as much as the way the fog was giving a different emphasis to the trees.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P950

The cormorant tree

A year or so ago the River Wye was in spate and the force of its flow knocked down a tree that cormorants liked to roost in. There was no obvious nearby tree that they fancied and so the sight of these birds perched above the river was no longer a regular occurence. However, as the months have passed one tree looks like it might become a substitute perch as birds seem to be favouring it. Cormorant trees are known for their dead branches caused by the birds' droppings. This tree is not yet marked in this way, but regular use will undoubtedly produce these characteristic features.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P950

Beech avenue, Hereford

The public open space on the south side of the River Wye at Hereford is graced by a beech avenue. In November it looks its best as each tree shows colours slightly different from its neighbour's. There is no doubt in my mind that autumn brings out the best in the beech and I have long thought it to be the finest tree at this time of year, better even than the acers.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Autumn at Cannop Ponds

Cannop Ponds in the Forest of Dean are man-made reservoirs that were designed to send a controlled flow of water to a water-powered wheel at Park End Iron works. They comprise two ponds and were built in 1825 (lower) and 1829 (upper). Today they are a popular tourist destination and a nature site.

 In recent years there was the possibility of the ponds being drained and the land returned to its former existence as a valley of the Cannop Brook. Fortunately this project was dropped and the habitats around the two ponds will be developed to benefit more wildlife. These two photographs were taken recently at the edges of the expanses of water.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Flooded trees

A walk through the edge of the Forest of Dean near Cinderford took us through an area adjoining a "quag" i.e. quagmire. This particular area is looked after with a view to preserving the wetland characteristics that were once more common than they are now. It was a bright day with a quite strong wind and the ripples combined with the "real" trees and the reflected trees made for an interesting photograph.

 photos © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

Return to Speech House Lake

Three years ago I took a photograph from approximately this point on the edge of Speech House Lake in the Forest of Dean. On a recent walk that went by the lake I took another photograph in the same area. The reflections of the small islands of pines were better this time and the presence of clouds improved the shot considerably, as did the seasonally yellow tinge of the light. I had hoped to make more of the flock of mandarin ducks on the water but they quickly fled and were soon barely visible  (centre right).

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Silver birch avenue

The small, closely growing, silver birch avenue in this photograph must have been deliberately planted because it runs along the top of an embankment of a disused railway near the edge of the Forest of Dean. It is now one of the footpaths that runs from Cinderford's Linear Park into the forest. 

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900

Autumn trees

I can't imagine what it is like to live in a place where there are no clearly defined seasons. For the photographer spring, summer, autumn and winter can offer the same subject clothed in different ways and so a simple walk in the woods can differ markedly depending on the time of year. Trees the colour of those above can only be seen in autumn. In winter they will offer their black skeletons, in spring fresh, light greens filtering the brighter skies, and in summer dense foliage will block much of the light reaching the forest floor.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

Dark, threatening skies

I do like dark threatening skies that co-exist with sunshine. The contrast between the well lit subject and the dark backdrop make for a theatrical effect that is very appealing. Over the years I've photographed buildings, a church, a manor house, Tower Bridge, London and an old walnut tree in this kind of lighting. Recently I had another opportunity as we crossed Castle Meadows by the River Usk at Abergavenny. Often these dark skies turn to rain. Here it seemed to be associated with the high ground behind the town and cleared shortly after I'd got my shot.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Sylvan Great Malvern

The Worcestershire spa town of Great Malvern expanded greatly in the nineteenth century to accommodate both visitors who came to "take the waters" and well-to-do people who wanted to live a genteel life on the tree clad slopes of the Malvern Hills. Today there are Victorian houses and hotels in abundance in the town, often with large, tree and shrub filled gardens that give the town a sylvan character. I spotted the tops of these buildings among the trees as we looked up the hillside. The mixture of evergreens and deciduous trees is quite typical of the area and means that greenery in profusion is still on show in the winter months.

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

Walking the dog

On a recent walk in part of the Forest of Dean that we had never visited before we found that the off-road cyclists substantially outnumbered the dog walkers. I tried to include some cyclists in a few photographs (for scale more than anything else) but was unsuccessful. This was due to their speed and their predilection for travelling in groups. No such difficulty with the dog walkers: this trio very effectively illustrated the size of some of the taller trees in Barnhill Plantation.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Speech House Lake, Forest of Dean

The Forest of Dean has a few small areas of open water. Most, if not all, of these are man-made, some connected with the powering of mills, others associated with workings that led to hollows filling with water. The Speech House Lake seems to have been created by the blocking of a stream for landscape or fishing purposes, though I may be wrong about that. What I can say with certainty is that it is one of the most picturesque of these stretches of water and I'm glad our first visit to it coincided with low morning sun and the remains of autumn leaves on the surrounding trees.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Edge of Chase Wood, Ross on Wye

One of our favoured walks takes us through Chase Wood, one of the areas of woodland that crown the two hills behind the town of Ross on Wye. On a recent day, as we pulled ourselves up the steep track by the side of the wood, we stopped to admire the trees growing along its edge and the way they contrasted with the green of the pasture. They seemed to be in their final array of autumn colours and I took this photograph as a reminder of their beauty, something to look at again when they have become the dark skeletons of winter.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Sallow Vallets Inclosure, Forest of Dean

The small plantation of conifers in this photograph form part of an area of the Forest of Dean known as Sallow Vallets Inclosure. I caught them at a point in the afternoon where the low sun was illuminating only favoured areas of the undulating ground, the cold shade of the tree trunks contrasting with the strong sunlit colour beyond. This oddly named location is today largely given over to challenging cycle tracks. Sallow Vallets refers to its original appearance as an area of small valleys (vallets) where sallow (a low, bushy form of willow) grew. Inclosure is an old form of the word "enclosure" describing a piece of "waste" land taken into cultivation.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Autumn afternoon light

Some of the best light for capturing the colours of autumn can be found in the afternoon. Find the right angle to the sun and you can engineer greater colour saturation and stronger contrast in photographs. In this part of the Forest of Dean the trees, mainly beeches, were showing to great effect as we walked among them.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Autumn, Ross on Wye

The village of Brampton Abbotts is on high ground just to the north of Ross on Wye. At the highest point in the village stands the church. From the area around it, and from the fields to the west, are some of the best views of the town. On a walk that took us through this area we paused to look at Ross and I took a few photographs of the buildings among the changing colours of the trees. A slight haze gave the scene a hint of John Keats' "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness".

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

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

Church photography and trees

Seeing, appreciating and photographing the exterior of English churches is made much more difficult by people's enthusiasm for tree planting around the building. A few well-chosen and thoughtfully sited specimens invariably adds to the churchyard and surroundings. But the species, and more especially the position chosen for them, all too often blocks the best or often the only remaining good view of the church. St Margaret at Welsh Bicknor is a case in point. The building of the church was funded locally by an individual who chose a particular architect who produced a beautiful building. Since then trees have been planted that impinge on our appreciation of the structure. The latest is in the centre foreground of the photograph with a guard round it. Imagine its effect on this view when it is fully grown.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Trees and shadow

One of the advantages of living in an area with a relatively large amount of tree cover is that having a walk on very hot days can be much more pleasant. In a recent spell of clear skies and high temperatures we were able to plan walks that followed sheltered tracks and woodland. The shade kept the direct sun off us and the trees themselves reduced the overall temperature by a few degrees. The dappled light also threw interesting patterns on the ground. This photograph is of my shadow (wearing a hat - you can't be too careful)!

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Yorkshire Dales morning

I took this photograph on a footpath leading from Watery Lane just out of the market town of Settle, North Yorkshire. You won't find a lane of that name on the Ordnance Survey maps: there it is called Brockhole Lane. However, for the past several decades and perhaps longer I, and many other people native to the town, have styled it after the streams that regularly flow along its length. We had just left the lane and were heading up to Lodge Pond when the early morning mist began to clear and ahead of us, above the hillside and through the trees, the sun appeared. Such shots, where little preparation can be made, are a bit hit and miss, and often require some processing. So it was with this one.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Canon 5D2     2012