Pine forests: what’s not to like? Scots Pine trees stand tall and proud, burnished orange-gold catching the sun; birch trees get a bit old and develop gnarly character.
These are from a stroll in the Black Woods of Rannoch, on the south shore of Loch Rannoch.
I noticed Gunnar’s Tree, named for Gunnar Godwin, a chap whose fondness for these woods led him to manage them and agitate for them to be designated a Caledonian Forest Reserve.
Details from a walk in the Black Woods of Rannoch, one of the Caledonian Forest reserves, in September.
I spent a lunchtime recently with a friend from the Photo Society, strolling in leisurely fashion around the South Inch in Perth, mostly admiring the shapes and colours of trees. Well, why not… especially in Autumn!
Sometimes, when the golden hour starts immediately after work finishes for the day, one just has to go for a drive around the middle of nowhere in Perthshire. A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled across this scene along the back-road from Forgandenny to Glenfarg and was taken by the light on the undulating lines of the landscape.
I thought it interesting to compare it both in black & white versus colour, although both are a little more strongly processed than my usual taste.
No doubt this is one of the oldest conundrums, generally long-since answered. The conventional approach is that black&white is meant to be an end in itself (a choice made at the time of shooting rather than an option or fallback in processing), in order that the eye be drawn to forms and shapes and textures, appreciated for their own sake without the distractions of realistic colour. As such, you’d expect most images to work either as black&white or as colour; it can also be somewhat annoying when one sees an image presented in more than one way as though the photographer couldn’t decide. It’s even more irksome when you are that photographer. Today I reprocessed an image taken a couple of months ago, and was struck by how it looked in the intermediate colour form before applying the intended toning.
Shapes in the Dark – colour
Shapes in the Dark – black and white
In this case, I contend the two images both stand alone independently well, and they convey different things; further, the the colour gives a means of distinguishing the silhouetted trees from the surrounding foliage that the black&white image does not, making it look moodier.
It appears to be spring again; with the ground covered in a carpet bluebells all around, walking Dog in the local woods is a joy.
6 shots, made fresh this morning, with the Pentacon 50mm f/1.8 lens (almost wide-open).
This is what it looked like, walking Dog through the local woods this morning.
Misty Woods
Nothing beats a silhouette of shapely trees against a clear blue sky, tinged with glimpses of warm autumn light.
Sunlight and tree shadows on the road
Trees casting strong shadows across the road, with hints of a clear blue sky beyond. Definitely a pleasant way to spend half an hour of one’s morning.
Dog took me for a longer stroll up the road, past Dinvin woods, where we saw some impressive old characterful beech trees waving their limbs about.
Patterns of sunlight and shadow gently playing with leaves on the woodland floor.
Not yet autumn though 😉
I love the smell of conifers of an evening… before and after they go in the bonfire 😉
The downside of having engaged the services if a gardener is we end up shuffling all the clippings and remnants of sycamore trees that really shouldn’t have been growing through the hedge all around the garden – on the plus side, there’ll be lots of kindling fur the fire next year.
A more formal, laid-out, part of the gardens at Beningbrough – a covered path with several trees, covered in pears.
Am exercise in composition, as much as anything – a thick mist reducing visibility to a couple of hundred yards, whilst out with Dog.