With this trip, I wanted to explore some local woodland, and take my camera along. These woods are only 20 minutes from home, so they are idea for return trips, something I definitely plan on doing and there is a lot of potential. My main aim was a clearing containing a group of three eye-catching trees. I'd photographed them before in black and white, and wanted to have another go. I had hoped for mist but despite getting to the location early, there was none to be found.
My first image was of a fallen tree, which was quite weathered in places having a look similar to driftwood. I composed the scene to make a feature of the twisting lines, and used a wide aperture to limit the area of sharp focus. I think it worked quite well.
The next image was going to be the three trees I mentioned earlier, however upon arriving at the site, I wasn't seeing an image. There was a lot of summer foliage and the trees didn't stand out as well as they did on an earlier visit. I abandoned that one and started to look elsewhere.
I returned to the location of the first image, since I had spotted a tree covered in orange algae. With a background of greenery this made for a striking juxtaposition. I'm a relative beginner with Large Format, and this provided the chance to try using swing with the front standard to manipulate the plane of focus to keep my subject sharp, whilst at the same time using a wide aperture. It's a tricky technique that doesn't work in every situation, but this was perfect for it.
I'm pleased with the image in general and would like to do more of this sort of thing, using texture and colour in abstract.
You can see both of these images being taken in the accompanying video here;
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