Baked Mud Pie (September 2020)

Much of my current photography is still local to home. I haven’t made a photography trip outside of Nottinghamshire since the coronavirus hit in early March and with the current situation worsening it seems that this will continue for some time. 

Fortunately, living in the wider Sherwood Forest area means that I have been able to capture some of the emerging autumn colours which I will post shortly. In the meantime, I am working through September’s photography and thought this selection was worth showing - baked mud pie!

For most of the year a section of a local field is boggy. The water runs off the field and collects near to the entrance. Over the summer though, it has dried to form a crust and when viewed close-up forms some visually interesting shapes and textures:

Whilst taking these images, I noticed there was a compositional 'sweet spot' with the wider angle results, shown below, being less effective. This is something that often happens with abstract style photography and it is always worth spending a bit of time testing out the right focal length for the particular subject:

City Images (September 2020)

Earlier in the month I posted some photographs of the war memorial in Nottingham. In that post, I said that I had done a lot of walking looking for photographic inspiration which often means trying finding a subject where I can link images together in small panels - five or more related photographs rather than individual or standalone images. 

Inevitably, there are a number of false starts in this process where I manage one or two captures but it fail to progress or I don’t make the necessary links. These are a selection of some of those starts including one or two images that actually do standalone and say enough about the subject in one capture, like the Watkins Street image below and the acer leaves in the arboretum:

Watkin Street

Old and new development in bright afternoon sun:

Tinker's Leen

A diverted section of the the River Leen, I believe, running through old and new buildings: 

Dereliction

One of the old buildings along Tinker's Leen:

Outside Plumbing

Station Car Park

The newer cladding on the railway station car park:

Love Locks 

Love locks on Wilford Suspension Bridge:

Arboretum

Seasonal colours from the acers in Nottingham arboretum:

Upper Hexgreave (September 2020)

I recently read an article about photography helping a person to overcome depression and anxiety, enabling him to see the beauty and positivity in his local area.

The article really chimed with me as I have always recognised the great benefit of photography as a mindful activity. 

Capturing the local environment with the camera allows me to stay very much in the moment, unencumbered by the everyday stresses that impact on us all. In this way, regardless of ones own mental health, photography can be uplifting - even if it is only for ten minutes, or so, at any one time. 

Importantly though, mindful photography requires a certain attitude to the results. It fails if there is an over emphasis on taking ‘great photos’. Anxiety can creep in if every click of the shutter is critically assessed at the capture stage.

The solution, of course, it to relax. Accept what is in front of you and enjoy the activity. Ultimately, the results will take care of themselves. 

For example, a walk up to the lime tree avenue on the Hexgreave Estate stays with me because I enjoyed spotting the early signs of the autumn season in hedgerows and trees. The results in this case are secondary but now, after the event, I can reflect on one image that I particularly like. This image is the flowering ivy hedge, trimmed very neatly by the Estate - a simple composition that is all about the line and textures of the hedge:

These are some of the other results from the walk including one unusual looking bilberry climbing a utility pole, and perhaps doing a good impression of a decorated Christmas tree?

The final destination for the walk was the lime tree avenue on the Estate which was showing a few hints of autumn colour. I use this line of trees to gauge the timing for a visit the much larger lime tree avenue in Clumber Park with the best colour tending to be around mid to late October: