Clipstone Forest (November 2021)

Nearly all of November’s photography was spent following the autumn colours in my usual woodland and forest locations. This can look somewhat repetitive when collated into a series of blog posts but the hardest aspect to convey in this format is the pleasure of capturing the seasonal spectacle - it is my favourite time of year and as soon there was a prospect of some decent sunlight I was out with the camera.

On this occasion I headed for a group of beech trees in Clipstone Forest that border an indistinct footpath through the wood. They are closely planted and receive side lighting which makes them glow at the peak of their autumn colours:

Before going to any location I always have a target subject in mind, like the beech trees above, but after this I tend to react to scenes that are around me. Sometimes a theme will develop that I either spot at the capture stage or discover when I am reviewing the photographs after the visit. On this occasion it was the latter and I noticed a number of similar style compositions where the main subject is in silhouette with the light and colour behind it. I think these work well, particularly the first image below:

Finally to round up this visit to Clipstone Forest are a small selection of standalone images that simply try to capture the enjoyment of the season and the fine sunlight:  

November on the Southwell Trail (2021)

These are a selection of the autumnal photographs captured on a bright day in mid- November along the Southwell Trail. 

The portrait format seemed to work best for most of the photographs as it provided enough height to capture the subject trees' branching patterns, exploiting the tunnel like appearance of the trail, and making a feature of the autumn colours:

An alternative approach was taken with a group of oaks tree on a path from the trail across the Hexgreave Estate. Here, a landscape format was used for most of the photographs as the setting was more open and I wanted to connect the trees in the compositions including the lone trees standing in the field behind:

Whilst many of oak trees were displaying autumn colours, some, like this leafless horse chestnut tree, had finished their season providing an early start to the winter tree photography:

Combs Lane (November 2021)

Sometimes I question why I take my camera out each day and photographs the same locations, thinking that I might need a new challenge. Then, a photograph comes along that provides a good enough answer to make it worthwhile. 

Such an opportunity came along at the end of November, the day after some early snowfall. There was a break in the cloud lighting up the end of season colour on a oak tree near to Combs Lane - the tinge of autumn colour working well against the blue sky behind with the tree framed by the incline of the field and the angle of the cloud:

Although the sunlight didn’t last long there was enough time for few additional shots of the early snow:

Stepping back a couple of weeks I captured some of the autumnal scenes around Combs Lane. The lime trees where almost at the end of their season with only a few leaves still remaining, whilst some of oak trees had only just started changing colour. In the late afternoon sunlight some of the more colourful oaks, and a very large beech tree, radiated a vibrant auburn hue - including another shot of the oak tree I had captured on the day after the snowfall: