New Year Sunlight…

2022’s photography started on the first fine day of the new year along the Southwell Trail. Standing out amongst the bare leafless trees was an uplifting sparkle of bright yellow hazel catkins against a clear blue sky - a great colour combination:

This inspired further shots along the trail. I particularly enjoyed the low sunlight tracing the twists and turns of the winter branches merging into a glowing halo of fine twigs:

February on the Southwell Trail

After posting some photographs from Birmingham in 2014, I return to current photography which has be hampered by the ongoing virus lockdown. The main event during February was a second fall of snow which added some variety to the photography but in comparison to this time in previous years, the activity was significantly reduced. 

Before I move to the snow scenes, both on the Southwell Trail and on Combs Lane, I wanted cover a selection of detail shots taken along the trail. These are a simple collection, looking at the old and new growth in the hedging and on the trees that line the path. 

The new growth came mainly from the Hazel catkins with the first signs of Willow catkins appearing at the end of the month. 

Hazel has both male and female flowers on the same tree (monoecious). The male catkins are the most obvious, long and yellow, like lambs tales. These show as early as November/December. The female flowers are more difficult to spot and are bud-like with tiny red styles. In fact, the styles are so small it is hard to find a good focus as the camera locks on the branches first - manual focus is often the only resort. 

These were the hazel catkins starting with the males, and then females, with the final photograph showing the context for both (the red dots, although out of focus, can just be seen behind the male catkins): 

The male and female flowers of the Willow tree grow on separate trees (dioecious). Before the male catkins come into flower they are covered in a greyish fur which leads to the common description of pussy willows. These were the catkins as they started to appear and represented the first signs that spring was approaching: 

The evergreen ivy was in the middle of it flowering and fruiting cycle during February. Only mature plants produce the dome shaped flowers known as umbels which go on to produce berries that are black when ripe. These were a few umbels I captured during the month:

Coming to the end of their cycle was the Hawthorn fruit known as haws. The next event for hawthorns will be the spring blossoms which appear before the new leaves sprout:

A few dried oak leaves had stubbornly held onto the trees over the winter and I could just see some  new buds emerging:

Finally, a seed pod of the honesty plant or ‘lunaria’, so called because its papery membrane is moon-shaped’. It is also known as the ‘money plant’ e.g. in the USA I think it is called silver dollars. The seeds have long gone but the membranes can stay on the plant during the winter if protected from the weather:

Southwell Trail - Photography Week 7 (2017)

Contrary to my previous post, the trip to Curbar Edge was not the last photographic opportunity of the week. A further opportunity came along whilst taking a walk along the Southwell Trail which included the unusual subject of the 'undergrowth'.

Capturing complexity has been a recurring photographic theme over the winter period and, whilst some of the results might look a bit random, there is still a compositional process being applied. The process starts with an assumption of a blank canvas followed by a gradual introduction of elements which ultimately becomes the subject e.g. a line or a shape. Using this approach avoids the possibility of being overwhelmed by the complexity of the scene. Tools like selective focus, depth of field and conversion to black and white can then be used to reinforce the composition.

With this explanation in mind, I spotted a patch of dried winter undergrowth along the Southwell Trail (I use the term undergrowth as I am not sure exactly what type of plant I was looking at - perhaps bindweed?). I was intrigued by the some of the lines and made a number of compositions:

When considering aspects of the Southwell Trail, I think the undergrowth is probably as much of a feature as the tree lined path (there is certainly plenty of it!). However, the context of the path helps the presentation of the close up studies and they should probably be viewed together:

Elsewhere on the trail I have looked several times at the blue-green crop growing in the one of the fields (again, I am not sure what crop it is but they look like leeks). The transition of colours from the crop to field grass, the sunlit hedge, and the light grey-blue sky caught my eye:

The pale sky was also a good backdrop for the hazel catkins:

Best of the Rest - January (2017)

These are a selection of images taken during January 2017 and December 2016 but not included in other posts.

Strawberry Hill

A small set taken on a foggy morning walk to Strawberry Hill in Clipstone Forest:

 

 

 

Orangery, Rufford Park

The restored orangery and baths at Rufford Park features outdoor art including this sculpture:

 

 

 

 

 

The orangery was closed to the public and the glass doors had steamed up on the inside:

 

Blidworth Woods

In other posts from this time period I have mentioned having to look up into the trees to find the light:

 

 

A mono conversion of pines trees converging:

Silver birch and pines:

Young oaks:

 

White Skies

White skies in winter are not always the best conditions for landscape photography but on this occasion I had a finish in mind for the final image. I wanted to achieve something that had a similar tonal range to a medium to hard pencil sketch. These were the results:

 

 

 

On a separate day, I used the white skies differently by sending the trees into near silhouette:

Winter Branches

Photographing branches in winter is about seeing and capturing shapes. Sometimes this means finding some order in the chaos or finding a way to representing the natural complexity:

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Growth

Finally, the first new growth of the year - Hazel Catkins. The male catkins tend to catch the eye but the female buds can just about be seen with their characteristic red styles: