December on the Southwell Trail - Part 4

The last of the autumn colours had disappeared on the Southwell Trail by the second week in December. There was a new look of bare leafless trees but also a sense of openness and light which quite appeals to me.

I also enjoy the structure of the trees in winter and this time of year always reminded of Leonardo Da Vinci's brilliant 'rule of the trees'. He apparently wrote in his notebook 'all the branches of a tree at every stage of it's height when put together are equal in thickness to the trunk'.

How fantastic is that! Not only that trees follow a very simple mathematical principle but also that someone could contemplate such a rule by observation only!

I must admit that it still baffles me even though I know the rule....but it all adds to the wonderful nature of trees and these are a selection of photographs taken throughout December on the trail:

December on the Southwell Trail - Part 3

This selection of photographs from the Southwell Trail concentrates on the detailed aspects of the trail captured during December. They include frosty leaves, tree fruits, and anything else that caught my eye whilst out walking.

The first set features frosty leaves, ferns and grasses. A few of these have been uploaded to photo social media and the ones with sunny highlights gained a good reaction. I am always pleased if fellow photographers like any of my images:

Next are a few similar compositions but this time without the frost. I particularly liked the colours and the wet shine in these shots:

Some end of season rosehips caught my eye as did the new catkins on the hazel trees. It seemed very early for the catkins but I think I say that every year:

Something else that happens at this time of year is my habit is converting winter twigs and branches into gritty black and whites. They make interesting and sometimes hard to look at abstracts. The third image below was captured using the cameras black and white filter and I quite like the grainy effect. I have also included one composition without a black and white conversion which I don't think has the same impact as the black and white's:

Finally, the very last bit of autumn, desperately holding on to a tree:

Winter Trees (December 2019)

I was back in Sherwood Forest in early December to start the winter tree photography. I felt that after all the autumn photography I had my ‘eye in’ for tree compositions and I didn’t want that to fade. I further felt that my enthusiasm for the subject was still high which is important for any form of photography.

That said, having enthusiasm for the subject and being on a roll doesn’t guarantee results. On this occasion I ended up doing more walking than photography. I got caught in two minds trying to focus on winter trees and searching out the last remnants of autumn colour. This led to some images being taken in the Major Oak area and others quite a distance away in Budby South Forest, where I also got diverted onto ice patterns in puddles - see my previous posts.

On reflection I wish I had focused more on the major oak area where I took these shots:

On the path to Budby South Forest I stopped for these treetop style of composition, attracted by some remaining autumnal colours:

Lastly, these were the shots taken in the Budby South Forest which is mostly heathland with a few plantations. Again, on reflection I should have chosen one location or the other and had I done so I think I would have ended up with a more coherent set of images, although I enjoyed the walk!