Hanger Hill Wood (November 2021)

When visiting Sherwood Forest, particularly in Autumn, I head for Hanger Hill Wood. It is an area in the forest that I found marked on a map but I am never totally clear that whether my route exactly coincides with the wood. It is, however, a useful reference point that allows me to orientate myself around the forest and to built familiarity with different locations for the photography - plus there are only so many ways of saying that I am in Sherwood Forest yet again!

On this occasion, I found the group of beech trees that tend to colour early in full seasonal flow. Further along it is was bit different, the beech trees were still mainly green with the red oaks on the opposite side path providing some fine red and orange tones. This combination worked really well for a series that will probably define autumn 2021 for me…

Sweet Chestnuts and Red Oaks (November 2021)

I think blue skies and sunlight are the best conditions for autumn photography. The brightness really brings out the colours. Unfortunately though, sunny days can be few and far between at this time of year so I have a couple of venues close to home if I see a break in the weather. 

One of these is Foxcovert Nature Reserve which has an abundance of sweet-chestnut trees and another is the area around Strawberry Hill Heath where I can find red oaks. Both provide great colour if caught at the right time. 

The photographic method in Foxcovert is to look upwards to the colours as the wood is in a hollow and it tends to be quite dark at ground or eye level. The low sun only seems to skim the top of the trees at this time of year. These were some of the results from an early November afternoon:

Most years I try to capture the red oaks near to Strawberry Hill Heath. These differ from the native oaks mainly in the shape of their leaves, with the red varieties having pointed lobes rather than the round ones we normally associate with traditional oak trees. Also, the red oaks tend to colour earlier in the season and they were just starting to turn at the start of November:

Sherwood Forest (October 2021)

This year’s autumn photography started in earnest at the tail end of October with another visit to Sherwood Forest. On this occasion the beech and birch trees had started to show some colour along with the red oaks near to Hanger Hill Wood. 

The colour changes would continue during November as I made more trips to the local woods and forests, and I will post these in due course - in fact woodland photography will dominate the posts over the next month, and why not? Autumn is the best season in this part of Nottinghamshire where we have so many trees! 

These were some of the beech tree colours:

Next, a selection of birch tree shots, often looking up to the tree tops:

Finally some of the red oaks: