A very foggy Christmas
Hi aall and welcome back to my blog. This week I am writing about three very special days over the festive period here in the UK. We had pretty much four days of fog over Christmas, unheard of conditions and a blessing for us woodland photographers. I have the most supportive of partners and when I looked out of my window on Christmas morning and espied the fog she saw the excitement in my eyes and like a dog owner recognizing the muddy puddle was pure unadulterated joy she uttered the words "go on then". I was out the door faster than a knife fight in a telephone box and whipped over to my local woodland. I stopped on the way to finally get a shot of a stand of Beech trees I had been after for a couple of years and finally had the right light and conditions to make it work.
Dorsets own version of the Dark Hedges. Hard to photograph though and got lucky on this day.
I only spent an hour in the woods as I felt it would be taking the mickey to stay more than that. To be honest, this was a very local wood to me and had seen the fog much thicker here in the past so was not overly inspired this time round. I was back home in time to carve the ham for our traditional Christmas morning breakfast of ham and eggs, glad to have got out, even for a brief amount of time!
Liked how the beech has a comforting arm over the small pine growing alongside it
The next day I was amazed to see that the fog hadn't shifted at all and was, if anything, thicker than yesterday. I was feeling the effects of all the food I had eaten the day before and it took me a while to gather the motivation to grab the gear and head out again. This time I decided to head further afield and drove the 30 miles to a woodland near to Lyme Regis which is full of the most sinister looking beeches. I rocked up about midday and was surprised to see loads of cars in the car park. A popular local spot for dog walkers it turned out! I spent a good few hours wandering among the slumbering giants, occasionally being interrupted by a friendly dog and its accompanying curious owners. A few were confused as to why I would be attempting to photograph wildlife in such poor conditions and its always amusing when I correct their assumption by declaring its the trees I am after. The look of confusion that crosses their faces makes me inwardly chuckle every time. However once I pull out my phone and show them a couple of previous images the penny drops.
These sinister beeches look even more ominous when shrouded in fog. Note the light trying to break through behind.
I was particularly pleased with this image as the sun was trying to burn through the fog at this point adding a warm glow to the light streaming in from the left. The two flanking trees added to the mood of the image, imposing beasts stood idle in their shroud of fog.
On the third day the fog was still in place and myself and Dave decided to venture down to Dartmoor again and pay a visit to one of the ancient oak woodlands that still linger there. Now we were quietly confident we would have the conditions that suit this woodland but have been let down before so everything was crossed on the drive down which was mostly through heavy rain! But upon arrival the Christmas spirits had decided to reward us for the goat we sacrificed the night before (joke……..it was a sheep!) and the whole place was blanketed in a thick veil of fog. Its a thirty minute walk to the woodland from the car park so Dave decided to head off at his pace leaving me to trundle along at mine. I became acutely aware of how slow I had become when I was passed by no less than three other photographers on my walk over. 2025 is a year where I NEED to get my fitness levels back!
However I still made it to the woodland without missing anything and decided to head over to the back of the first section and explore the edge of that. One tree in particular drew me to it as I had previously photographed it. It looks like a sleeping Ent and last time I had no conditions. This time it was perfect as seen below.
Mr Sleepy head
I always find it extrraordinary how this wood is still so vibrantly green, even in the heart of winter. Every part of it is covered in a rich tapestry of moss, lichens and ferns, some incredibly rare and precious to our ecology. Also, the way the trees grow here is bizarre, battered by the weather and the hard, rocky ground they take on forms that are almost straight out of some gothic nightmare.
These two twisted characters are a prime example of this.
Overall it was a very special three day period for me. I had mostly missed out on a pretty stunning autumn this year so it was great to finally be able to capitalise on some incredible weather. You can see more images from these three days in my portfolios, feel free to take a look. Dont forget, all my images are avaialble as prints from A4 right up to A0, please message to discuss.
Thanks as ever for reading!
Toodles