I am over the moon to finally be able to announce my Image “Memorium fields” has been selected for inclusion in Nikon’s 2027 calender!
I entered the 2025 Nikon Film and Photo contest with this image at the beginning of 2025 but I didn’t win the main competition. However, they ran a second contest alongside this one which was for Nikon users only with 12 winners being picked by the staff of Nikon around the world and mine was one of the twelve. To say I was overwhelmed when Nikon contacted me to let me know is an understatement. I constantly suffer with imposter syndrome when it comes to my photography, never feeling like my work is good enough and I am by far my own worst critic. So to be told by a company as huge and influential as Nikon is and has been in the photography world they think one of my images is good enough to feature in THEIR calender blows my mind!
Memorium Fields
I had to sign an NDA and the original plan was for it to be included in the 2026 calender but for some reason they held it back for 2027 instead. So I have had to sit on this news for quite a while and for someone like me that loves to talk that has been particularly tricky!
On to other things now. Autumn is in full swing here in the UK and I paid a visit to a woodland in Norfolk of all places last week called Holme Fen. Interesting fact, it is the lowest point in the UK, being a massive 9 feet below sea level! It turned out I didn’t need a wetsuit for this one though. The woodland itself is on an area of peat and reminded me a lot of the Somerset Levels near my home. But the levels doesn’t have any woodlands of significant size and certainly nothing as pretty as this one. The woods themselves are mainly Birch with the odd Oak intermingled among them. Birch woods are few and far between in the south of the UK so to visit a ‘proper’ one like this was a treat. I travelled up the day before to give me some time to scout out the Fen and spent the afternoon wandering around, mapping out the compositions in my head and generally having a good old explore.
The following morning the predicted fog was draped across the woodland and the excitement levels rose as I waited patiently at the level crossing next to the wood to lift its gates as the umpteenth train whizzed by.
THE busiest level crossing I have ever seen! Took over twenty minutes before they lifted.
Once into the woodlands it was great to be able to head straight to the scenes I had picked out the day before to start getting some images. It pays to scout out an unknown woodland if you can. The fog was forecast to hang around for a good few hours but we all know how unreliable the weather reports can be so it was full speed ahead from myself to get the shots I wanted.
Big girthy Birch trees!
About halfway through the session I managed to tweak my hamstring though and as the session went on it got progressively worse. I hate that my body is failing me like this, especially the legs. I might need an off road Zimmer frame soon so if any of you know a company that makes them please drop me a message!
I did manage to hobble my way around the rest of the woodland before the fog finally cleared. For once the weather reports had got it bang on! It has to be noted that a small but significant area of Holme Fen was subject to a fire in the summer that has destroyed quite a few acres of this fantastically photogenic woodland. The good news is though there are already signs of nature bouncing back around the edges of the affected area.
I spent the long journey home reflecting on that fire damaged area, a sight we are likely to see more of in the coming years I fear. I guess it makes it doubly important to catalogue these wonderful woodlands of ours as one day they might not be there any more.
Gorgeous colours and a nice softening fog
Autumn at its finest!
Stunning scene
That’s it for this week. I have some more exciting news to share soon, but must keep quiet on that one too until I get the go ahead to announce it! Now where is that Gorilla tape??
Toodles!