Summer photography at its best

Well howdy all and welcome back to my blog. I have not posted for a few weeks now and thats mainly because I have been busier than a room full of hyperactive children and have not even been out with the camera apart from shooting a friends wedding. Quick story fill, my mate had been let down by his first choice photographer at the last minute and knowing I can allegedley use a camera, reached out to me asking if I would be interested. I have shot weddings in the past but found them very stressful to do and not very enjoyable either. I hate photographing people at the best of times and at weddings it is even harder to do right due to constantly changing light…..I digress, its hard! I agreed to do it as he is a friend and didnt charge much either, kind of my wedding gift to them. My daughter also came along to help and she was brilliant, a natural wedding photographer in my opinion! Between us we managed to get nearly 400 photos of the happy couples day and some of them were even good!

So, APART from the wedding I just simply havn’t been out. Work played a part for sure but also its summer and as we all know summer landscape photography sucks right?? Right??? Well, no, in fact, it doesn’t. Its different for sure with super early sunrises and sunsets that are often happening after i’ve gone to bed. Also if they do colour up it usually only lasts a few minutes at best due to the angle of the sun during summer. During the day its either relentlessly raining (I am in the UK, this is a thing here) or its so blazingly hot you just want to stay indoors in some comparative shade. But there are ways and means to make the most of conditions when they are, briefly, favourable.

The weekend just gone was a weird one. We had mist and fog in the middle of July which is rare here and I couldnt resist on Saturday, heading down to my photgraphic equivalent of my safe word (pineapple), and thats the wood that houses the mighty Bruce. A veteran oak who resides in a farmed poplar wood near my home that I have photographed many many times. On saturday conditions were not ideal in the wood with little mist penetrating but I did manage to get this image below.

Bruce catching the early morning light.

I only had about an hour before work and I had a little wander around the wood, soaking up the sounds and the smells. It was soul refreshing to finally be back in among the green stuff.

Sunday morning I actually slightly overslept and didn’t get out the door until just gone 5am. I had no plan in mind but could see thick mist carpeting the vale to the south of the town I live in. I decided to try a different area though, a small wood the other side of Stourhead that often catches the mist when the conditions are right. I got sidetracked along the way, thinking there were a few images to be had but ended up not liking the compositions. I realised the wood I was headed for did not, in fact have the mist among it, so headed off in the other direction towards the Deverills, a group of hills on the Wiltshire border. Here my luck was in, with mist hugging the valley floors while the tops of the hills were exposed, but it didnt make for very good images, at least thats my thought. Let me know in the comments what you think of this one below.

Early morning mist among the Deverills

It was at this point I found an old byway. I decided to have a wander up it and was overjoyed when i stumbled across this scene below. I love a good barn find……ahem!

Gladiator feels with this image!

There is a very famous Dutch barn not too far from this one that, quite frankly has been photographed to death. But this beauty I have never seen an image of so really happy to find something new! And that light from the early morning sun combining with the inversion in the background and the mist hugging the barn makes, for me at least, one of my favourite summer images!

After getting several compositions of this stunning scene I decided to head over to another old favourite of mine, Fonthill lakes. A beautiful estate with two gorgeous lakes in the heart of it that is fully open to the public on one side of them. If there was going to be mist still hanging around it was pretty much guaranteed to be here.

I rocked up, driving under the gatehouse to be disappointed by a distinct lack of the wispy stuff on the first lake. But in the distance my eye caught a glow. Hark! the other lake still had mist shrouded over it. I parked up, fumbled for my camera and tripod and headed straight for my favourite spot on the lake, an old fishing platform with views across to the trees on the other side. I was greeted by a glorious scene as I hacked my way through the overgrown undergrowth with my trusty penknife, like some 18th century explorer stumbling through a verdant jungle. Across the lake the hills were thick with mist, the sun was rising directly above the end of the fishing platform and there were also rays of light blasting through gaps in the branches. I kid you not I was damper than an otters pocket as I set up the tripod, driving it into the mud around the platform, hastily attaching my ZF to the head and setting up for the shot. Now I have to say I have managed get some great images from this very spot in the past but I think this one tops the lot and is now my new favourite summer shot (sorry barn, your reign was brief!).

Serenity at its finest.

And that is why summer photography can still be fun, exciting and capable of getting some really strong images! It was so good to be back out with the camera over the weekend. My mental health has not been the best recently and to get back in touch with nature for a while once again reafirmed in me that the outdoors really is a great medicine in the fight against my depression at ANY time of the year.

Thanks for reading folks, it really is appreciated.