Attending a couple of weekend workshops with John Blakemore over 30 years ago made a great impression on me and I enjoyed reading his fairly recent book on black and white photography. He is strong on the photographer developing a relationship with a place before even thinking about making a picture. This moves on to a recognition of what you want to convey and these ideas are then realised in the final image. The three Rs; relationship, recognition and realisation, of which I can only usually remember two.
I can see Huthwaite Wood from my house and as it is owned by friends (Beryl and Ernest) it seemed a good place with which to develop such a relationship. I initially set off a week ago but was frustrated by rain and took shelter in Ernest's barn.
.
Yesterday the weather was better but my initial impressions were rather flat as the wood was mainly tightly packed silver birch trees, which made it difficult to see the trees for the wood.
.
A fallen conifer presented some welcome variety.
.
There was a rocky edge at the highest part which meant that some trees were more isolated and could be photographed with the rock as background. This worked well on a couple of images.
.
The first is solid and colourful while the second is lighter in tone with a greater sense of freedom - dance perhaps.
.
Beryl and Ernest live in an old farm house and the view across the valley in the summer is simply wonderful. There is a picture of their place from the other side, with Huthwaite Wood behind, at the top of the blog.
It's early days in our relationship but there will certainly be more photographs from Huthwaite Wood although I can't promise they will be very different from the above.
This is my response to a dull shot made in the rain last week.
