Winter Blues
I’ll be honest, i’ve been suffering lately. In fact I recall suffering from similar symptoms last summer. I think the last time I actually went out with the camera and actually got it out of its bag to take pictures was back in early December - 7 weeks to the day.
It’s not uncommon of course to suffer from January or Winter blues. It’s a ‘thing’ apparently so someone pointed out to me recently. So this ‘thing’ needed to end. I needed to push myself to get out.
It’s very easy this time of year when it’s dark mornings and evenings to be lazy. I’ll admit that I am. I have been out. I’ve been ‘scouting’! That’s what us photographers call it when we head out with our cameras with very low expectations of achieving anything noteworthy, other that seeking out compositions or subjects that could work in better conditions.
And that’s the crux of it for me - I’m constantly waiting for better conditions, not perfect, just conditions that get me motivated to get out of bed!
As primarily a woodland photographer, I’m looking for settled conditions, high pressure systems ideally. Cold frosty mornings, or the ultimate elusive fog or mist! I don’t mind rain, just not too heavy. Storms are good also, not for woodland though.
But since early December, the conditions just haven’t excited me. No snow (now that would be nice!), frost or fog. So i’ve stayed in bed.
Enough was enough though and I was actually feeling on the verge of becoming depressed, so I pushed myself to take a late afternoon walk in & around the birches at Holme Fen
I was prepared to take some ‘intimate’ shots, close ups as I figured that was my best chance. The light wasn’t great, it was cold and windy. I wandered around the Mere first, looking for colours and shapes in the waters edge, still retaining some ice in places. Nothing doing really. Well nothing I saw anyway - not had much practice doing close up work so I probably missed loads of shots!
Heading further round, I remembered reading about a clearing the Great Fen volunteers had made which was intended to allow the ground plants and fauna to flourish. We get many very rare plant species at Holme Fen, which is why it retains in SSSI status (Site of Special Scientific Interest).
Anyway, as I turned the corner into this area I was greeted with pockets of warm tones, grasses blowing in the wind. They really stood out amongst the otherwise drab and messy clearing, mostly filled with brambles
When I say ‘grasses’, there’s probably a long latin name for them as they reminded me of the Marram grasses you get at the coast. The warm colours and the soft textures they were creating as they blew in the wind really grabbed my attention
I intentionally kept the shutter speed long, around 1/15 sec, to show the movement whilst picking a particular focus point
Having enjoyed this little session of shooting the grasses, my attention turned back to the birches surrounding the clearing. Could I use these grasses as foreground or a base colour in the frame whilst making a subject of the birch?
I spotted a nice shapely character in the distance, just catching the last of the light. I lowered the tripod, and shot low using the grasses as intended as a base. I was at 400mm which gave the impression of compression which helped. I was really pleased with the end result and came away with a ‘keeper’ which was definitely not expected!
My final shot was this little bush.
Using the same principle of using the grasses as foreground, reminiscent of flames, suggested this one should be called…
The Burning Bush!
The moral of this story is sometimes you need to push yourself and you never know what you might find. The worse case was going to be me enjoying a lovely walk in the cold winter air, around my favourite place
As it turned out I came away with a keeper and a much more positive feeling about my photography again. Hopefully it won’t be too long before I venture out again!
