The Tail End Of Autumn
Due to work commitments, I've missed the best of the autumn colours by about two weeks, but I recently managed to get out into Roddlesworth Woods over a couple of days to pick up some of the scraps of what remained before the storm that's been battering us for the past 24 hours or so strips the last of them.
For the first visit, the Met Office lured me out with the promise of dry conditions with broken cloud, reality translated this into overcast with added drizzle. Fortunately, I'd brought along the Z8 + 24-70 f/2.8S, so I wasn't too concerned about a little bit of drizzle as I wandered around pointing it at groups of trees that took my fancy.
The woods here are vast, lining a valley with the river Roddlesworth at the bottom, effectively splitting them into two distinct areas. On this first trip I remained on the Eastern slope of the valley, exploring a few paths I've never ventured along before in loop taking me down the valley and then back up again to where I'd begun.
The Path Untrodden
Well, at least for me it was, although I'm sure many others have trodden it before. I do like these sort of "tree tunnel" scenes, although this could have done with some more clearly defined light at the end of it. The woods on the left were dark and forboding, so I left them alone and spent more time scouting about in the woods to the right.
Disagreement
These woods are full of trees with character, but they're very messy and cluttered, so isolating interesting groupings was a bit of a challenge. The two trees I've picked out here in the centre appear to be having some sort of disagreement with one another, while their neighbours look on.
Grasping The Light
I likened this one to a hand attempting to grasp the weak light shining upon it. It also seems to be wrapped in a flurry of red leaves, almost appearing to be swarming around it (although they just happen to be on the trees in front and behind it).
One Sided
A tree that seems to be reaching entirely to one side.
Majestic
This was my favourite shot of the day. I found this scene near the lowest point in the walk where I had to start my climb back up the side of the valley.
On the second visit I faced thoroughly different conditions, bright sun and no threat of rain, so on this day I decided to take the GFX100S as the camera of choice along with the 45-100 f/4 and 20-35 f/4, although only the former was used.
On this occasion I started on the Western side of the valley, gradually making my way down to the river where it's crossed by a substantial stone bridge, before making my way back up along the other bank of the river to form a loop.
A Splash of Colour
This was taken quite early on in the walk and I spotted it while precariously trying to grab another shot. The sun was in and out and of course, went in the moment I framed up the shot, but it wasn't long before it came out to play again. I've just realised this is the only shot I've included from the West side of the river. I took a lot of shots in the 90 minutes or so it took me to get down to the bridge, but this is the only one that actually grabbed me when culling them in C1P. I'll have to revisit the others to see if I've missed any gems.
Backlit Bonanza
By this point, I was about two hours into the walk having made my way down to the bridge and part way back up the other side of the river, looking towards the sun, so I saw lots of things like this. Again this required a brief wander off the path onto a dodgy slope with a sudden drop down to the river below.
A Break In The Trees
I'd spotted these brightly lit trees on the far side of the river as I made my way up the hill and was fortunate enough to find this break in the trees on my side that also worked as a nice framing element.
Reaching
I often get the impression trees are reaching for something, light I suppose, but it's fun to anthropomorphise this into other things.
Backlit Sprites
This bunch appeared very sprite-like to me.
