Completing the walk in the woods

In 2011 I started a small photo project called A Walk in the Woods. I say started, which suggests a deliberate plan: I got lost taking what I thought was a short cut to a rugby game, and used the camera and 70-300mm lens I had in my bag to take pictures of the flora of the woods in which I found myself.

There was no particular intention to avoid the fauna, but when I capture a plant, it is at least in the most part judgment, as I will have time to look at it and get the angle that I hope will make an attractive picture. If I capture an animal, particularly a wild animal, I class it as luck, as I will need to see the creature, have the right lens on, point, focus, shoot and get a picture, preferably of its face rather than its backside, all before it runs away. Whilst I enjoy the stories of outstanding patience accompanying some of the photos in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibitions, I am not tempted to emulate them, these albums are called a walk in the woods for a reason.

This consideration does not apply, as anyone who has been to Seurasaari Open Air Museum or Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki will confirm, to Finnish squirrels, which happily pose for you.

"Päiväâ!"

I posted the results of the first four walks, and took the photos for the fifth at the beginning of November.

However, I forgot to edit and publish them. Still, not to worry, it would not be long before I would be out to get again to catch the woods in the snow.

I had to think again, as there was one morning of snow last winter, which had melted almost as soon as I had got my boots on. So, I had to wait a year before completing the set.

Our woods are on the Wirral Peninsula, which has a very mild micro climate, so even when it has been snowing, there is no thick blanket, more a white highlight on the plants, which makes for easier lighting.

The rest of the pictures from part 5 can be seen here, and those from part 6 here.

A walk in the woods

Last March, I set off to Caldy RUFC to watch a game. On the way, I had a fundamental misunderstanding of the geography of the area. I thought the hill behind West Kirby was a ridge, with Thurstaston, where the club play, on top. It is in fact a round hill, with Thurstaston on the other side.

Without a map on hand to correct me, that short cut through Caldy Woods was not a short cut at all, but took me in completely the wrong direction. By the time I realised this, correcting my route would have taken me to the end of the first half, so there seemed little point continuing.

To avoid a wasted trip, I started to take pictures of the woods, and, feeling a bit lazy, I just left the 70-300mm lens on the camera, and took all my pictures with that.

 The rest of the collection from March can be seen here.

I thought it would be interesting to go to the same location every couple of months to see how the woods grow and decay over the year. Part 2 came at the end of April, just before Easter...

... part 3 in June ...

... and part 4 at the beginning of September - to my surprise, this was the one with the most difficult lighting so far, as the full canopy of leaves made the woods darker than earlier in the year.

There will be a part 5, I took the pictures in November, but I am a bit behind with my updating, and the timing of part 6 depends on whether we have any significant snow in the next few weeks.