Old and New Locations for Summer: Holme Fen and Wood Walton Fen

Yesterday was a strange day weather-wise. The glorious and rare spring weather had changed to cooler and wetter weather and was not completely unwelcome. Yesterday however as warmer air moved in ithe weather was very close humid and almost foggy the air was so dense. Gray clouds lay low as I headed out mid-morning. 

I vaguely had the idea of heading back to Holme Fen. The last time I had visited was in March and then it was very much still in a wintery state. I missed the transformation of spring time and so now I would see it in early summer. It had changed incredibly. The ground for the most part in winter is swathed in brown dead bracken beaten flat by the rain and rot. Now in addtion to the Birch and Oak in full leaf the ferns stood a full meter high and obscured the ground underneath so thick were they. These are birch forests and unlike thick conifer forests the ferns seem to get more light and can carpet the whole forest floor in thick tall stands. 

The air was dense and close and very few people were about due to it being a weekday and the weather not being brilliant. Weather like this for me makes a place feel closer, more enclosed and intimate. It was quiet except for the annoying clang of a farmer's digger in the distance.

I brought a camera though not with great enthusiasm. I have recently gone off photography but I thought I would make an effort. I chose my Mamiya 645 Pro which I have favored recently. (I am still mourning my broken Fuji 690 GSW.) With the metered prism finder it is self-contained. For relative simplicity I brought a 150mm lens and an 80 mm lens and two film backs. Being a such a dark day I opted for 400 speed film and so brought Ilford HP5+ (black and white) and Kodak Portra 400 (color). 

Later in the day I decided to move location. Wood Walton Fen is a few miles away and is planned to the part of a grander Great Fen project to attempt to restore a much larger area to the way it was before the fens were all drained.  Wood Walton fen has a vastly different character to it and will be the subject of more woodland work in the future. For now this was my first time visiting and for early summer it was heavily covered in a variety of vegetation. The area is much more diverse in terms of tree species and has a variety of bogs, meadows and woodlands intersected by a series of drainage ditches that are brim full of water despite a very dry spring. 

Below are the results and my thoughts on each. As usual when the color is processed I will revise this post with those results. (This may take some time as I did not shoot the entire color roll with about 5 images left over.)The first sectionis from Holme Fen and the second from Wood Walton Fen 

Holme Fen 

This first one was simple with a fallen tree in the ferns. I like the composition though to my eye it appears a little out of focus. I recall struggling with the focus for some reason. Handheld in this light most of these shots were are around f5.6 so not much mercy from the aperture. 

 

Color Version

A delicate simple fern. I like this one a lot as it has a simplicity to it and it has gradations of light from dark to light bottom to top. 

I liked the textured twisted tree trunk here. 

By now I found my self on the north edge of the forest looking out over the adjacent farmlands again. I have photographed this before with the long furrows receding to the horizon. I took this where the plants were emerging from the ground and the next one from the same spot some of my earlier examples were taken. 

Yes this is the noisy digger...

I generally like it when I find a bright white birch tree. Here is one again. 

These trees exhibited a range of textures. I fear the closer trunk is out of focus, Sigh. 

I find that close-ups shot with the 150 mm lens are challenging handheld. The short depth of field makes the composition very delicate and in this one I fear the almost in-focus fern leaves in the upper left are neither in focus or out of focus enough and hence a distraction. I had hoped enough could be picked out of the visual complexity of the numerous small leaves and flowers to be of interest. 

This next one I fussed a lot about. The light was variable as the clouds thinned. I am learning about these shots to be cautious of leaves and branches in the foreground. They often are not apparent when focusing as the lens is wide open and short focus depth of field is poor. However the photo is usually taken stopped down so leaves and branches practically blurred to invisibility in the viewfinder are fuzzy distractions in the print. Still a 150 mm lens on short focus in overcast conditions even with 400 ASA this was shot at 1/60th ata f5.6. The leaf in the middle of the shot is out of focus. A tripod would rescue the shot. A shame because it really works otherwise. 

Wood Walton Fen

By now I moved location. The reeds have very delicate seed heads I am always attracted to as they wave about in the wind. Here a single one separated and was suspended over the water near a bridge. I think the delicate nature of it conveys a grace very effectively. 

As I took the photo I heard a commotion in the nearby canal that sounded like an animal of some size. After I snapped the photo I moved to investigate and saw a fox frozen at the edge of the trail staring at me obviously as curious about me as I was of him. He scurried off down the canal to the next crossing and disappeared in the thick grass. 

Here again the reeds figure across a large meadow is the dense woodland. 

This was an unusual sprawling oak whose branches radiated away from the central trunk in all directions. A huge challenge with depth of field. I tried to compose in a way to keep most in focus.  Again a tripod would have been useful and probably a wider lens than the 150 mm I used. 

I took two versions of the next photo.  This is the first. The second I opened up a stop to try and whiten the trunk and took a step back. This one is the best of the two I think. What captured my attention is the way the bark weathered in defined even levels of white to dark such that it has an almost topological quality. 

The second photo for reference. 

The day was more productive than I had imagined and very enjoyable. Wood Walton was so quiet empty and peaceful. I will be returning as there is so much to explore there.