Monk's Wood Mornings

This describes a few days of visits to Monk's Wood over a week.  

Post Title Image

Day 1

I have been neglecting Monk's Wood this last month or so. I have become enthralled with Holme Fen and the silver birches and deep fern undergrowth. This past morning I broke that fast drove out before sunrise. 

I loaded up my pack and setup my tripod and changed shoes before heading into the mud tracks. Monk's Wood has a very heavy clay soil and is well trodden by walkers of all varieties even in the winter. The consequence is that by mid-winter some tracks can be almost paralyzingly slippery with mud. The mud one gets used to, but the inability to make progress in some places or the sense one will end on your arse in an unexpected moment can add a level of frustration to an otherwise wonderful outing. 

Fortunately while it is muddy, it isn't at 'peak mud' yet. In the pre-dawn gray darkness I walk the farm track to the entrance gate and head up the hill. I had pre-determined that this is more a scouting trip than a lot of picture taking. The lack of a hard frost has prevented many trees from changing color. I am out here primarily for the fall color. Having never shot fall color I am still trying to figure out what I want to do with this season. I have my 4x5 camera and some Fuji Astia and Velvia 50 transparency film and a couple of sheets of Kodak Ektar if the contrasts are too great. 

I walk up to the top of the wood and then across, occasionally my headlamp picks out some yellow bushes and trees. I make a mental note to return here when the sun is up later in the morning. There is a little more than a breath of air in terms of wind. In the distance the distressing call of a solitary muntjac sounds out of the forest depths. The traffic on the A1 makes it's ever-present muted roar. My coat is overkill; about 8 degrees with the effort of walking and carrying my gear I warm up quickly. 

Soon the light is growing, revealing a thin mottled overcast sky and to my surprise much more bright fall foliage. These are mostly Field Maple (Acer Campestre)I think, though the Hawthorne is yellowing as well. I look for a way into a bright patch turn a corner and find myself with a challenging subject. Lots of bright yellow stretches up a slanted dark trunk into the sky. I settle on my 90mm wide angle lens to capture the fullest reach. I have to point the camera up which makes the focusing a challenge to the knees and back. I pick Ektar for the dynamic range on the included sky. I stop down to f32 and have a 30 second shutter speed after reciprocity. Not hopeful how it will work out given the technical problems and probable visual complexity. Sometimes I just have to photograph something that grabs my attention. 

Image Review

Below is the result.  It is shockingly bad. The tree trunk in the upper right corner is the only part of the image that is actually in focus! Quite some doing at f32. I recall the rear standard shifted when removing the film holder so I suspect it moved during loading as well. The image was also over exposed and Ektar unlike other Kodak films does not respond well to over-exposure so color is difficult to dial in. Additionally there is a lot of glare in the left of the frame. 

Really bad Ektar image

After this first photo I find a closer subject nearby and shoot it with Fuji Astia. I made two versions with the150mm lens at f16 at 4 seconds and f8 1/4 second (the light was brighter for the second image).  I shoot a lot of Astia these days as I bought a lot of well cared for expired film about a year ago. The film is in great shape, cheaper than my other films and has a reputation for strong yellows I hope it will work with the fall foliage. 

Image Review

The images are good and properly exposed. There is a bit too much going on but not too bad for my first fall color outing. I failed to identify and focus on the very closest leaves which causes them to be out of focus. The difference depth of field is apparent looking at the tree leaves in the background. I think properly focusing on the foremost leaves would have worked at f8 and would help conceal the background complexity 

f16, 4 seconds, 150mm lens

f8, 1/4 seconds, 150mm lens

I stop now in this quiet section of forest for coffee and a snack. Absorbing the feeling of the morning. Taking in the growing light and distinctly autumnal smell of wet leaf mould under foot.

I pick up my gear and walk the path to a small hay field that has been cut recently. In one end another maple and I setup for an appealing shot. (Astia 100, 210mm, f11.5 1 second) I am still feeling my way through this fall foliage subject. I am mostly sticking with my close intimate work I have pursued this year in black and white. I am open to larger subjects, they strike me as attractive but difficult to convey in an image.

Image Review

The image is good technically, good focus overall, good exposure. The leaves ended up greener than I remembered but this closely matches the transparency. 

 

From here I work my way down a path slick with mud and half slide almost fall haltingly down the slope. A small trail opens on my left and I poke my head in to see more field maple. (They will be my primary subject today as they seem to be the ones consistently turning.) Here an isolated branch leans out and presents itself. I compose with the 210mm lens and focus but now the breeze has picked up and pushes into the clearing setting the branch in motion with every puff. So I stand and wait watching and listening to the wind. My shutter speed I start out with is about 1/2 second for a tight aperture but despair of breezes and so try for 1/15 second at f11 of Astia 100. Hopefully the leaves are still enough but I am not very confident. 

Image Review

One of the best images for the day. Everything works here. Waiting for the wind payed off. The shafts of sunlight picking out key elements. Nice warm colors from the morning sun. 

While waiting for the wind to abate, my eye was drawn to a moss covered log and the leaves that had fallen on and around it. Each breeze brought a fresh cascade of yellows leaves. So I move there and set my tripod to its lowest, switch to 150mm lens and compose and focus and make this image at f16 1 second on Astia 100. 

Image Review

Again another favorite. Good focus and exposure. Nice color palette and textures. I should have gone for f8 to make the branch more distinct from the background

I walk towards a large meadow that has also been cut for hay. Earlier this year it was full of grazing sheep. I had hoped that there might be some good sunlight along the edges of the clearing. As I entered the meadow my eye was caught by some reddish silver maples framed by some large oak trees. Unfortunately my lenses are not long enough on the Intrepid to compress the foreground enough and make sense of the distant trees. A shame really as the light on them is good. 

I wander up close to the trees but the clouds have come to spoil the light party and so I walk back to the main path. At the base of another small silver birch a small patch of fresh green leaves stands out against the fallen red leaves. Again my lenses let me down to crop the subject in. For both of these I make a note to return with my Mamiya 645 and the longer 150mm lens with 2x teleconverter. I have loaded a roll of Portra 400 which I am experimentally pushing to ISO 800. This combination might work. 

I am now making my way back to the car. Along the return trail there are shoots of blackthorn alternating yellow and green leaves run up their stems and create the dazzling effect of confetti frozen mid-air.  

Day 2

A short visit for about an hour in the afternoon. I had enjoyed the day before enough I wanted to go back again. The light at home got very strong which got me to thinking about another visit. 

Because I was trying to be home in time for dinner I brought my Mamiya 645. I loaded the roll of Portra 400 but will meter it to ISO 800 and have the lab push process it. (A post on this test can be found here.)

By the time I arrived a bank of cloud has pushed over that end of the county. I hurry to don my gear and head out the farm track again. I have a few shots I want to get from the prior day and am on the lookout for more. The weather is unsettled and there is more wind than the morning before. I find a nice scene down one of the tracks with richly colored oak and field maples forming the canopy. I use my 150mm f3.5 lens on the 2x teleconverter so technically this is a 300mm f7 lens. I have been playing with this combination for about a month now and the foreshortening should help with this scene. I position to avoid some stray branches, set for hyperfocal focus and wait for a break in the wind and release the shutter. Then the sun breaks through the clouds and illuminates branches so I make another exposure and bracket with one stop over exposed. 

300mm f7 Portra 400 at 800

Birch and Aspen through oak limbs (300mm f7 Portra 400 at 800) 

I head over to the hay meadow and setup for the long framed shot of silver birch. Not quite what I was after but seems like it might work. I make some more bracketing exposures. I then return to the small green growth at the base of the silver birch and make some more exposures.  

New Autumn Growth (150mm f3.5)

Exiting the meadow I see again a gnarled oak I have tried to compose usefully before. I remove the teleconverter and find a composition that works. I load my Ilford 3200 I am metering at ISO 1600 and make a couple of exposures.  (This photo did not turn out well.) 

Here are a few more from the Portra 400 roll I took at Monk’s Wood. 

Day 3

This day was forecast for rain and indeed it was very wet. Still hankering to get out the weather didn't intimidate me. Again I brought the Mamiya 645. 

Once I got into the forest I was really enjoying the snap of the saturated colors against the dark tree trunks. As soon as I tried to make some composures I saw how limited today was going to be. The rain was pretty heavy as was the cloud cover. I brought some Ektar 100 film. The limitations were 1) I cannot shoot up into the canopy lest the lens become covered with droplets,  2) slow shutter speeds will create a challenge with drops striking leaves causing them to move, 3) I did not bring anything to shelter the camera while I setup the shot. 

I soldier on as it is still a brilliant if damp day out. My basic objective is to find a red field maple I saw 2 days ago. I manage to get there and find a low branch with a nice splay of colored leaves. I take a few different exposures to bracket the exposure and try and time the drops of water and movement of the foliage. There was a certain rhythm as the drops were secondary rain from higher up in the canopy so rather than be a steady drizzle the water would accumulate until a big drop interrupted my scene. I could wait for the big drop then wait for the leaves to settle and take a photo before the next big drop. My shutter speed was between 1/2 and 1 second.  

Image Review

This turned out better than expected. I made four images to ensure I got one with no motion. None of them have a problem. The one below is slightly better as it has less glare from the wet leaves. The composition works with the branch slanting to the right corner. I little negative space out of focus keeps the eye on the leaves of interest. 

Red field maple

I stumble on and look for images and then try and place myself where I can shelter under big tree limbs. This image I include for completeness but certainly not pride. Basically it is out of focus. 

I also spied a small field maple at a trails crossroad and managed to get it framed within the confines of my 80mm f1.9 lens. These bright leaves amongst a larger dead tree give me some hope of a decent image. 

Crossroads Field Maple (80mm f1.9)