Woodwalton Fen Revisit Early November
I was looking forward to this morning for the last couple of days. The gale that has been blowing winds is finally done and a high pressure was due to park itself over the area. Finally we would have the first frost of the year (extremely late historically) and perhaps some fog. So I scraped the windshield (windscreen) and bundled myself into the care at 5:30am. The sky was deep blue with just a rim of orange on the eastern horizon. Venus was up as was the moon along with a couple of wisps of cloud. It was dead still.
It didn't feel that cold when I got out of the car. There was frost but the sense was it was barely freezing and hadn't been that cold for very long. I had been vacillating about where to go amongst my 3 local choices. I settled on Woodwalton Fen on the theory that with lots of water about the place perhaps that would improve chances of fog. On the way I didn't see any signs of fog patches so probably any choice was bound to disappoint on that front.
I pulled my equipment together (Intrepid 4x5) flipped on the headlamp and marched into the reserve. There was frost all over the ground. I had perhaps an hour before sunrise and no real plan.
I still am learning what I want to do with the fall color. It is also hard to see what to do with the limited golden hour light out here. I am not really into shooting big subjects. The sky is bereft of clouds so the orange glow will not be reflected down but will instead compete with the blue light from the sky. Some mornings I have seen the two effectively cancel each other out. Fortunately the sun is low and golden for a long time in the morning now at these fat latitudes. Perhaps some nice slanting light through the trees.
I head to some familiar areas. The aspens have been mostly blown out with the last two days of wind. Just gray naked trunks and branches. I goto look at the silver birch on the waters edge I photographed last time and it still looks good. I have an idea I want to try here. I haven't gotten the film back from the last visit so am unsure how that session turned out. When the light is up I should revisit this later. It is sheltered from the rising sun so no sense waiting now. With no wind I should have better chances of success this morning.
I then look for the two leaves composition from the last visit but those poor two leaves are gone. Any charm or interest with the scene has left with them. So on to the other aspens. and these are now yellower and some leaves tinged with red. I think perhaps I can find something form the cow pasture across the canal. No cows so should be Ok to go over the gate. Hmm looks like fresh cow tracks. Can't see any cows. I walk on and 50 yards on I see the cows shelter in a corner of the field. Respectful of the sign I decide to leave.
I walk further south and finally on to unexplored territory for me. One small silver birch stands yellow on the far edge of a canal. I can't see away to the other side and I content myself on this side of a fence as well. The sun just above the horizon the birch glows in the light cast from the sky. I think to take a slice out of the foliage and see how that works as a composition. I make a 6x9 image on Velvia 50 with my SINAR Zoom filmback. 210mm f16 2/3 8 seconds (11 with reciprocity). With the leg of the devil broken I pack up and move back down the path.
Image Review
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| Birch beside canal 6x9 |
The path offers a turn to the left into a large meadow full of tall grassy reeds. A path has been mown and the whole meadow is covered in a heavy frost. Other meadows had been virtually frost free but here some cloud of moisture had settled. The sun is just touching the tops of the trees and the meadow is surrounded by silver birch. Silver birch are present throughout this reserve but they are never very concentrated here is the first place I have noticed such a collection.
As I walk into the meadow I can see these grasses though tall are not quite as tall as my eye level which is about where the tripod takes the camera at full extension. I think there is a nice view across the frosted leaves to the colored forest edge. Again I use my 210mm lens and try and adjust the front standard to focus both the grass right in front of the lens and the trees at the edge of the meadow. It is interesting that on the ground glass the middle range of the image is not in focus. I hope that if I stop the lens down enough it will all work out.
I have to shoot negative film here as the sky is at 14 Ev and the the shadows are about 8. For this first image I place the sky at zone IX leaving the shadows at zone III. I take this first image with Ektar 100 f32 at 1 second. There is not much light on the trees except for the tops and there is no direct sun on the grass. After I take this photo I notice some light skimming off the tops of the grass and assess that it might break across my foreground later so I resolve to wait for the sun to move further off the horizon.
Image Review
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| Frosted meadow sunrise 1 |
I fix my coffee and snack bars for breakfast and wander the meadow looking at the different trees and color potential as I drink and eat. There is a small pond in the middle and an interesting looking silver birch with most of the leaves stripped off.
After 15 or 20 minutes the light is looking better overall though not quite what I wanted for the grass tops. It is apparent that some trees will screen this portion indefinitely. I also decide a grad ND filter could help the scene. I finally take what I hope will be a better image again on Ektar. The sky and scene brightened appreciably so despite the 2 stop of the ND filter I was again at f32 1 second.
Image Review
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| Frosted meadow sunrise 1 |
Next I moved the tripod to the interesting tree I saw as I was walking around having breakfast. Again I used the grad ND filter though I was having trouble with condensation which then froze of the filter. I have to wipe it down thoroughly slip it back on and quickly snap a photo. Because the grad NF filter I used Velvia 50 transparency film at f16 2/3 1 second.
Image Review
I like the tree. It has an unusual form for a silver birch. The image below has a lot of problems. Being half lit by the rising sun adds color but makes the exposure difficult and gives weird compositional dynamic between the light and dark portions. Not enough attention was paid to the focus in the upper left though this also looks like some motion in the upper stories of the trees that wasn't apparent on the ground. I retook this photo few days later with my Mamiya 645 Pro on pushed Provia 400.
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| Tree Portrait |
I then spent what I guess is the better part of an hour wandering allover this end of the fenland forest. It is really different in character. I surprised a pair of swans on a canal at one point. Eventually I found myself heading back in the direction of the entrance of the meadow I was photographing in earlier.
On the way a silver birch on the trailside was displaying some amazing colored foliage against the sky light distinctly by the sun. I take this on Velvia 50 f22 2/3 1 second. I was surprised the light would hold across the range of the transparency film. I think being the canopy of the tree it was drenched in light even in the shadows so nothing was too dark.
Image Review
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| Sky Birch |
I next found myself back at the entrance to the earlier meadow. This time I poked my head in to see what the sun was doing now. As I came back out I saw I could get back to the canal-side silver birch I first photographed earlier in the morning; this time from the same side of the canal. By now the sun was up and backlighting it brilliantly. It was difficult finding a good composition with all the dead branches and tree trunks around. Shooting into the sun I was also concerned about glare from the sun. Eventually I settle on one photo on Astia framed by tree trunks. These tree trunks I would leave out of focus. 210mm f32 1/8th second with grad ND filter.
Image Review
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| Canal-side Birch |
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| Crop Canal-side Birch |
Image Review
I like this image. Good focus overall. The exposure was difficult. With transparency film like Velvia I expose for the highlights and place them in zone VII (two stops overexposed). In this case I knew the tree limbs would be black but that was part of the plan. They help add structure to an otherwise abstract image. The blue of the sky comes through nicely. It is hard to believe this is the same tree from the first image in this post.
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| Small birch beside canal from behind. (Fuji Velvia 50 6x12) |
Now I was ready to make my way home. A slight breeze had picked up but I wanted one more try with the canal-side birch I passed on the way in and had taken a few days before. I wanted to try using the grad ND filter to knock down the tree portion of the image to get the reflection to be stronger. I needed to see if the 2 stops difference would look unnatural though.
I rocked up and setup. The bright blue sky and unobstructed sun really changed the scene. Silver birch in the background were reflected brilliantly in the water. The ND filter was not needed for what I wanted but since all I had was chrome film (Astia) left I would need one to knock the highlights down. I focused on the nearest branch tip. I ended up taking 3 images. The first with shallower depth of field f16 1 second. I had to wait for an interruption in the small puffs of wind. The water was constantly disturbed by wind, insects, and what I guess were fish, so I wasn't going to get a glassy reflection.
I next risked a longer exposure for better depth of field. I opted for f32 at 4 seconds. It took a long time to get the foliage to settle down. But when I hit the shutter release it didn't feel right. Yep it was on bulb not T setting. So I had very briefly opened and closed the shutter. So I changed to T and re-cocked the shutter and finished the 4 second shutter.
I then worried the camera may have moved so I loaded my last sheet of Astia and waited again for a good time for a 4 second exposure. As usual we shall see how they turn out.
Image Review
First of all all the images are virtually indistinguishable. My worry about the shutter mess-up was unfounded. The difference between the f16 and f32 exposure required careful examination of small areas under the loupe. They are essentially 3 identical transparencies. What makes this image so poor is that in my excitement about the colors in the reflected image I neglected to understand that the three dimensional view of eyesight provides separation of the foreground leaves from the reflection. Since the reflection and foreground leaves are the same brightness and colors it just looks like scrambled eggs. My obsession with reflection meant I kept it mostly in focus and I was also careful to wait for perturbations on the surface. A more out of focus reflection might have helped. It may be in a large enough image the sharpness of the leaves will stand out sufficiently.
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| Earlier Version |
By the time I got back to the car it was 11:00am. There was a pack of men with cameras leaving the parking area for a day out together. They should have a good day it is really nice out there.
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