As part of my quest for new places to photograph, I wandered over to the west side of Dartmoor to Shaugh Prior, a National Trust woodland of ancient oaks where the rivers Plym and Meavy meet. It is a very popular place for photography, but one of the challenges of being a photographer who wants to develop their practice can be the constant bombardment of 'iconic' images of such places on social media. This is especially so during the Autumn when the magnificent colours in the woods are finite.
With these pressures in mind, I arrive at Shaugh Prior. I am pleasantly surprised to find that just a short distance from the car park is a wooden bridge over the river with a view to the stone bridge. As I stand on the bridge, underneath me the waters are rushing and tumbling over the mossy rocks and boulders, with the sun dancing on the spray. A rush of excitement!
I take a few images to record the scene and then another photographer joins me on the bridge. He shares with me that last week it was so busy with photographers they were getting in the way of each other's shots! I take the hint and move down to the river bank, and focus on the reflections in the stiller sections of the river instead. Another photographer then approaches me, loaded down with camera gear, long lens, tripod................ and proceeds to tell me how I need to get into the river to get the customary iconic shots of the bridge with silky water ....... I mumble something about wanting to be more creative and I move on again.
But as I walk alongside the river further up into the woods, I wonder why I reacted that way. I take some images with my phone:
I soon found a place where I could settle down and focus, not feel like I was in someone else's way or 'doing it wrong'. I sat for a while and reflected: What kind of images do I want to create? How can I capture the essence of this place and my response to it? I thought again of Richard Long and his textworks and wrote a list of words: mossy, red bracken, trunk lines, shades of blue, leaves on rocks, and so on. I was then able to look again at the scenes and hone in. I started with the water, gradually slowing down the shutter:
This is similar to the ones often posted of Dartmoor rivers, with the water just slowed down, but I did not have a tripod and it was tricky to slow it down even further and still keep the rocks and leaves sharp. So I played a bit more:
and cropping in gives this image: Autumn Fireworks:
Playing with the AWB leads to the shades of blue that I was seeking:
Noticing a calmer pool of water by the river bank, I became fascinated by the textures and patterns made by the reflections in the rippling water, so calming after the excitement of the torrents. I aimed for frames that had just one leaf being carried along, the orangey-brown standing out against the mossy greens, golds and blues:
Time to move on. Walking up the path through the woods, my breath was taken away several times by the beauty of the trees in their autumn glory. I started with a record image on my phone:
and then played:
So many possibilities, but by now time was pressing. I headed back to the car - or so I thought! Somewhere along the path I took a wrong turn, and only after seeking the help of a dog walker and a couple of cyclists, and walking a long way up and down hill, did I get back to where I started! Sometimes adventures can be unexpected and frustrating - just like my photography!
As I went through the images when I got home there were many disappointments, where what I had envisaged had not worked, which is always frustrating. But there were also some gems to celebrate, which I have shared here. I then played with some multiple exposures too and created a little bit of magic:
I also wanted to put some poetry to this blog, and having listened to a discussion about AI, I asked Chat GPT to write a Haiku, using some of the woodland words from my note book. This is the result:
Mossy woods whisper,
Verdant dreams by babbling streams—
Timeless peace abides.
Good, isn't it? But will AI stop humans writing poetry? I read a Facebook post recently asking all photographers to stop using Photoshop and Lightroom because of the infiltration of AI into photo processing. Adobe are even boasting in their adverts that one can create images without taking a photograph. Is this the end of photographers? Reassuringly, Ilya Ovchar from fstoppers believes that AI will not kill off professional photography because it lacks the inspiration of an artist and would not be able to create a deeply personal body of work. No doubt the debate will go on. And next time, I will write my own haiku!
PS: If you just want to look at the photos again in this blog, click on one of them and the the arrow at the side.
Some links to follow up:
A circular route to follow at Shaugh Prior
Woodland Rainbow with Charlotte Bellamy
Woodland Image Critique with Charlotte Bellamy (video)
Woodland photography with Kim Grant (video)
Woodland Ways with Paul Mitchell
and the latest blog from Emily Endean on "How to Find Your Creativity in Photography: Embracing Play, Light, and the Joy of Experimentation".
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