Influences and Intentions

A morning amongst the snowdrops

Hello, I’m Gill and I write a photography blog inspired by the landscapes of Suffolk and beyond. Please subscribe to read more of my writing and visit my website to view my images.

The woodland floor feels cold and damp beneath several layers of clothing. It has been raining for days and the ground, which is currently a few inches from my face, smells pungent and earthy. I can hear a woodpecker hammering rhythmically on a nearby tree and am aware of squirrels scampering around in the leaf litter nearby. In front of me a clump of snowdrops gleam brightly in the gloom beneath the canopy. The first rays of morning light are beginning to seep through the trees and I am lost in the tranquility of the moment and the beauty of the morning.

‘Hello….Hello…..Are you ok?’

A voice breaks the spell and I look up to see a man standing a few meters away with his dog snuffling around in the fallen leaves.

‘You gave me a fright, he said as I move to stand up. “I thought you were dead!’

I laugh, and hold up my camera ‘occupational hazard!’ I reply.

We chat for a few minutes about the snowdrops and the weather before he bids me goodbye and leaves me to my photography.

I have come back to Greyfriars wood, as I do every February, to see what I can make of the carpet of snowdrops. This year they are as sparse as I have ever seen them, more of a patchwork than a carpet. The wood runs adjacent to the cliff edge and I can hear the waves breaking on the shingle below me. This belt of trees has been here for years but it is getting smaller and smaller as the sandy cliffs succumb to the ravages of the sea.

I have been thinking about my approach to photographing this location and in the past I have tended to go for a bright and airy look usually favouring a macro lens. I wrote a post about my visit last year and you can see the images I made here. They are light, bright and airy and tend to focus on individual flower portraits.

This year I wanted to achieve something completely different.

I have been looking at the work of Sandra Bartocha and want to see how her style might influence my approach. If you are not familiar with her work please take a look at her Instagram page.

There is a beauty about Sandras photography that I really love. Her images are all about strength of feeling and emotion rather than straight forward depictions of scenes or subjects. She has the ability to use light to really capture the essence of a location and it is this skill that I really admire.

So on this visit, instead of using my macro lens I am shooting with my 24 - 70mm and my 70-200mm lenses, working with the idea of showing the snowdrops in their environment rather than making flower portraits.

On the way to the wood I was listening to ‘The mood podcast’ and an interview with filmmaker and co-founder of Studio Birthplace Jorik Dozy. The conversation was about using creativity as a catalyst for environmental change. If you get a chance I would highly recommend checking out the podcast and the films that Studio Birthplace make.

With all the issues discussed on the podcast fresh in my mind I felt that snowdrops in a dark and gloomy wood might be a good subject to experiment with mood and emotion in my photography. What feelings could I portray if I really thought about my use of light and composition?

Lying down in the leaf litter to photograph these delicate flowers I think about their vulnerability, their smallness but also their strength and fortitude. Amidst the darkness of winter, year after year, they never fail to push their way through the frozen or sodden ground to light up the woods in February with their joyful display. And this year they feel more welcome than usual.

I want to capture the flowers from their own perspective, from the viewpoint of the woodland floor, amongst the leaves and soil, looking up towards the canopy. I decide not to emphasise the brightness of the light filtering through the trees but instead to embrace the darkness of the forest and work with the contrast between the white petals and all the earthy tones of the wood.

To do this I ignore the larger groupings of flowers in the brighter parts of the wood and instead focus on the smaller clumps dotted around amongst the trees. I lay the camera on the woodland floor and use my 70-200mm lens to shoot through some of the decaying leaves and soften the foreground. I want to isolate the flowers but still retain a hint of what exists behind them.

I am enjoying the challenge and quite like some of the images I have made. They feel very different to my usual work, but they also feel more emotive. I sense that I am portraying a better story than I did with my work last year. To me these snowdrops feel like small beacons of hope in an increasingly dark world.

For a brief moment the sun filters through the branches of the trees and the woodland is transformed. I position myself to shoot into the light and capture some brighter images, still with a low viewpoint and hopefully with the same immersive feel.

Two hours ago I arrived in the woods with the words of the Mood podcast echoing in my ears. Although the world and the wood felt dark and gloomy, after a couple of hours with the camera these tiny flowers have given me plenty to smile about and I feel much more positive. It is as if the wood and the snowdrops have given me a small amount of hope.

I would love to know what emotions these images evoke in you as a viewer? Have I succeeded in portraying any of the feelings I have spoken about?

I have been going out with more intention recently, trying to capture moods rather than representations of place and I am curious to see if this comes across in my images.

Please feel free to share your opinions as it is always interesting to see how others interpret my work.

Have you tried this in your own work? Have you been out to photograph a feeling rather than a place. Please leave me a comment and share your thoughts and experiences.

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Thank you very much for reading and until next time, enjoy your photography.

Gill