Inspired #53

Summer woodlands in high key black and white

Hello and welcome to Inspired, a weekly email for my paid subscribers. In this series I want to explore topics which I hope might spark some inspiration for your own photography. I will talk about my thought process for creating images, both in the field and in post processing. The posts will be linked in some way to the monthly challenges, hopefully giving you all lots of food for thought.

Last week I went out for a dawn shoot in an area of ancient oak woodland not far from where I live. I arrived before the sun had risen and the wood was cool and dark but alive with birdsong and rich in lush green foliage. I had gone there for photography, looking to capture the essence of the wood in summer.

I have heard many photographers mention that the woods are too green in summer and that they prefer autumn when the colours are more interesting. While I love autumn photography I also think that a woodland in summer has plenty to offer. However I am not always a fan of vibrant greens in my images so on this occasion I decided to experiment with some black and white photography. My idea was to use a high key processing style similar to infrared so that the foliage would recede into the paper and the trunks of the trees would stand out, a bit like pencil sketches.