One more image from my favourite hangout spot close to home. I have visited this small open area in the woods so many times that I lost count already long time ago. And still, I find new vantage points and possibilities every time I go there. It really has become some sort of a photographer’s playground to me. The area does not measure more than a square kilometer, but it features heather, several fens, golden grass and all kinds of trees. Enough to offer landscape photography possibilities in every season and any kind of weather. The fens are dotted across the area, so there’s always one available for both front lit and backlit possibilities at either end of the day.
Last Saturday morning promised to become a very good one so I was eager and determined to visit my playground again. The Friday had been rather wet and the night was clear and cold. And indeed, upon my early arrival the whole area was covered under a nice blanket of fog. The full moon that dimly lit the area made for an eerie experience, the more so when a Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago, Watersnip) decided to take a flight for its money when I entered the fen and flew up from right before my feet. Two Nightjars quietly sat on the sandy road, not impressed by the headlights of my car. Nice! The plan was to walk halfway into the area towards some trees that offer a nice horizon line, but I never got there. The few clouds that had survived the cold night suddenly turned a beautiful pink hue that matched the heather, something I had actually wished for but did not really expect on this almost cloudless morning. I quickly decided on a composition and shot until the pink was gone. I then switched to a tele lens and shot a distant tree when the sun rose above the distant treeline and set the fog and tree on fire. When the sun climbed even higher on the horizon, I mounted the macro lens and diverted to shooting dew-covered Damselflies. Nothing special, but very nice to engage in and it keeps you from going home right after ‘landscape time’. It’s just wonderful to see the heathland slowly awake and change colors over the course of two hours. Especially when the mornings are crisp and I have a cup of hot coffee in my hand. Those two hours are enough to charge my battery for the next workweek and the prospect of the next visit drags me through that same week. I guess not all addictions are bad.
Heathland awakes; Canon 5D Mark III w. 17-40/4L; 8s at F14 and ISO100; ND grad filters, remote release and tripod
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