Autumn Winds

Walking in the beautiful, windy woods last Sunday with nothing more than a mobile phone for a camera, turned out some images I'm really pleased with. It is a fascinating exercise to go with an absolute minimum of equipment and explore how to respond artistically, how focussed one becomes, and how open to possibilities.

Twilight Poplars

Oak with shadow

Rookery oaks

Pen-yr-Allt, Pembrokeshire

This is a beautiful and ancient wood at sea level in the far west of Wales near Fishguard. The atmsophere is quite magical with its twisted and tumble-down trunks.

Winter Frost

Another winter view of Roundway in a clear, sunny frost with a small hawthorn. A diminutive tree but with its own special charm in the landscape.

Winter Beech

Winter trees against a cold, clear morning sky always make me thrill with delight. Roundway Hill in Wiltshire has some wind-blown and elegant beeches which look wonderful in every season but are especially stirring in the wildness of winter.

The Bow

The same wonderful high-altitude woodland in Wales where I found the tree in the previous I called The Dancer, has an infinitely varied and twisted collection trees. This row of gnarled oaks look for all the world like they are bowing in honour to the special atmosphere of the place.

Life with trees

I spent a week working in the Docklands of London last July. A long-hours week full of activity and absorption. As I came home on the train at the end of the week I was struck by the greenness of the land around and all of a sudden a stunning revelation overwhelmed me. Try as I might, I couldn’t recall seeing a tree for seven whole days. Plenty of concrete walkways, metal vehicles, plastic railings and one or two stunted buddleias on the walk from the hotel; but no trees. This snippet of life without trees made me appreciate how ubiquitous and taken-for-granted trees are in my life. And how much life without them would be tantamount to an existence of poverty and - almost - solitary confinement.

My photographic output is liberally sprinkled with images of trees. I can’t resist the urge to snap them, capture something of their spirit, bottle up the joyous surge of emotion that being around them brings out, not just in me but just about everyone I know. Rather than shoehorn these photos into my photographic website I have opted to create a special place to host them. A virtual nature reserve if you like. A place where I will go for solace, reminders of meetings with wondrous “beings” and, especially, to smell again the air of the good times spent amongst these majestic companions. I hope that you will enjoy some of this too.