|
The majority of these pictures were taken in the Salix wood which is situated in Gunpowder Park, near to Waltham Abbey in Essex, and is part of the Lee Valley Regional Park. During the winter the wood is often flooded in parts, encouraging the process of growth and decay of the trees, creating an environment in which mosses and lichens have thrived, growing on the bark of living trees and those which have fallen.
You can read more about the Salix by going to the Writings section of this website »
Click on any image below to see the details and enlargements.
|
 During the height of summer, in the middle of the afternoon when the sun is shining overhead, standing in the middle of the Salix woodland it is visually quite dramatic. The sunlight filters through a canopy of leaves high above and when the light falls on tree trunks it is diffused and when the wind moves the canopy it creates a wonderful shimmer of light. This shimmer is enhanced photographically by the use of slow shutter speeds partly out of necessity for the need of a large depth of field. In contrast the shadows created on the trunk from the peeling bark is deep in tone and sharp-edged. |
 I have taken a liberty with this picture by putting it in this section because it was taken a long way from Gunpowder Park in northern Lapland at the village of Utsjoki close to the border with northern Norway. It was part of a silver birch tree in the car park of the hotel in which I was staying that I noticed as I was leaving. I just had to photograph it! It was the fore runner and the inspiration for the pictures I would take in the Salix woodland and I feel that it is important that it is seen with those pictures. The image depicts the old bark splitting caused by the new growth underneath. The title ‘Awakening’ reflects this force of nature and perhaps my awakening to the possibilities in the Salix. |
 During the spring time the natural world begins to come alive as the days lengthen and the intensity of the sun grows, although the angle of the sun is still quite low. On clear sunny days the roundness of the tree is brightly lit on the sunny side and in quite deep shadow on the other creating a dramatic effect. I feel that the shadow area still dominates the light and so and so the grip of the darker days of winter are still exerting some influence. This image was rotated 90 degrees clockwise to assert a feel of landscape, putting the darkness at the bottom which could be symbolic of winter and the darkness in deep places. |
 During the winter months on a sunny day, the rays of the sun filter through the veil of bare trees in the Salix woodland causing the shadow of one tree to pass across another as the sun moves from east to west. As the shadow passes the tree is kissed at its rounded edge as the sunlight once more as it creeps onto to the edge of the tree trunk. Although the tree trunk was vertical when photographed It was turned 90 degrees clockwise changing the logic of the way in which the light falls, suggesting something ending rather than beginning. It is a moment that passes quickly. |
 This image was taken from a fallen silver birch where a process of decay of the wood was starting, counteracted by a process of growth with mosses and lichens asserting their dominance over a tree that once stood a 100ft tall. The environment for a new ecosystem was right, highlighted visually by the freshness of the new colours, and so a process of evolution had begun. |
 The early morning light to me seems to look fresher than the light at any other part of the day. This may seem an obvious thing to say but I am always interested in knowing the reasons for such things. It will usually feel fresher as the effects of the lower night temperatures may still be exerting an influence and we may bring a subjective interpretation to the beginning of a new day. The camera is more objective and, although we know have a lot of control over colour balance when taking a picture, early morning shadows in a photograph always seem to have a blue cast to them. This was apparent in this picture, where, like many of my images of tree trunks was rotated to enhance a feeling of light across a landscape. |
 This was a picture taken almost at the beginning of the series from the Salix woodland and really took the first steps along the road I would travel. For me it still has a sense of mystery about it, a timelessness poised between objectivity, when we might sense its source, and subjectivity, where it begins to transcend its origin and take us elsewhere. Shortly after I had taken this picture and it was still untitled I was reading some of the sayings of Buddha and came across the phrase ‘only here and now’ |
 This is another image that was photographed vertically in portrait format, but when it is orientated to this landscape format a dramatic change in form occurs. The shadows in the lower half of the picture are transformed from shadows on a flat plane that become sunlit areas to vertical walls at right angles to those sunlit areas. The dark shadow in the top half of the picture suggest the structure is at the bottom of a cliff face over which the sun has just passed. The image reminded me of pictures of old cities that I have seen at the foot of cliff faces. |
|
|
|
|
|
