Tangled Woods
If there is one word that could describe the woods near where I live – I think that word would be ‘complexity.’ A word that can cause a lot of problems for landscape photography. These woods are filled with knarly branches, thorny vines, logs and twigs all over the woodland floor. The entire woods is practically a floodplain, so the Clinton River, which flows through it, often brings more debris to contribute after a heavy rain. There are a lot of dead and fallen trees creating haphazard lines and intersections everywhere. As soon as summer kicks in, it then gets filled with poison ivy – which seems to be spreading more and more each year. When that happens, I am pretty much done exploring until the next fall. I consider it the perfect example of chaos in nature. Fairly easy to find a lot of macro subjects to photograph, but a lot more difficult when it comes to landscape.
I have often struggled on ways to portray the woods near where I live. After all, they say some of your best images come from the areas you know well. I know it pretty well, and conclude it is very messy. Despite trying to find simple graphical elements to concentrate on, there are always tension driving elements fighting against trying to formulate some type of harmony in a scene. As with any landscape, perhaps more so in a complex one, the light and weather conditions need to provide the harmony. There has to be something that ties all the cluttered bits together.
I wrote before about snow being a great simplifier – and I think rain & fog do a pretty adequate job as well. In these two images, the overnight rain and morning fog have helped reduce the contrast. The early spring buds have given some elements of interest I think, and particularly for the second image here, some type of textural harmony. My preference is for the second image here over the one above if I had to pick between the two. The first one certainly shows the chaos I am attempting to deal with. I tried to give it some structure by framing the spring buds between the two strong trees. I photographed this from my backyard where chaos starts just outside the back fence.
Spring textures
The second provides the soft light and textures of early spring, with soft coloring. It was photographed right at the end of my block near a trail where we usually take our dog for a walk. Interesting that I find myself staring into this particular image more than I have ever spent time at this particular spot.
When we read or hear about a scene speaking to us, perhaps it happens more often than we are able to listen. I am still trying to figure out what our woods are trying to tell me.
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After a long winter funk, and a slow start to get into spring, this video is a dose of good medicine for any photographer – Zack Arias’s Transform. So thank you Michael and Gary for tipping me on to it, and especially Zack Arias for creating it.
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Monochrome bloodroot & acorns
Umm… no – get your mind out of the gutter. I am referring to black & white vs. color photography! As much as I like to think a photograph speaks to me as wanting to be black & white from the start, quite often it just doesn’t happen that way. I will process an image in color and start to notice certain characteristics that might look great as a monochrome. Or on a whim, it is just a “what if” moment. Actually I am quite fond of black & white imagery, it has a great classic appeal, and removes so many distractions that color may impose.
However, there are images where I am just quite fickle – and I like it both ways – bouncing back and forth between liking one version just a little better. This recent shot of the bloodroot and acorns is one of them. Old wood is nearly always a great candidate – and similar to the contrast of fall and spring that exists in the subject matter – the contrast of fragile and delicate vs. rough and weathered becomes more pronounced in the black and white version. It is one of the instances where I cannot simply show just one version – so now both are out there. I am sure there are people that will prefer one over the other – that’s just the way it goes. That is fine with me – since I like them both – you aren’t going to hurt my feelings by choosing sides.
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Bloodroot & acorns
Spring wildflowers have finally started to bloom around here. A long, wet winter should prove beneficial for the growing season I hope. At least there will be some rewards from it. Most spring wildflowers are closed up early in the morning, so you have to make some time adjustments. I still end up going out fairly early anyway because I either photograph some closed buds, or usually find something else around.
If anything, it is a nice quiet time to do some scouting and just observe what is going on – get into the mood. I watched some deer for awhile feeding on the spring morsels that were popping up. I found an area that might prove to be good for wood ducks. There are a few nesting boxes, and there were already about a half dozen of them hanging around them. Very skittish of course. Nonetheless, it is a nice time just to be outside. On the flip side, getting up and down has served as a reminder for my back and knees that this gets a little harder every year.
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Ok Aaron, as much as I like your strip, you are really touching a sensitive spot here with today’s… 
wtd687
You really know how to hit a Midwesterner where it counts buddy. I won’t deny that perhaps a snowstorm in May can yield some interesting possibilities, but let the sensitivity from a harsh winter dull a bit will ya?
Snowfall in May
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