Dark Beauty
Another attendee at the Tree Tunnels of Banstead Heath photo walk, Mike Walker, gave his view of the event last month. Below is the view of Mike Murphy, who attended the same event.
Having a personal project on tree tunnels and avenues in mind, I was delighted to discover an RPS member-led event taking place at Banstead Heath. I knew very little about this area, but it boasted exactly the photo opportunities I was looking for.
At every level, I was very pleased that I signed up for this experience. The degree of preparation by the organizer, Peter Stott, was impressive. Once booked, full details and advice were sent out with updates just prior to the event, all of which were extremely helpful. Directions to the meeting area were excellent, and parking was straightforward, which was a bonus. On meeting up with the rest of the group, there was a quick and useful briefing from Peter before we headed off into the woods.
A Contrast of Colour
Banstead Heath is designated as a site of nature conservation importance (SNCI) and boasts a mosaic of different habitats where biodiversity can flourish. The landscape is made up of traditional heath, acid grassland meadows, and pockets of secondary woodland. The area is vast, and therefore, having an event leader with expert local knowledge is invaluable for making the best use of time and realising the true photographic potential of the surroundings.
For the event, I took three lenses covering a range of focal lengths between 14 mm and 300 mm, my camera, and tripod, in the hope of trying to “make order out of the chaos” normally found in wooded areas.
The light, as we set off to our first location, was a little flat, but along the way, we discovered some distinctly coloured Sea green phosphorescent moss on several trees, which caught our eyes, so we stopped to capture this. Once on our way again, we soon arrived at our first tree tunnel and paused to take in the dark beauty of the location. This was exactly what I was hoping to find, and we were all aware of the importance of stopping, looking, and absorbing our surroundings before reaching for our cameras.
What we saw before us was an amazing arch of trees which appeared to be almost fighting each other to reach the light. Dark trunks, growing at an almost 45° angle were highlighted by the incredible luminosity of the moss on the branches. This location alone was well worth the trip.
Enter
Although described as a “photo walk” where normally little or no tuition is given, Peter was more than happy to offer technical and compositional advice when requested which was invaluable and much appreciated. This added a very welcome extra dimension to the experience.
Having spent some time at the first spot, trying several different compositions, we moved on down towards “The Dell”. As we walked through the woods, the prominent shades were green, as you would expect, but every so often, we were treated to an occasional vivid splash of contrasting orange foliage, brave and hardy survivors from autumn.
The Dell is an undulating area with some very ancient, canopied trees whose roots were also highlighted by the moss. This made for some excellent foreground interest to set off the trees themselves. Although a wonderful area, I did find this one the more difficult to capture and portray satisfactorily. It is now on my list of places to return to to spend more time there and give the area the attention it deserves.
Continuing our walk, we cut across an open area to an interesting copse of pine trees and then past a pond with beautiful reflections, occasionally stopping to shoot when we saw the opportunity. Peter guided us to various tree avenues and tunnels, each with distinct character and challenges. It was interesting to note that practically all my shots from the day were taken with my 24 to 120 mm lens as I felt this was suited to the locations so there was no need to switch lenses.
Luminous Green Carpet
Our group eventually reached an incredible wooded area with a carpet of luminous moss creating a truly mystical atmosphere and from here a path led off into the distance giving us the leading lines to assist in the composition. However, the crowning moment was when the sun broke through to highlight the scene and, for a brief few seconds, bathed it with light. It was a truly magical moment. As you can imagine, we made every attempt to take full advantage of this before, all too quickly, the direct sunlight was gone. We were all stunned by what we had seen and by the enchantment of the glorious tree tunnels with their phosphorescent glow and branches arching above, weaving their spell.
Then, sadly, it was time to start to return to the cars, which we did at a leisurely pace, ensuring we still had opportunities to experience the many wonderful woodland scenes Banstead Heath has to offer. Overall, it was a great event, providing an excellent location. Our leader was superb, and his helpful ideas and advice were much appreciated. The other people who had joined the walk were great company, so everything made for a fabulous day.
Highly recommended!
All images © Mike Murphy