In another guest blog, Stephen Morse talks about looking at landscapes in a different way, and using one's imagination:Since I retired, five years ago, one of my favourite pastimes has been to get out into the country, especially of course when the weather is favourable, to enjoy the fresh air and scenery and take pictures. Digital photography is wonderful in this respect because you can take dozens of pictures at no initial cost - providing you own a camera, of course - and then have the pleasure, once back home, of reviewing your pictures on your camera or in much larger format on a computer screen.
Apart from specific holidays with my family, my main subject matter is anything to do with nature, normally within a radius of around 20 miles from my home in Stoke-on-Trent. Luckily there are any number of woods, country parks and (maybe a little further afield) National Trust type properties. Thus I end up taking lots of photographs of hills, woodland scenes, flowers and birds, streams and bridges - anything, in fact which makes a good picture.
Most of all, perhaps, I take a lot of pictures which feature trees and surprisingly often I find that I can make out shapes and faces when the tree trunks have become old and gnarled, branches have broken off or scars of other sorts have been left. It is not uncommon, either, to find rocks that seem to have taken on a human or maybe animal-like form.
Thus it was, on the early evening of 5th July, 2 years ago (2012) that I was at Coombes Valley and, despite the late hour, decided to explore for the first time the newest, and first branch of the Woodcock Trail. I had gone only about 50 yards up the incline when something caught my eye, to the left of the path. It was the remains of a tree trunk, almost rotted away, but in such a shape that I immediately thought, “A cathedral!”.
I proceeded to take 8 photographs on different camera settings and from slightly different angles and one of these is shown below. The strange thing is that the main ‘spire’ of the cathedral was only the length of my hand, i.e. about 8” high (20 cm). Immediately behind the ‘cathedral’ you can see the stump of a much larger tree which had been felled probably some years before. It has previously appared on a blog from Coombes, where I titled it “Cathedral in The Woods”. A friend suggested changing it to, “Nature’s Cathedral in the Woods”, which is better, I think.
On my recent visit (4th May) I did briefly try to find the formation again but I think it has fallen victim of either further clearance work or Nature’s incessant recycling process. The message, however, is to ‘let your eyes wander’ - you never know what you may find by combining the works of Nature with your own imagination ! To prove my point, look at my second picture, taken just a week earlier at Parrot’s Drumble Nature Reserve, Talke, North Staffs. Doesn’t that rather glum looking tree look as though it might open its mouth at any time and say something ?Read Stephen's previous blog contribution here: http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/placestovisit/coombeschurnet/b/coombeschurnet-blog/archive/2012/08/03/cathedral-in-the-woods.aspx
My very amateur wildlife photos: instagram.com/lucy_lapwing