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Robin Boothby
Retired metallurgist, based in Oxfordshire, employing a camera to escape through a portal that leads directly from the fabricated world in which we live to a world of natural wonders.
Of all the seasons summer appears to be the least favoured by landscape photographers, particularly so in woodland. Yes, summer woodland lacks the freshness of spring, the technicolour of autumn, the drama of winter, and (what seems to be the main objection) it’s all very green! Yet, given an overcast, or even drizzly, day to soften the light, summer foliage helps to simplify the background and block out highlights from the sky. You may well find yourself wading through an ocean of bracken, but at least it will hide an untidy forest floor. As for the trees themselves, well surely it’s the time they are the most alive.
Savernake Forest in Wiltshire is undoubtedly my most frequented location for woodland photography – partly because it’s reasonably close to home, but also because I find it so challenging and chaotic, yet so full of possibilities, that I just have to keep going back. The images shown here were all made in a relatively small area of the forest in which oak trees are prevalent. All four images were made over the course of an hour or so on an overcast day at the end of June. (The previous 3-4 hours spent in other regions of the forest were not so fruitful but, no matter, were still an enjoyable part of the day.)
