I return to the forest again in bright midday sun.  I am a little apprehensive after the comments from my supervisors yesterday, that the previous day’s images (Day 3) looked like digital paintings and were overpowering.  I am disappointed by their feedback and feel less able to play with my image making today.

The clouds are blue although there are threatening grey clouds around too.  It is bitterly cold.  The loch is at high tide and the path along the shore is iced over.  The surrounding Red Hills are covered in snow.

I start taking photographs in a stand of trees I have not previously explored.  I decide to try to capture a sense of being surrounded by trees both horizontally and vertically.  So, I direct my camera up into the canopy and the entanglement of the many boughs of the trees almost touching in their fight for light.  As I gaze up, I can see the sky beyond the canopy but am closed in by the darkness of the trunks and the little light between them.

After a lecture on philosophies of the imagination earlier I think my creativity takes over and my mind drifts to the Lord of the Rings and the forest takes on a mystical, dream-like quality.

I begin to feel trapped with the dense cover and uneven ground under my feet.

My mind starts to race as I wonder how I can get out.  As I break cover the heavens open and I am pounded by a hailstorm.

My images today reflect all the thoughts in my mind as I played with my camera.