Notes and Images from a Small Island (Practice 7 Day 3)

It is a very blustery day on Skye as I walk along the shore to the forest.  I hope to catch some of the frantic movement in the canopy and the slender trees swaying in the strong winds.  I will need to protect my camera from the frequent squalls and be mindful of my safety with the significant movement of the trees.  The skies have not changed and remain a lifeless white peeping through the trees.  However, I hope that the occasional glimpse of the sky will give added depth to my images.

I choose to use my tripod and switch my camera to single exposure mode.  Because of the extent of the movement in the trees, I conclude that were I to use multiple exposure mode in the current weather conditions, the images will resemble soup.  For today’s shoot I am going to use nature’s own movement to paint my images.  I choose a narrow aperture and a relatively slow shutter speed.  The variation and changes in wind speeds will create different degrees of blur in the images.  My focus is to capture the interiority of the forest and the connectedness of the trees in hostile weather conditions.  I am looking for depth and ways of penetrating the inner life of the forest.

At first, I am a little fearful of the creaking noises of the trunks swaying in the wind, but soon start to lose myself in trying to capture the exhilarating scene.  Nonetheless, I vary my settings as appropriate, paying attention to framing, relative movement and point of focus depending on the intended outcome.  I move around to different parts of the forest, picking out the autumn colours, interesting movements in the shape of the canopy and using trunks as a means of framing the shot.  I also try to pick out the combination of the autumn colours, combined with the significant amounts of lichen on the trunks and boughs of the Sitka.

The squalls pound in and my tripod topples – fortunately my camera isn’t mounted on it at the time!

I am pleased I ventured out on such an inhospitable day, and I enjoyed the adventure.  Here is a small selection of images.