Nyman’s woods is a lovely little woodland near Handcross in the north of Sussex. I wanted to visit some woodland for a change of pace and to experiment further with my new Circular Polariser. I really struggled to find compositions that I liked and felt this was more of a test shoot and exploration of the area.
There is a stunning lake hidden away which produced stunning colours using the polariser but I could not get a composition I felt happy with. It may have been something to do with the angle of the sun at this time of day, although the places where the sun was coming through the trees were a touch inaccessible due to bracken and brambles.
It was really starting to feel like autumn, and I found some crabapples on the forest floor. You can tell I wasn’t really feeling it as I could have tried to create a still life with this one, but I left it with the already rotten others surrounding it. In the woods was very tiring, especially with the heavy camera equipment. It wasn’t a particularly long walk but it certainly felt like it in comparison to my usual walks up the hill on the South Downs for a stunning sunrise over Sussex. Hillside walking is not easy either but you always know where the end of the walk is, and I got a bit lost in the woods trying to find interesting locations and exciting photographs.
The way that light played through the trees and illuminates patches of the forest floor was quite beautiful to look at but not impacting enough to create a good photograph. To be honest, I felt that working in woodland is not my forte but of course practice would make perfect… hopefully.
