4 spring woodlands

May 2016, thus far, has turned out to be a vintage one for photography in my local woods : the weather has contributed with low wind and rain to bring out the colours. Locations ground-truthed back in the winter have provided some photographic reward and also some old haunts revisited.

Starting with a rewarding trip to a by now familiar scowles woodland for dawn, as the sun rose into a strip of clear sky on the horizon with rainclouds covering the remaining 99% of the sky, the resulting light was good, but all too brief.

With sunrise over, I headed onto another woodland where wildflowers in some parts of the wood pick out the underlying geology and also archaeology, the better drained soil of mineral spoil from bell pits and anomalous earthworks form a preferential habitat for bluebells and wood anemones.  This particular wood is planted semi natural ancient woodland and deserving of a future post of its own, as there is a complex interaction of ground flora with underlying sandstones and limestones, past management and mineral workings.

Bluebells pick out a bell pit in beech and ash woodland

Making a photograph of ground flora corresponding to underlying geology and archaeology is challenging, happily there are also the are views of spring woodland. The primary colours of green and blue, I find visually appealing, especially when saplings and suckers add to the field layer and break up the tree trunks.

I have been photographing the local woodlands for over a decade and was finally rewarded with a forecast of fog, steady rain and light winds in spring. After some thought I decided on a wood that I have struggled to do justice to in the past, as the woodland grows on an escarpment. Escarpments generally denote more competent geology and there is a history of quarrying quartz conglomerate for grinding stones. The woodland is a mixture of singled coppice, derelict coppice and timber trees all broadleaf with the exception of a few yew and holly trees. The ground flora is slowly recovering, benefiting from a harvesting operation a few years ago and along with some windthrow has opened up the canopy. Woodlands dominated by mature beech can be sterile affairs for ground flora.

Some of the rocks littering the slopes result from quarrying activities, others I am not so sure and could well envisage an origin from periglacial mass movement.

The last wood to report on has an extensive carpet of ramsons growing over scowles and in another area large hazel coppice stools with a more diverse ground flora. The Forestry Commission spray paint was also prominent with a number of beech and ash trees marked for harvesting and thinning.

A few evening woodland visits have been unproductive due to harsh lighting and/or wind motion of the subject, nonetheless the four visits with favourable weather, helped mitigate against the poor weather that marred the photographic ambitions of spring of 2015.

Irresponsible behaviour

A benefit of social media is visually highlighting the actions of feckless landscape photographers, in this instance at Dockey woodland on the National Trust Ashridge Estate.

Getting photographers a bad name. On the closed paths @AshridgeNT pic.twitter.com/FBXdvRsqXx

— UKwildlifephotograph (@ukwildlifephoto) April 18, 2016

Bluebell woodland landscapes - aesthetics and a philosophy.

Bluebells under a woodland canopy of trees in newly emergent leaves, is one of nature's more appealing floral displays and a challenging one for making an image that does justice to the scene. It is said that there are three types of aesthetic interest in a photograph: composition, the knowledge imparted on the subject and the photograph itself. I'm also tempted to add that the aesthetics of lens bokeh and rendition is the only aesthetic interest for some photographers.

 Mature oak underplanted with oak and beech.

Bluebells are slow colonisers and to establish a bluebell carpet requires time, undisturbed soil and a long period of woodland cover to form the requisite habitat for bluebells to spread and flourish.  This slow colonising rate make bluebells an indicator species for ancient woodland, which is defined as a wood with continuous tree cover since 1600 AD.
It's always interesting and informative viewing other photographers' images of bluebell woodland, noting the preference of woodland type, weather, lighting and seeing how the structure of woodland is incorporated in the composition of a landscape view.

Small leaved lime wood, with coppice shoots and suckers

At one extreme of woodland structure is what I'll term a highly structured or 'architectural' bluebell woodland which manifests itself as plantations of forest broadleaved dominants, grown and managed for prime grade timber. With uniformity of age and close spacing of planting encouraging straight growth, creating distinct verticals. Beech tree plantations form a closed canopy and cast a deep shade that starves the woodland below of light and sterilises the underwood and field layer of any flora that isn't shade tolerant, which in a maturing beech plantation is most flora, even beech saplings and epicormic growth are shaded out. The elimination of competition in the field layer, creates the habitat for bluebells to flourish, which they do with spectacular effect on the right soils.

20thC maturing beech plantation

Maturing beech plantations are a very clean woodland with smooth bark and for a wood on ground with low topographic relief, defined horizontal layering and lends itself to strong graphic compositions, even with the absence of sunlight, there's an inherent depth to a view.
Ecological interest is confined to a narrow range of shade tolerant specialists and what the dormant soil seed bank throws up when the wood is harvested or when the canopy opens up.

 Predominantly mature beech, with ash, underwood and natural regeneration in the field layer.

At the other extreme are unstructured woodlands with a mixture of natural tree species, from veteran trees, snags, derelict coppice to saplings and seedlings, a range of canopy light regimes, a diverse underwood including coppice shoots, varied field and ground layer with wind throw. In this type of woodland, there will be areas of the wood barren of bluebells through to dense bluebell carpets.  There's usually some topographic relief to contend with too, especially on the western side of the UK.
Photographers hoping for ordered verticals and horizontals in their compositions will be frustrated by he level of complexity and compositions will prove unrewarding when viewed retrospectively. There's no real compositional template and it's down to the experience gained from past failure to make a rewarding photograph.
Ecologists tend to use this type of woodland as an exemplar of biodiversity and these woods are owned/managed by Wildlife Trusts, Woodland Trust, RSPB etc

Mixed woodland and boulders 

Since this is a blog post on bluebell woodland photography aesthetics and not a discourse on bluebell woodland types, I'll only add there are a myriad types of bluebell woodland between the extremes of structured/architectural and unstructured/ecological. Generalising and if you prefer photographing  structured/architectural bluebell woods you'll end up visiting Forestry Commission plantation woodland and if you prefer the less structured/ecological woodlands you'll probably be in a nature reserve and whilst a delight to wander around in, it can be challenging to photograph.

A problematic area is wind and its effects with longer exposure times in woodlands on blurred foliage and flowers, raising ISO values and larger apertures to eliminate motion blur of foliage is not as effective as one would think or even desire.  My memory of a visit to a bluebell wood even in a gale, is a snapshot of still flora and not one of motion blurred leaves and flowers, although I'm conscious of the reality of wind and disturbed foliage, the effect of blurred foliage in an image I find aesthetically objectionable. Which doesn't mean abandoning a trip to bluebell woodland if wind is forecast, it means an adjustment to camera/lens settings, seeking out sheltered woods or a sheltered aspect of a wood and patiently waiting for an opportunity between wind gusts. It is worth heading out even in less than desirable weather as peak condition for a bluebell woodland lasts for a matter of days. I have enough experience of bluebell woodland photography to realise how dynamic an environment woodlands are, far more so than many other landscapes and the scene may not be there next year or even for the next decade.

A bluebell wood impacted by mechanised harvesting operations for some years to come

Whilst researching the online archive of articles and discussions on photographing bluebell woodland, I've stumbled upon some interesting commentary on photographing bluebell woods, some of it surprisingly honest in describing the challenges, some of it all so predictable. The issues of polarising filters and colour rendition were expected and easily remedied in the field by removing the filter. Getting bluebell colour right doesn't need advanced photoshop skills, only some thought, careful observation in the field and experience.

19thC oak plantation with emerging bracken

The surprising commentary was from the 'online cognoscenti' bemoaning bluebell woodland photographs 'it's all been done before' 'cliche subject' 'no originality' 'same old, same old' ...   Really?  Now, I've never been tempted to ask anyone to qualify their opinion, but would concede that rocking up at the tripod holed ground of Micheldever wood to photograph the beech and bluebells might qualify as a photographic cliche and the use of intentional camera movements certainly qualifies as a tiresome photographic cliche.  However, the highbrow nature of some commentary suggests the large and medium format film landscape aficionados are weighing in. I'm not being snarky, but I've seen enough images by LF/MF film users to know that normally they have no problem photographing cliches, so why the venting of spleens on bluebell woods? I suspect it may be due to film's colour rendition of a bluebell wood and high ISO incapability, oh and I've yet to see a convincing black and white photograph of a bluebell wood. I'm not trying to be too precious about photographing bluebell woodland landscapes, but given the demands on time in visiting and locating bluebell woods, the effort expended, long learning curve and the lottery of weather, it is perhaps no coincidence that it's easier to make condescending remarks than to show any appreciation or aptitude for it.

Assart and back again

An evening walk through a less visited wood in the Wye Valley and towards the furthest extremity of this wood, the forestry track cut through a stone wall. A derelict, moss covered stone wall,  surrounded by high oak and beech woodland. My initial thoughts were a simple event chronology of  building of the stone wall, planting of woodland and construction of a forestry track cutting through wall. As that stone walls are rarely constructed through an existing wood and the area of woodland on one side of the wall was carpeted in bluebells and on the other side of the wall, bluebells were colonising through a relict gateway or where the wall had collapsed, which suggested the area enclosed by the wall was once farmland, before reforestation. The light was fading and with exposure duration in seconds and mindful of the return walk to car, only a few images were made.

Derelict stone wall in woodland

Intrigued by the wall in the wood, I consulted a couple of authoritative texts and maps of the area. The general area has some history dating back to Anglo Saxon times,  a Domesday Book entry, Norman manor and the creation of a sizeable family estate in the 16th/17th C, but concentrating on the events pertinent to the stone wall and wood, it is probably best to start in first decade of the 19th C.  In 1803, Admiral Lord Nelson, following a visit to the area, produced a report on the naval timber in the nearby Forest of Dean.  The report included the following statements "These shameful abuses are probably known to those high in power ..." and  "If the Forest of Dean is to be preserved as a useful Forest for the country, strong measures must be pursued. First, the guardian of the support of our Navy must be an intelligent honest man ...". He also wrote that some oak woodlands and fields outwith the statutory Forest of Dean could be purchased to ensure a short and medium term supply of mature timber and planting of oak saplings raised in nurseries for the long term. Following an act of Parliament, replanting of the Forest of Dean commenced between 1808-1818, the events of which didn't go entirely to plan and coincidentally in 1817 the Highmeadow estate of woodland and farmland adjoining the Dean, was purchased by the Crown Commissioners.

Primary and secondary woodland either side of the stone wall

I made a return visit in better light, to make a photographic record of the derelict stone wall, bluebells colonising the secondary woodland and confirm that the wall is the one shown on the modern OS maps against known boundaries and features.

View along the stone wall

A search online produced an illustration of a village map of 1608, that also details the wall enclosing a field and adjacent woodland, the 6":1 Mile late 19th C OS map also show the stone wall traced out in woodland and the modern OS explorer map shows the stone wall, woodland and forestry track. It seems likely that the derelict stone wall was once an estate and/or field boundary on the Highmeadow estate. So what was once woodland, was then assarted for farmland, then reforested in the 1820's and has remained woodland ever since under the management of the then Commissioners of Woods and now by the Forestry Commission.

Former gateway and now entranceway for colonising bluebells

The derelict boundary wall has clearly been an effective barrier to bluebell colonisation, but where breaks occur in the wall there is still a discernible difference in spread and density of flowers, between secondary woodland and the original wood after nearly two centuries.  Another observation would be that lateral colonisation across a slope seems particularly slow, especially against the prevailing wind. I was surprised at how slow the colonisation of former farmland was, especially as bluebells are considered as one of the more 'vigorous' colonisers amongst ancient woodland indicator flora.