Autumn Images in Warwickshire.

Or at least, a part of Warwickshire...

Regular visitors to my Blog might be aware of my fondness for Hay Woods near Baddesley Clinton in Warwickshire. It's a beautiful place to go for a long walk throughout the year, but particularly so during the changes brought about by Autumn. 

A Monday or two ago the sky was clear and the sun was burning down, so conditions were perfect for some autumnal photography. I put down my paint brushes and headed out, spending the best part of the midday and afternoon light trooping around in my wellies with a camera and tripod taking pictures.

The colour of the leaves and the distinct light and shadow cast through the clear, cold sky enabled some nice photo opportunities. (Pictured below.)

As lovely as the afternoon was however, there was one moment of sheer panic and terror as I jumped across a small ditch only to feel my legs slip in opposite directions, leading to a desperate and vain attempt to then shield my camera from the now inevitable crash landing into the (incredibly water-logged) mud, only to see it land, lens down, like buttered bread leaving the kitchen table, and get caked in brown stuff.

Luckily I had a load of tissue on hand (always be prepared, dib dob) and was able to clean it up reasonably successfully. The zoom makes a nice grinding noise now too, as a kind of friendly yet mocking reminder of my clumsiness.

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SNOW!

Oh my God! SNOW!!! Quick, panic buy! Bread, copious amounts of bread, buy it. And milk. More milk than is humanly possible to drink before it goes off. Petrol! Mustn't forget the petrol, to fuel the car to carry out the bread and milk salvage. Snow chains too... Should definitely get some of those this year. I heard it's going to be 10 cm deep. 10 cm! Ten centimeters! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!

Oh, wait... it's melting already.

I love snow. Call me childish, but I always get excited at the prospect of snow each winter time. Especially when it coincides with Christmas like it did last year (here in Britain). It almost makes the season bearable. I just love the look of it. Even the most aesthetically miserable places are cheered up by its glistening white icey coating.

Unfortunately it doesn't look like the snow is going to be making a prolonged visit this year, which is why I'm glad I ventured out in it earlier with my camera. The sun was hidden behind clouds all day, so sadly there were no nice shadows or reflections to be taken in. Instead I messed around with long exposures and small apertures. As long and small as my camera will allow anyway, which isn't all that long or small as it happens. The ND filter however  helped to extend both as much as was possible in the available light.

As in my last post, the images were taken at Hay Wood, near Baddesley Clinton.

Keep to the Path!

A noble message, an amusing one too, displayed along the track leading up to the church near Baddesley Clinton encountered on my weekend walk.

But in terms of getting the best photographs, not the best advice God has ever decreed...
The best photos are often taken when you stray from the path and start to see things from a new perspective. As evidenced by a wander through nearby Hay Wood. It was a lovely frosty morning and the sky was clear, full of that excellent winter light which makes everything look so very fresh and picturesque.


I must have walked about three or four miles in and around the small one or two square mile section of woodland and taken over 200 pictures, and with almost every push of the shutter release I thought to myself "it's impossible to take a bad photo here". To the point where I felt I might be going a bit mad, like when you get a tiny section of a song you hate stuck in your head on a seemingly infinite loop.

Getting off the main pathways and into the heart of the forest provided the best photo opportunities. Unfortunately, a lot of them looked better through my viewfinder than they do on my 27 inch monitor... I'm certain this is God's way of punishing me for straying from the path. That or my 9 year old camera is starting to show its age. One of the two.

Here are some of the better ones-