Looking like a mostly cloudy day moving into the last third of August 2017. With clouds acting as a giant diffusor of the sun its the ideal opportunity to do some landscape photography in woodland. A perfect opportunity to return to the enchanting new Forest of nearby Hampshire starting out from Fritham.
Ancient Woodland
I was using the AA’s 50 walks around Hampshire as my guide but also ordnance survey maps online via my mobile phone so as not to get lost. What I love about the New Forest is parts of it are ancient and untouched.
In the canopy of thick woodland a tripod is absolutely essential. Used a polariser as well to cut out any reflections and saturate more the green. There is something relaxing about being in woodland. Did you know our eyes are the most sensitive to different shades of green? Its where we all come from and I have an urge to return.
Heathland and Heather
The new forest around Fritham is not just dense ancient woodland there are many large open heathlands too where you will see wild ponies, horses and even cattle.
I bumped up my ISO on this landscape photo of one of the many heathlands near Fritham in the new forest. The reason being there were moving live horses in the composition and not want any movement blur. Should have dropped my aperture too really to get a faster shutter speed and not lose any depth of field with the deadwood in the foreground. The pink heather adds lovely contrast to the surrounding evergreen.
Fritham Wild Horses
I wanted to catch some wild horses in sharp focus while walking through the new forest on my way back to Fritham and an opportunity presented itself.
The horse in the foreground is almost posing for me. But I was in a rush before the wild horses scampered off, I got as close as I could. I was using my tripod as was attached to the camera. Bumped up the ISO to 200 giving me 1/50 sec shutter speed. Fast enough in this instance to get the wild horse in focus due to it keeping still.
Dont like to go above 400 ISO as start to notice noise. Could have dropped the aperture though to F8 for 1/100 sec with a fast shutter speed essential when photographing wild life. Zoom in high resolution and even the flies on its snout are in sharp focus!
Job done on a cloudy but lovely walk around the New Forest Fritham Hampshire, heading back to the car now and a pint in the Royal Oak.
You can see all my landscape photography around Hampshire hosted on Shutterstock and for a small fee download high resolution images.