Nottinghamshire, a county forgotten that offers so much to the landscape photographer.

“Undulating green rolling hills that burst full of colour to pretty little villages, this county offers so much to anyone who explores and will provide a certain delight”.

The question remains, which English county could offer so much for a landscape photographer - that seems to be forgotten? Is it one that remains rural with the perfect mix of incredibly photogenic discoveries that are just waiting to be discovered? Yes it is and that county is Nottinghamshire. Famous for Robin Hood and football, but when you escape from Robin Hood and the football and you scratch below the surface you will soon find that Nottinghamshire offers something unique.

When you search “landscape photography” within any search engine, all too often you end up with places such as The Lake District, Scotland, Yorkshire, Cornwall, Snowdonia, Norfolk, Suffolk and The Peak District - but Nottinghamshire is ignored by landscape photographers which in itself is a great shame as it offers so much more.

Variety is one of the things that this county can offer a landscape photographer, and it really is a county of many contrasts. Nottingham City itself is one of the most unique small cities within the UK and is small and compact, full of independent shops that will please any visitor and that is why it has meant that Nottingham has gained a bit of a reputation for being a unique city in which to shop, the addition of the popular restaurants and independent eateries have also meant that the city has earnt it’s spot in being popular with gourmets who like to eat and drink. However the City of Nottingham is one that is perfect for photography and it is here where you will find old and new mixing together to form the perfect opportunities for photography.

“The old and the new clash and come together within perfect harmony. The glass facade of modern buildings sit alongside the older gothic revival buildings designed by Watson Fothergill and it is this contrast which provides a photographer wanting to capture something different with the perfect opportunity and contrasts”.

But with it’s unique layout within the City of Nottingham you are never too far from the waters edge. Anyone arriving by Train into Nottingham will more than likely have seen water, the water of the River Trent and or the canals that flow through and come within close proximity to the city. Even within the small and compact urban sprawl of the city it is still possible to find an oasis - which can be sought along any one of the canals or by the river, ideal for escaping.

"Those Christmas Lights"

"Calm by the water"

Of course it is coming up to Christmas, but that image is one of my favourite ones that I have taken within the middle of Nottingham. Located under the council house within a shopping centre called The Exchange. It was taken last year when the world seemed a million miles away from what it is now. Step outside from The Exchange and you can clearly see the harmonious contrasts between old and new, making this small but humble city perfect for capturing some truly amazing photographs. If you want to try your hand at street and city photography then make sure you visit the City of Nottingham.

So that is the city, but what about heading outside of the city? Well thankfully as a unique county Nottinghamshire offers so much more than what the media tend to portray it as. A county of hidden contrasts with a unique heritage is what you will find. Located just a short distance from the middle of the city is Wollaton Hall and park, a green oasis and parkland in which you will find many-a-deer roaming freely, with a glorious lake to walk around and green open space flanked by trees, oh and a historic hall that was featured in Batman.

And if you are feeling slightly hungry, then avoid the café at Wollaton hall and head over to the fantastic Wollaton Fish Bar, you will not be disappointed.

Arts along with creativity is what Nottinghamshire is also best known for, and situated on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border is the small town of Eastwood, a former mining town is the home of DH Lawrence - a world renowned author best known for his slightly racy novels.

“What was there before the 50 shades trilogy? Don’t know? Well it was more than likely DH Lawrence and his novels such as Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Women in Love, which were probably the foundations of pretty much every 50 shades or 50 shades equivalent that has been released since. Perhaps they were the original 50 shades that were way ahead of the times”.

Eastwood itself sits on the top of a hill and Nottingham Road - the main arterial road through the town starts off at Hilltop and gently slopes towards Eastwood, whilst hilltop could be classed as separate it still forms part of the wider Eastwood community. But as a former mining community goes, many surprises can still be found.

The heritage and former scars left over can still be seen, the popular oasis of colliers wood is popular with people wanting a glorious and easy walk. But colliers wood is on the former site of an old coal mine. Transformed it is the perfect place to walk no matter what time of year it might be. Another unique element of colliers wood is the outdoor theatre which is popular and worth visiting. Albeit within the future when we are not in lockdown.

The surrounding countryside around Eastwood, provided the inspiration for a lot of DH Lawrence books and it is possible to walk within his footsteps, Moorgreen reservoir is one place that featured heavily within his books and now it is a place to carry out fishing, along with that are some fantastic walks that can be carried out within the woodland that flanks the reservoir.

A short stones throw away from Eastwood is Brinsley, a large village by standards, which holds a secret - that secret is a small piece of parkland called “Brinsley Headstocks” and it is here were you can marvel at the remainder of the old headstocks left intact, from the former Brinsley Colliery. Here you can also walk along the old pit railway, which has been transformed into a glorious long footpath ideal for taking in the old heritage that once stood here, for now it is nature which thrives in these parts. The headstocks also make for some fantastic photographic opportunities and the grandeur of them provides the photographer with some interesting compositions.

"The Lost Industry"

The winding valley of “The Erewash Valley” is another hidden gem within Nottinghamshire, and whilst you might be forgiven for thinking that The Erewash Valley is situated in Nottinghamshire, it also forms the natural border of Derbyshire. From the Langley Mill, end of the valley, it is possible to cycle or walk through The Erewash Valley and end up at either Long Eaton or Attenborough Nature Reserve. Below is a link that tells you more about the 30 miles of trail.

https://www.visit-nottinghamshire.co.uk/things-to-do/erewash-valley-cycle-trail-p614851

As you meander your way through the Erewash Valley, marvel at the fantastic “Iron Giant” of Bennerley Viaduct.

"A Portrait of Bennerley Viaduct"

"Bennerley Viaduct - Black and White"

"Bennerley Viaduct - Colour"

"Bennerley Viaduct - Black and White Panorama"

"Bennerley Viaduct - Colour, Panorama"

The canal and The Erewash valley is home to an interesting and eclectic amount of wildlife which for the wildlife photographer provides the opportunity to capture something unique. Kingfishers and Green Woodpeckers are known for living within these parts.

Attenborough nature reserve is another truly glorious place for a walk and the village of Attenborough that overlooks the nature reserve is incredibly photogenic with the church - providing the highest point within the village. 

Away from the photogenic and former industrial areas of the county, Southwell is perhaps one of the most picturesque towns within the whole of the county and with its glorious Minster. Southwell itself is excellent for exploring and it’s independent boutiques make it ideal for shopping. Make sure though to have some Apples, Bramley ones are famous around here.

Newark, is a historic market town that is situated a short drive away, and over the trent from Southwell, sitting on the edge of The River Trent - Newark is home to perhaps one of the most glorious markets that is worth visiting no matter what time of the year it is. The ruins of a castle stand proud here at they overlook the River Trent below, at certain times throughout the year it is possible to take a relaxing boat trip along the river. For the aviation enthusiast, Newark Air Museum provides hours of interesting aeronautical exhibits and opportunities for photography.

But it is not all about cities or towns. Pretty little villages such as Oxton are worth visiting and Nottinghamshire has its share of these picturesque villages all offering a slower pace of life along with photographic opportunities. 

Luckily for anyone who is a landscape photographer then the rural and undulating landscape will provide the perfect backdrop to those images with a glorious big sky, and the ever changing seasons. You really have to get out and about to explore this hidden county, a county forgotten that offers so much for the landscape photographer.

What is a shame, though is that this county gets ignored by landscape photographers and the question remains the following. Why? When you truly escape and explore this county it really is a hidden treasure and will provide the landscape photographer with something a little bit more unique.

Want to purchase any Nottinghamshire Prints? Then you can,

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Challenging Light: Then this happened.

Autumnal landscape photography is some of the most interesting that you do, and as a season goes it is quite possibly one of the most spectacular seasons within the photographic calendar which pinpoints mother nature slowing down and putting on one last show before it goes into hibernation, of course though it is also one of my favourite seasons for photography as capturing the raw beauty of autumn can be simple one minute and then challenging the next. But it is this mixture of challenges that means you can capture some truly stunning scenes.

Of course with the seasons of autumn and winter the lighting conditions can be spectacular and that is something that really does make capturing any autumnal and winter scene even more “magical”, magical in the way that light can make a scene seem that little more dramatic.

Just a couple of days ago I was on a lovely afternoon walk, and yes walking is something that a lot of people have been doing during lockdown, getting out and about - thus enjoying being at one with nature and not having to listen to the news; thankfully the lighting conditions were perfect, the sun was beginning to set and the colours of the sun managed to light up an otherwise cloudy scene. To the west of where I was walking it was clear, and the location I was in had cloud cover, the clouds though they had a certain shape and the light from the sunset was turning them pink.

Throughout the walk though I had been shooting in what can only be described as,

“Challenging light”

But as the sun continued to set and it got ever so slightly darker, something happened and the skies started to dance, a display of pinks, yellows and oranges occurred. For the skies were dancing and what a show, but then this happened, I just had to capture the movement of the clouds and focus on a tree.

All too often Nottinghamshire is ignored by many landscape photographers and that itself is such a shame as it is a county of many contrasts, rural and urban often seem to blend with each other and in a strange way tend to compliment each other. Now where I was walking is located some six miles away from the city centre and is semi-rural, but did that matter? No especially when this happened.

The dancing fields

The autumnal movement

Colour dance

Each photo was taken with a slow shutter speed and I just let the camera do it’s thing. (The shutter speed was between 40 seconds to 90 seconds) but the movement and the end result was just amazing.

I had just managed to capture what have very quickly become my favourite photographs of this year, which depicted the way in which the light can be so magical, yes it was a challenge to take photographs on this particular day because the sun was so low in the sky due to the autumnal sunset taking place, but a little bit of patience and I was so pleased with the end results.

Yet even in the most challenging of lighting conditions it is still possible to capture something truly amazing, a bit of patience is all you need to capture the raw beauty and essence of this fantastic time of year, my patience paid off, when I captured those glorious movements of the clouds and the colours within them due to the low autumnal sunset, but instead of being put off by autumnal photography, work with it and work with the lighting conditions as you are bound to come up with that perfect shot that speaks a thousand words about the season of autumn. Things can be challenging but do not give up with the challenging lighting conditions that autumn throws at you, learn to work it and work with it, in order to get the best results.

But autumn is slowly disappearing, for the next season will be winter, and that brings with it, certain challenges and a raw feeling that can be just as magical to capture, but will there be any challenging light to capture? I for one sure hope so.

Introducing something new for 2021.

2020 has been something of a rather strange year, one that at times has almost seemed as if we have been living within a parallel universe that makes zero sense at all - if it is not a parallel universe it is the set of a giant 60’s psychedelic Sci-Fi hippy movie that we have all been living within. Still though at least with news of vaccines and vaccinations starting to take place as early as next month (December 2020) it could be said,

“That there is light at the end of a very long tunnel”

So hopefully 2021 will begin to look very different and will more than likely be a refreshing change to the year 2020, that being said some more positives is that various regions of the UK have gone back into a “tier approach” of lockdown restrictions and some of them make no sense, could 2020 also be the year in which science has broken? Who knows. Either way the tier system will be reviewed within fourteen days so Christmas might just be saved after all.

Away from that and throughout lockdown I have been inspired and have learnt many things, perhaps the one major thing that I have learnt within lockdown is the following,

“To never take anything for granted”

And that is why I am pleased to announce that next year a new project is being started - one that might prove slightly challenging but then again a challenge can be fantastic and can truly expand our knowledge, the new project is to capture as many waterfalls as I can, of course the waterfall photographs will be available to purchase from the following two places,

https://www.28swphotography.co.uk/store

28swphotography Shop | Redbubble

You can also keep up with the progress of the waterfall project which can be found here,

thewaterfalltogger

Escaping. Why woodland photography is something you just have to do.

Being outdoors and outside in the autumn and winter might seem slightly counterintuitive to being outside during the spring and summer, but it is both the autumn and winter time when you can truly escape. Of course during this secondary lockdown that we are all faced with, that ends on the 2nd of December, thankfully allows us to go outdoors, something that beforehand was overlooked, just getting outside is crucial for out mental health and a nice walk can help our minds relax, especially when we are faced with constant,

Lies, lies and damn statistics.

That somehow keeps on getting updated and published by the government. Anyway away from the mysterious and ugly world of politics which is corrupt to the core, back to the post at hand. Woodland photography.

For autumn is perhaps one of the most glorious seasons of all, along with winter and whilst most people prefer spring and summer along with warmer weather, there has to be something said for cooler weather - when there is not a lot of people around, just getting out and about is so much nicer as places seem less crowded, meaning you can actually go for a walk without coming across crowds of people, something which is sheer bliss. Thankfully the UK offers some fantastic places for being outdoors and to have a nice walk; but some of the best places for walking and exploring are woodlands. Just being surrounded by trees no matter what time of the year it is, has a certain magical charm.

Okay so woodlands in the spring and summer can be fantastic and bluebells within the spring show the first major signs of life that occur just when nature itself is slowly beginning to awaken itself after the deep sleep that begins in late autumn and winter.

Escaping with the Bluebells

An image that I captured at the beginning of Lockdown, bluebells in a wood at Shipley park, seems a long time ago and it is. Now we are in November and the months have just flown by, as a photographer lockdown has made me appreciate the seasons even more than I usually would do and that is something that I quite like, actually seeing the seasons changing and documenting them.

I can imagine a lot of landscape photographers this year have taken the time to appreciate the finer things in life, slowing down and capturing the seasonal change and making time for that, in a time when our lives have been on pause, we have come to notice things more, compared to when things were normal when we missed things because of a certain rush that we were all caught up in - for that is when we ignored the smaller things and hardly paid attention to the seasons. 

Now though we are within the season of autumn, the nights are beginning to arrive earlier and the hours within the days are shorter, but as a landscape photographer I shall simply say “do not let shorter days put you off, for both autumn and winter really are the best times to get out”, of anything autumn and winter really are the best times to get out and about for photography, and everything is so much more minimal, it is that element of minimal that means that photographic scenes are easier to compose, you really do not have to over challenge yourself in photography as some of the best images are those that are often the most simplistic.

Thankfully autumn provides us with some amazing scenes of colour, a display of reds, oranges, yellows within the leaves on the trees and some of the best places to explore are woodlands - yes get out there with whatever camera you might have and head for your local woodland, or forest as well and just take time to walk within your local woodland or forest, for starters it is fantastic for mental health and seconds, you get to escape all the doom and gloom of the news and repetitive media that is trying to rule our lives at the moment but is failing.

Just walking through woodlands is pure escapism, but for any photographer it is an easel on the senses; quite literally. Especially within the autumn and winter months as you get to see something of a transition occurring - the leaves and the colours of them provide any photographer the chance to get creative, for it is all about these key points when taking woodland photography.

• Think outside the box - Traditional woodland photography seems to be rather “simplistic” and there is nothing at all wrong with that at all, sometimes simplistic shots can be the best. However a woodland provides the photographer with a lot of room to experiment and thinking outside the box can provide the best photographic results.

• So why not if you are carrying out woodland photography after it has rained, used any surface water, puddles to your advantage, lower the camera that you are using towards a puddle and shoot the reflection of the trees, as you can see from the following Image, it really can make a difference when you use water to your advantage. 

  

  
  

• Try looking up, all too often within woodland photography, we are looking in front all the time or around us and below at the ground, all too often a lot of photographers do not look up, and that is perhaps the most secretive part of any woodland, the canopy, so why not place your camera next to a tree, whilst stood underneath that tree and take a photograph looking up towards the canopy of the trees - again this provides a different perspective of woodlands and allows people to see angle that would always be hidden

• Try shooting in Black and White - Colours always add a little something to woodland photography, but woodland photography also works equally well, when you switch over to Black and White. It might seem counterproductive but woodland photography really does lend itself to Black and White photography and can bring out hidden details that you otherwise might not see in an image that has been captured in colour. Also in post production when editing, make some adjustments to your black and white image, does it work better being slightly darker or lighter?

• Shapes - Woodland photography lends itself to shapes. Shapes in the undergrowth, the shames of the fallen leaves on the ground along with the shapes of the trees and textures. Try using these shapes and textures to your advantage and you are sure to come up with that perfect interesting composition.

• Leaves on the ground - Trees do provide interesting compositions, but look at the undergrowth as well, it is here that you are bound to come across something interesting, and one of the most interesting subjects to shoot in a woodland are leaves, so get low with that camera and you are sure to come across something interesting, a unique leaf shape of different shades of a certain colour. Again mushrooms with undergrowth also provide another interesting subject to shoot, during your exploration of woodland.

• Be prepared to travel - No woodland is the same, if you can not get what you are looking for in your local woodland that you are used to, why not travel a little further and explore. Maybe here you will find that award winning shot.

• Editing and post production - One thing that you should always do is edit. A photograph straight from a camera looks rather dull and bland, so spend your time editing them within post production. Try different settings and in Lightroom play about with the sliders to bring out shades of a certain colour or to strengthen a certain area of your photograph, do not be afraid to over edit then work backwards to a place that you are comfortable with. For anyone using a Smartphone, then you can get some amazing woodland photography and apps such as Lightroom Mobile and Snapseed can provide some amazing ways to edit your woodland photos whilst on the move. *Again Lightroom Mobile and Snapseed are both available for IOS and Android devices*.

One of the advantages of woodland photography is that you can also use a smartphone - hence the fantastic video from Tim Day, so for anyone who is wanting to carry out a bit of woodland photography, then I do hope the videos does help you.

Back to the woodlands though, even as we transition from Autumn to Winter a lot of the colours are lost, the shapes of the trees can still provide us with interesting focal points to capture, and when it snows - this is when the magic happens within woodlands and you really do have to capture the contrast of the snow and the trees.

That being said, will we get any snow this year? That depends, but do not be afraid to get out and shoot woodland scenes in the snow, fog or frost and mists. More importantly though woodland photography is something that you just have to do, a chance to escape from the world can provide us all with that sanctuary that we all need, so why not escape to your local woodland or forest and carry out a bit of photography, you never know what hidden gems you will discover.

Sometimes "simplicity" is all you need.

Autumn is officially here and as a landscape photographer it is perhaps one of the most beautiful seasons within the photography calendar. The world somehow becomes an easel and the various colours on the trees along with those of the landscape really make for something which is unique. But it is also a season in which,

“Simplicity is the key. Keep it simple and you will end up getting the very best photographic results”.

The key point is that autumn itself lends itself to being a season that is “minimal” with not a lot going on - nature itself is beginning to gradually enter a deep and well earnt sleep, but before it goes to sleep it leaves us with one final finale. Just getting out and about and soaking up this final finale is something that as a landscape photographer I would highly recommend.

Fortunately a couple of weeks ago (when it was October), I was driving back, having been somewhere, when I just had to stop in a particular layby in which there is perhaps one of the most stunning views over Nottinghamshire, naturally though I just had to pull into this layby and take the following two shots.

Simplicity through colour (landscape).

Simplicity through colour (portrait).

And to me, these just sum everything up about autumn, this transitional period of time, before we enter the winter time, Even if autumn is merely a transitional period and remains a rather short season, it is by far the most stunning time of year in which to partake in minimal photography with some radiant and glorious scenes, for this is nature's way of giving us her final finale before she sleeps until she wakes again in Spring, but this is also perhaps the most glorious and stunning finales that anyone will ever see and best of all this rather theatrical season just so happens to be free for all to enjoy, for sometimes simplicity is all you need in the world of photography.