On Sunday I decided I had to break my period of inactivity and get out and take some photographic images of woodland. I had just read a magazine that listed some places to visit in the New Forest. I Had been to them all before but one, I had not visited for a very long time; Blackwater off the famous Ornamental Drive.
So I set off aiming to arrive before the crowds; the car parks seem to fill up after about 9.00am. I got there at about 8.15 and there were only two or three cars in the car park. For this trip I was not looking for the tall conifers this area is famous for, I wanted to get a few images of the River and some scenes near that.
Just down the road from the car park is the bridge over the Blackwater so that is where I headed first.
I wanted some reflections but dialed them down a bit but using a polariser. It was straight into the light which made exposure tricky, but the image above was the result.
I then wandered along the bank of the river away from the bridge to explore and see what else I could find. Its not the easiest terrain and the river meanders all over the place – sometimes off the beaten track.
After a while i came to an area where the river meanders tightly in a short stretch, again this image is directly into the light and this time it was not possible to get the exposure in one go. To get over that problem I bracketed my exposures and blended them later in Photoshop.
After wandering about a bit I headed back towards the car park, and a little away from the river I came across this little scene;
