Bolderwood, New Forest

Today I went to the New Forest, to a place called Bolderwood.

Bolderwood is a popular place so I got there just as the sun rose, though the weather was grey and overcast with spots of rain. Bolderwood is famous for two things; its arboretum and the deer sanctuary. I was not there for deer today, I wanted some shots to portray autumn.

I always struggle with woodland scenes, I find it hard to find a composition that isn’t just a chaotic mess. So I was trying hard to get something I was happy with. This was my choice from today.

As usual at this time of year I got sucked in by the fungi, but to try to keep on them I try a more scenic composition;

But, as usual, I ended up doing at least one stacked macro shot, this one was called The Deceiver. Two treatments giving very different effects.

For those who wish to know, these were taken using Helicon Focus, using 163 images to make the stack. Then some additional single images were taken whilst lighting the cap with a torch. these were to be blended into the darker image to give the glow effect.

The set up looked like this.

As an addition as there is not really a blog of its own, here is a picture I took on my phone one my way to work earlier this week.

Its a giant puffball fungus and it was growing right next to the main road. needless to say it was no longer there when I returned home from work.