Saturday 3 January 2009

Winter Spirits: Photo Session

Reading some classic ghost stories over the past few days seems to have infected the very air around me. It was very cold today and I had every intention of staying in bed until noon, but once I had glanced out of the window, that idea was dashed and I rushed to charge up my phone (unfortunately I don't have a dedicated camera). The thick fog that hung in the air, coupled with the ground frost, made a trip into the woods and briers a must. So off I trotted to commune with the crows, and the odd dog walker...


Nice crystal formations.


The odd stubborn leaf still clings to a tree. I suspect the frost is probably aiding this rebel, but I do not want to belittle his achievement. :)


His fallen comrades feel nice underfoot, though.


A tree snuggling up to... itself! It must be colder than I thaught.



Bally can keep his seat. It seems a bit too frosty for my butt!


Out of about 80 photo's this is possibly my favorite: A mutilated, but proud-looking tree stands in a clearing. This is the highest point of the woods and you might be able to make out the pale blue sky above the fog line.


The sun starts to set and I'm blown away by the colour.


Ooh, very gothic looking.



Climbing down from the top of the hill, the sun is lost in the fog. Possibly an alternative cover to Anne Radcliffe's The Romance of the Forest? ;-)



In an open grassland area I was half expecting to see the ghosts of past Impressionist masters trying to capture the lighting effects with brush and canvas, but I had to settle for the odd phantom dog that came bounding out of the fog.



Let's play spot the dog!



Bodies of plague victims are buried under this particular patch of land.


The last photo I took, and a fitting 'end of the line' subject: This is actually the end of an old towpath beside a series of canal locks which have long been filled in.

3 comments:

Xumca said...

Fog! Frost! Glorious photographs!

Funny how the frost on the leaf-hanging-on one makes me think of mildew instead. It's good to know that the actual substance is much "cleaner" than what it looks like.

I especially like the one of the flowers, the forest ones (of course), and the field. It's kind of hard to imagine that such places exist in real life (as opposed to only in some fantasy writer's over-vivid romanticization of some real place), and that actual people live amidst them.

Though I suppose perhaps you feel the same way about some of the starker desert landscapes. ;)

the englishman said...

Great photos. Very moody. Where did you take them?

Munin said...

Xumca: I am reminded of your campaign against grime early last year. ;)

And yes, desert vistas have something of the unreal about them to me.

the englishman: Thanks. They were taken in a sleepy little part of Shropshire, Midlands.