Major Oak
29th March 2015
Despite taking many photographs in Sherwood Forest, I was reminded by the European Tree of Year contest that I had not, until now, photographed Britain's entry - Sherwood's iconic Major Oak tree.
The European Tree of the Year is the tree world's equivalent to the Eurovision song contest and, true to form, the UK entry was beaten by a fine Estonian oak!
More about the contest can be read here
My other photos from the trip are part of an ongoing portfolio of images of Sherwood Forest. I find Sherwood and wooded areas in general a challenge photographically as they are often visually chaotic in terms of lines, angles, shapes, light, detail and tones. The photographer's job, therefore, is to simplify all this into an image or set of images that represent the subject or theme.
On this visit, in addition to the Major Oak, I picked out some complimentary branch angles and lines against a plain sky and chose a black and white finish to emphasize the composition.
Puddles are often good at providing a natural frame for a subject. They also have great depth. A falling rain drop provides context to the image.
The bark of the ancient oak trees have a wonderful array of rich colours and patterns:
The European Tree of the Year is the tree world's equivalent to the Eurovision song contest and, true to form, the UK entry was beaten by a fine Estonian oak!
More about the contest can be read here
My other photos from the trip are part of an ongoing portfolio of images of Sherwood Forest. I find Sherwood and wooded areas in general a challenge photographically as they are often visually chaotic in terms of lines, angles, shapes, light, detail and tones. The photographer's job, therefore, is to simplify all this into an image or set of images that represent the subject or theme.
On this visit, in addition to the Major Oak, I picked out some complimentary branch angles and lines against a plain sky and chose a black and white finish to emphasize the composition.
Puddles are often good at providing a natural frame for a subject. They also have great depth. A falling rain drop provides context to the image.
The bark of the ancient oak trees have a wonderful array of rich colours and patterns: