A first meeting with some remarkable birches

It's probably fair to say Bolehill is a bit of a favoured destination for photographers and, although I'd been aware of its existence for a couple of years, I'd never managed to pay this area of woodland a visit. I'm a bit of a fan of birch trees so it's surprising I'd not yet found my way there; but the perfect excuse presented itself when I had to drive down to the South West last week and an early start saw me at the infamous Surprise View carpark around half an hour before sunrise. I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to entering woodland before daylight so I'd deliberately timed my arrival to ensure no spooky walks amongst trees in the dark!

It didn't take long to walk across the fields to what turned out to be the top of the quarry and I looked down excitedly at the mass of trees below. It looked like another world and definitely not somewhere I'd want to wander around in the dark - or at least not by myself. I did have my two dogs with me but they are every bit as cowardly as me! As I descended into the trees, excitement turned to bewilderment - wondering how on earth I could make sense of this wonderful but complex landscape. Time was on my side with the light still not at its optimum so I spent some time walking through the trees, looking, and trying to get a feel for the place. After a while I noticed that lovely pre sunrise glow in the sky and decided it was time to get the camera out (above). I used my 45mm PCE lens for this image, making use of upwards shift to give a correct perspective on the trees. I wanted a large depth of field for this group of birches, to accentuate the sense of tree after tree after tree... I actually think it gives the photograph more structure in this instance and, paradoxically, simplifies the image. I was also keen to show the context of the trees within the quarry but at first could not find any composition with which I was happy. But, as my eyes became attuned to my surroundings, I started to see some kind of sense amongst the chaos and was quite pleased with the resulting image. This was also with the 45mm PCE and a small amount of upwards shift. And again, I found a small aperture worked best here - the intricate detail was very much part of the attraction of this scene for me and it was simply a case of arranging it into a pleasing pattern.

The dogs were getting pretty bored of all this standing around by this point so were probably rather relieved when I decided to wander further afield to explore. The sun had now risen and, with broken clouds above, was making an occasional appearance into the quarry. After a little more wandering I found a lovely group of birches, rocks and grasses and composed the image below, using my 70-200mm lens at f/4. This time shallow depth of field was order of the day - giving prominence to the foreground rocks and grasses and a lovely curved, white birch trunk.

The sun was still fairly watery at this stage but, a little later on, another group of birches were enjoying some much warmer light and I opted for a vertical composition to include more of the leaves of the trees, backlit by the early morning sun. Back to a small aperture for this one - again I found the structure demanded reasonable front to back sharpness.

I spent a further hour or so wandering and taking the odd photograph before realising I had better head back to the car and continue my journey south. Walking back a slightly different route, I noticed an area of mixed woodland, with a wonderful combination of textures and colours. The sun was coming and going giving incredible depth and definition to the trees but, at first, I couldn't find a suitable selection to make the kind of images that started to come to mind. I kept going and at last found what I was after - enough trees on the same plane of focus to give an overall structure and shape to the photograph.

I was really rather pleased to have found this little group and to have enjoyed such lovely light; so headed up out of the quarry feeling satisfied with my first visit. Emerging back into the open fields above, I could now fully appreciate the amazing view beyond the woods, looking towards Hope Valley. The light was still pretty good and I took a more conventional landscape shot to show the context of this super location. I will definitely have to go back - ideally with a bit of mist next time!