Burnett Wood

This hillside at the edge of the bluebell wood at Burnett, near Bristol, UK, is often shrouded in morning mist in early spring when I took this shot.  The scene inspired my "Wood nymph in bluebells" series which I took a month later.

I printed this high key to match the impression the misty light made that

morning. Comments and crits are welcome.

I've never considered high key in color photographs -- this is a new concept for me.  My eyes are a bit distracted by the branch that comes in from the upper left corner as well as the several branches along the right edge.  I think it may have been better to show this group of trees with a single beginning plane (nothing nearer to the camera).  A lower position so that more of the canopy could be captured (and less of the foreground ground cover) might be something to try as well.

Thank you: I think you suggestions would give a neater composition but I wanted to indicate that I was in the wood looking out and to show that the pale haziness was not just a pale print but the sunlight catching the morning mist (giving darker shadows for the nearer trees). The result is a bit less structured but I think represents better the feeling of the scene at the time.

Jonathan, I do sense that the lightness is the result of sunlight hitting the morning mist.  I don't get the sense, however, that you are "in the woods" looking out at another portion of the forest.  I wasn't there and don't know what's to the left, right, and behind; I have only this photo.  To my eye, the forest starts as a line of about 8 trees nearly equidistant from the camera, and then the trees continue up the hillside.  I feel that I'm looking at the forest rather than out of the forest.  I think that's why I suggested a closer approach to the trees, to put a tree (or trees) at about the same distance as the few branches on the right.  But even if you are in the middle of the trees, the single branch on the left and the few branches on the right just don't have the same aesthetic impact (IMO, of course!) as one or two full-fledged tree trunks; the former look to me like items that weren't picked up in the viewfinder, while the latter would have to be intentional.  I really think our different views of this photo comes down to our different experiences:  you were there, I wasn't; you have memories and feelings about this place (triggered by your photograph) that I don't have.  Would you agree?

Yes Stephen that's a very interesting point - to try to see an image in the viewfinder as it would appear to someone who wasn't there. Ideally I should have included another foreground tree middle-left. Actually the nearest tree on the left is closer but it's not obvious because of the bank of bluebells.  There was a tree I could have used, just behind me but it was covered with ivy and didn't harmonise with the others.  Further to the left the light wasn't so good, to the right there was a large fallen tree.

Even looking at it again and trying to be objective it still looks like I am in the wood as the bluebells are right up to the foreground and they wouldn't grow in the open (maybe it's not obvious that they're bluebells on this small JPEG).

Oh well, it's only a few months and I can go back and try again!