A few weeks have passed since my final Autumn shoot and I have had time to relax again and stop looking for light every hour or two wondering if I should be somewhere shooting the colour. In the end I went out a dozen times and ended up with a satisfying haul of images. A first edit has led to the 20 images here (I have called it the big blog for a reason) but more work is needed on some of the trickier images so more will make their way into the portfolio over time.

Autumn was fairly late and seemed very drawn out this year - I only shot in the south of England but these images are from a 5 week period. With the exception of the first image above they are in order of when they were shot.

As ever the passing of time has helped me to rationalise the results and look at the images more subjectively. I do have a favourite - the birch at the top. I had spotted this scene a couple of years ago and returned to find it looking at its Autumn peak with some glorious dawn light. However I do think several are worthy of inclusion into my portfolio. Although I’m not certain that everyone shares my passion for arboreal detail. I like shooting images that are ‘all tree’ - so that the texture and colour really comes out with no distraction from the sky or ground.

The New Forest is always productive hunting ground and I like the birch with their phased Autumnal turnings. They start with a green, yellow and orange tutti-frutti selection (as seen above and below) and end with a thinned veil of golden delicate leaves contrasting with stark silver grey trunks. They often support an understory of bracken which, with its similar turning tendencies, can match the green and yellow of the trees. The shot below shows this well.

I cannot go through Autumn without taking some shots of the bracken in its various guises.

Part of the birch copse I frequent in the New Forest

An exposed early turning tree near the River Test at dawn

After a couple of trips to the New Forest, primarily for the birch which tends to turn first, I turned my sights closer to home and the beech that we have on the chalk downs locally.

The beech is very much between the birch and the oak - as it is when it comes to springtime leafing. It is possible unsurpassed by its array of yellow and golds and the fact that some trees will turn much earlier than others in its immediate surroundings. Mist helps the colours to stand out more.

I caught the Broughton beech avenue at just the right time - plenty of colour, varied along the route to enhance the depth of the image and leading the viewer along the track, through the scene. This is another scene I have to visit every year.

The stark cold blue-silver of bare branches contrasts with the orange of remaining leaves.

I took a trip to Virginia Water and the tree lined lakes. It was not great weather - dull and overcast but it was my first visit there so it was good to get an idea and understanding of the potential. And there were some good scenes despite the light. This first one is almost the reverse of the one above it. Lots of yellow, punctuated by a single bare branch.

Being next to a lake I had to bring it in - here a matt grey backdrop for the tree branches. It was not a day for amazing reflections - that tends to need sunlight to enhance the contrast more.

My final shoot of Autumn was down in the New Forest in the Rhinefeld area. This is a pretty sheltered area so turns late. Autumn had not been the sunniest on record so I went down on a sunny afternoon for max contrast and backlighting. Which I got. Possibly too much? In the forest the sun effectively sets very early because direct light is blocked by the trees so these were shot from 1pm until 4pm. A good end to the season with all of the following images shot that afternoon.