This photo was taken in December 2023 at the Etang de la Corbière in the forest of the same name, near Châteaubourg, Ille-et-Vilaine, France. It is a 630-hectare protected natural area. Its subsoil is rich in black shale, which has long been used to pave roads and roof houses in the region. The shale quarries left large holes in the forest floor.
Today, vegetation, mainly made up of beautiful specimens of pedunculate and sessile oak, birch, beech, and pine, has reclaimed the area. Some plots, especially those with pine trees, are used for forestry.
What I particularly like about this forest, apart from the fact that it's so close to where I live, is that it's so quiet because it's not bordered by any major traffic arteries. From time to time, you can hear the chainsaws of the woodcutters at the other end of the forest, but more often than not, before daybreak, it's the barking of the roe deer that you hear if you don't come face to face with them. What's more, hunting is only permitted 5 days a year. And, of course, the pond attracts many birds.
In short, as you will have understood, I really like this forest.
I like to walk near the pond's banks where the vegetation is less dense because I find that the trees there have more character and twists and turns... It's these trees that I'm looking for as subjects. Not that I like trees to suffer, but those that have suffered have a story to tell. And in photographic terms, it's an easier story to tell.
Here, the weather conditions were working in my favour, with the fog and the sun not yet out, so the light remained diffuse and soft, limiting the colour palette to blue. Initially, I thought about toning down the blue predominance, but all I was left with was a palette of greys.
From a compositional point of view, playing on symmetry was an obvious choice because of the reflection.
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Dimitri Vasileiou • Editor