I must confess, when the weather prediction is as good as this, the middle of a forest is not usually the first type of location I get excited about. On this occasion however, it was the combination of crystal clear skies and just sub-zero temperatures during the autumn which was just too enticing. This is an area of woodland near Mottisfont in Hampshire that I was fairly familiar with, and this particular spot occupied my imagination while travelling there. Upon seeing it, it was genuinely hard to imagine better conditions, so I really had to concentrate on the exposure before I could relax and enjoy the scene.

My camera of choice is an Ebony (5x4) large format field camera. The nature of the camera and the movements command a steady and methodical approach, and further, shooting on film is inextricably linked to a money cost per frame! The result is that there is ultimately more time to consider the composition and exposure. Being that this photo was made on large format film, there was of course no way to tell if the photo would come out until the negative is back from the developer. I decided to take this exposure on Kodak Ektar to take advantage of the larger dynamic range, but in reality the complexity of the scene was easily within the capabilities of colour negative film.

As a landscape photographer, I sometimes catch myself feeling as though I need to travel to the Cornish coastline or the Lakeland fells, to name but a few, in order to capture the 'impressive scenes', but the reality is that they could be right on your doorstep.