Spring Sunshine

After a wet August, September has started off with beautiful sunny weather. For the first time is a while it was hot enough that walking in the sun felt a little too warm. I decided to head into the forest to see what I could find.

Photographing light streaming through a forest scene is a delicate art that requires patience, creativity, and a willingness to dance with the light as it moves. Forests can become natural theaters of light. The contrast between light and shadow, the actors.

In this scene the three main tree trunks to me, felt like dancers bathed in a spotlight from behind. But the scene lacked sizzle, that little something that a lighting director would use to push it over the edge in the highlights, to give it a more ethereal feel. Dry ice would have been perfect.

I didn’t have dry ice but I did have an infrared filter. Using something called the "wood effect", where certain materials, particularly plant foliage, became more translucent in the infrared spectrum. This allowed the leaves in the scene to become softer as they interacted with the light, transforming it.

“Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge can raise men to the divine.”

— Ludwig van Beethoven