When my knee was at its worst, we had the best autumn weather. Nice, mild, sunny with some wind. The absolutely best weather for good walks.
So when I was well enough to go for walks, I knew I wanted to try to get to a forest. I was happy enough to walk in my own area for the sake of walking, but there’s nothing like a good walk in the forest!
I asked my camera club friend if she would be interested in going to Castlefreke woods, near the Galley Head lighthouse, and we finally went there last week. The weather forecast for that week was… let’s call it questionable, when it came to going for walks. But the forecasts can change very quickly here, and Wednesday was absolutely perfect. And as I’ve mentioned before, this year we have more autumn colours than I’ve ever seen since we moved to Ireland so it was a nice treat to get to the forest.
Going for walks in the forest in the autumn has always been special to me. I have some lovely memories from my childhood when my mother took me and my sister to a nearby forest in the spring and in the autumn, and some of my (few) good memories from school are from outdoorsy days when we went out to the forest or when I played with friends among piles of autumn leaves.
Walking in the forest at this time of year is so calming and so pleasant! The last few years I lived in Sweden, sadly I had lost my appreciation for the autumn because I suffered so bad from the darkness and snow/ice horrors of the winter. I’m so happy to live here now where the winter isn’t too bad, and I’m able to enjoy the autumn again. And now with my passion for photography, I have lots of reasons to get out there.
Earlier this year I had decided to work on my macro skills, but lost the inspiration because it’s been such a windy year, and wind is the macro photographer’s worst enemy. With the magnification of the macro lens, every movement is magnified and it becomes impossible to set the focus correctly. But I found inspiration in a YouTube video where someone photographed mushrooms on the ground, and decided to try to find subjects close to the ground where some wind wouldn’t matter. But I never took the time to give it a try.
For this walk I took the macro lens with me because I wasn’t sure how much photography I would be able to do with my knee still bad enough to prevent me from going off the path. And voilà – mushrooms just at the side of the path!
I just wish I had taken the tripod with me so that I could try focus stacking. I’ll make sure to bring it the next time. But this was certainly one of the most enjoyable photoshoots I’ve done this year.
Linking with Denyse Whelan’s Wednesday words and pics.
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