We have been back in the Netherlands for over a week now, and while I thoroughly enjoyed relaxing and drinking cocktails in Curaçao, it is good to be home. On my day off I wanted to explore some proper forest with large trees etc., and I decided to go for the Kaapse Bossen in the Utrechtse Heuvelrug.
The weather was a bit dull, no clouds but a uniform overcast. So unfortunately no exiting sun rays through the trees. And it was so dark that I needed a higher iso for most of the images. But the upside is that there are practically no shadows, giving me the opportunity to focus on some details and play around with colors in Lightroom.
For example the photo above, with mushrooms and moss. I have desaturated the green here, in real life they are much brighter. But I have been experimenting with different color palettes, and these versions came out as my favourites. The inspiration for this palette is a painting from Degas.
Some other photos presented better in black and white, such as the one below with the symmetric lane. In case you were wondering: yes you do have to be quite high to make this photo, but there is an observation post in the Kaapse bossen that I actually climbed (!).
Another inspiration for my color palettes is Renoir. His paintings have more primary, saturated colors and more contrast. You might recognise this in the next couple of photos.
This is the most generic forest photo of my selection for today. Somehow my close-up (well not really, but closer anyway) photos were more interesting. I blame the weather… 🙂
The heather below is not in bloom, but still has some interesting texture. First with the forest track as background, then with the bright moss. Totally different atmosphere, right? I must say that the love for my Tele-Elmarit is going stronger and stronger, love the bokeh on the second image!
The next image is a bit special. I came across a tree that had fallen down, obviously a long time ago. And the roots of this tree are now an awesome piece of art. Again with the Renoir-color palette.
Finally the tree from the top of the post. I just like this image. I tried several kinds of post-processing, and I like color as much as black and white. With the monochrome version I like the little white sparks, which seem like stardust spread around at night by the fairies that live here. The color photo on top of this post is the day-time version of the same spot. Still makes me feel like I spend the morning in a fairy-forest.
