A Sunny Autumn Day

Autumn in England when sunny, cheers the spirit; it is a time when farmers plough their fields in readiness for the next season. The landscape looks far cleaner and tidier somehow for all this effort, and I took the opportunity to capture some of these labours.

Also it may come as a surprise to many, but there can be a lot of colour to be found at this tail end of the year – in gardens and the hedgerows. I set out to capture this and along the way learnt about an unusual occurrence where a lone dear had suffered an identity crisis and thought itself to be a sheep, sadly I learnt this rather late in the day and the deer was lying down, but as you can see, it is entirely at ease amidst the surrounding sheep.

Autumn is generally noted for its golds, but red leaves and shades of reds with hints of green also abound. The difficulty capturing these in the hedgerows is that a breeze coupled with the difficulties finding suitable unmuddy places to shoot from make this rather hit ‘n’ miss, so a good deal of ‘chimping’ and erasing has often to take place; composition is often tricky as the wind blows leaves out of frame at the very moment when the lighting is just right and intervening branches and other leaves have been blown aside.

Taking photographs in the lanes and byways of the rural Home Counties can attract queries from the locals, some of whom are surprised that you find beauty in what they see as mundane, but in this way I often find myself invited to take a look at other attractions and get directed to even more interesting locations. I have learnt a lot in this manner, and had some very fascinating conversations. Had I not been photographing tractors in the field, I would never have learnt about the lone deer by way of example.

The flowers at the end of the gallery were taken after sunset, showing just how versatile the modern digital camera is under low light conditions.