Figure 1 – The Light in the Forest, Sudbury, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2017.

I am naming the photograph of Figure 1, “The Light in the Forest.,” and I am very intentionally evoke Conrad Richter’s book by that name as well as the Disney Movie of that name, starring the hero of my generation’s childhood Fess Parker. But really the point of such a photograph is The “Intimate Landscape.” Unless you are very lucky the “Sweeping Landscape” eludes us. But intimate landscapes are everywhere. You turn a corner, or maybe you just turn around, and there is a tree glowing through a hole in the canopy filled with a warm autumnal light. It is part of the great beauty of living and a gift to those willing to see.

I feel it every day as my daily commute takes me through the edges of the northern forest; over a river shrouded in fog; past the edge of the marsh; or alongside a field where cows or horses are grazing. It is like our discussion about how the next stop is Willoughby.  Drive on an it is a lost photographic opportunity. Take a moment to stop and you are rewarded. That illuminated spot in the forest calls to be photographed and like The Secret Garden it calls to be photographed.

Canon T2i with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens at 100 mm, ISO 800, Aperture Priority AE Mode 1/250th sect at f/7.1 with -2 exposure compensation.