The first Saturday of December I had planned to do a photo walk in the Hertogenwald. Late autumn is past its peak and winter has arrived. The weather forecast was favourable for woodland photography, gloomy grey weather.
At the Hertogenwald, the first snow was fallen. It was not more then a thin layer of snow dust. Not enough to completely cover the woodland floor. This partly with snow covered woodland floor created the same effect as dappled light. It surely made photography more difficult. I ultimately found one scene I really like. However, the final processed image is not included in this post. This image is, due to light snow dust and the lack of mist, completely different from the images I have included in this post.
After a long walk exploring a part of the Hertogenwald, I decided to go to the Baraque Michel. Perhaps conditions would be more favourable for photography at the Baraque Michel. The Baraque Michel is situated near the Hertogenwald and close to the highest point of Belgium (Botrange). It only took a 10 minutes drive with the car to get there. The little difference of altitude between the Hertogenwald and the Baraque Michel did make a lot of difference to the landscape and the weather conditions. At the Baraque Michel, there was a lot more snow. It was also colder and some heavy mist covered all of the Baraque Michel. Also the trees were covered with hofrost. I believe due to some preceeding rainfall. It created a beautiful frozen and misty winter wonderland. After some time the mist dissipated, but the light was still favourable for photography. In this post I present a collection of images of this beautiful part of nature during winter.
I processed all of the images using the Fujifilm Astia film-simulation as a starting point. I thought about converting all the images into black and white, but the use of colours pronounces the cold and frozen circumstances of that photo walk more.
I hope you like the images.
Please feel free to leave some comments.
While writing this post, I have already been back to the Baraque Michel. Saturday the 10th of December the weather forecast predicted snowy and foggy conditions at the Baraque Michel. But, that was not the case. I did explore that location with the gnarly trees some more (last image of this post). I found a new composition at this location. I hope to be back there, when the weather is more suitable.
All content and photographs are (C) Copyright Ruud Maas. All Rights Reserved.
Woodlands - landscapes - infrared - Streets - Portraits 