Oisterwijkse Bossen en Vennen - Part 2
It was good to spend a couple of nights in the camper just to test things out. You take these short trips to see what works and what doesn’t. Fortunately, the heater works well. It can easily work too well (ie: way too warm in the cabin), which means even if it’s very, very, very cold outside we’ll be able to stay comfortably warm so long as we have propane. Nothing about the vehicle itself “didn’t work,” but organization is the key with long-term trips and we have a lot of work to do on that front. We’ve already made a few adjustments, so now it’s time for another short trip to test things out.
We were up early the second morning, but not at our destination early enough. It was heavily overcast, but as we were driving to where we were planning to photograph (on the other side of the lake we were on the first day we were in Oisterwijk) we saw a small band of red appear on the horizon - the sun peeping through a gap in the clouds. Unfortunately, it was a big enough gap to lighten the entire sky. In any event, it was gone in about 3 minutes while we were still driving.
The skies were so overcast that we struggled to find any images to make, so we kept walking, stopping now and then to check out photographic possibilities, and then moving onward. Oh yeah, and it was windy as the dickens, which means the cold was even colder. Unlike Saturday morning, Sunday was uncomfortably cold. At one point, a gap in the clouds opened up to the west, which was the wrong part of the sky to allow light to flood the area and brighten the scene. Finally we had a small, but limited amount of real color in the landscape instead of drab monotonous tones. At least for part of the landscape.
There are a few adages in photography (I don’t like to call them “tricks,” but they are things you learn over years of photographing), and one of them is “follow the light.” Sometimes when you’re in an interesting place but can’t really make an image of what you were hoping to make, look around to see where the most interesting light is and see if you can make an image using that light. It’s more of a “take what they give you” sort of approach, but as landscape photographers, we are at the mercy of nature in so many ways that you learn to just work with it instead of fight against it. Images seem to be better when you do.
So I looked to the west to see what was offered - certainly not enough light to make a small island in the lake and the shoreline behind interesting (you’d think that since the island and shore were facing East towards the sun, they’d have a bit of light on them, but no, the cloud cover was way too dense, so all you saw was a dark blob). Then my eye dropped and I realized that the ice was reflecting the hole in the clouds and offered at least a bit of color. I quickly imagined an abstract cluster of branches back-lit by brilliant color and set up my tripod as quickly as possible.
To be honest, I didn’t make it in time. The brilliant rose color of the ice rapidly faded as I put my camera on the tripod and while I managed to capture some color in the ice, it was nothing like what I first saw. Yet again, the coloration is 1,000 times better what was there 30 seconds later when the hole in the clouds closed. The light, if it appeared, was going to be momentary at best that morning.
Fortunately, as I’d been looking down at the ice (ok, when I was grabbing the tripod leg nearest the shore to collapse the tripod), I noticed a flooded, frozen fern near my feet. For once that morning the flat light worked in my favor. With a polarizer filter I was able to remove most of the glare from the ice. For some reason, instead of a white frost, this small area of ice was clear and the fern below it recognizable. Luck rewards the attentive photographer.
We didn’t last much longer in Bossen en Vennen that morning. The cloud cover seemed to get denser and denser, killing any real color to be found in the landscape, and we decided to call it a morning. We had discussed going to one of the places recommended by others the day before and decided that given the early morning stop, we could swing by both since they weren’t very far from each other.
The first stop we made was at the Loonse en Drunense Duinen, a natural park with large sand dunes. The photographer guy had mentioned a particular entrance to the park as having a decent restaurant that was a good launching point to exploring the park (and place to return to afterwards). Well, how to put it, I think everyone else in the area knew that tip too because between the multiple groups (or should I say gangs) of bike riders (mountain and road bicycles), families and hiking groups gathering in the parking lot and the restaurant, the place was chaos. After having some coffee and a breakfast snack, Ann and I decided to pass up the dunes. Maybe sometime later, and definitely not on a weekend. I hate to see what the place is like in the summer.
So we headed on over to the second location, which proved to be much more rewarding. There were very few people and some nice photographic opportunities. This one was the nature reserve Natuurgebied Huis ter Heide.
It’s not a large park, really not much larger than a large county park, but it still had several different landscape environments and multiple trails that crisscrossed the park. The first part of our walk led through one of the nicer pine forests we’ve been to, and we made a variety of images despite the continuing flat light.
Eventually, we made our way to a part of the natural area that had a variety of deciduous trees and we stayed there awhile photographing them with our point-and-shoot cameras. Yeah, the point-and-shoot LUMIX saved the day again. We didn’t know what we’d find there so decided we wanted to go light.
Again, it was so nice to just wander around and see what was there to photograph. No agenda in mind, no particular destination or subject to photograph. Just being outside, looking and making an image when something calls out to you.
As with the Bossen en Vennen, this park had its share of background underbrush that makes woodland photography so difficult. Still, individual trees have a way of making themselves known and it’s hard to resist trying to make a compelling image, despite the background.
And, when in doubt, look for details. Our route back towards the car led us through one area that was full of fungi, and I naturally had to make an image or two.
And further on the path back I ran into Groot, which you should know about by now. If not, go back a couple of blog posts.
Then it was time to head home. A couple of nights out in the van, a couple of days of photography, we really couldn’t have asked for more. It was a worthwhile and informative trip, which will hopefully set us up well for our next one.
Which, by the way, is this weekend!