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Photography Part 3: Post processing is not good or bad, it is the final...
A lot of people are “against” image-processing software because the results it produces are not “real” and because you couldn’t do that sort of stuff with film. I have no problem with wanting to take...
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Photography Part 4: A good photo helps you experience what the photographer...
I love nature, landscapes, the natural world. Some scenes are truly breathtaking. They reach you at a very deep level, they make you see the world in a different way, and generate emotions. The...
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Photography Part 5: Having an idea what you want in advance, and making the...
Most photographers are opportunists. We walk around with our cameras or mobile phones and take picture when we see something. Almost everybody takes snap-shots. Some of my best pictures have been...
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Photography Part 6: Criticism should be constructive, whether of your own...
I have suffered hugely from destructive criticism in the past, which led me to withdraw from photography completely for years. It is very easy to point out the flaws in an image, but much harder to...
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True wealth
What is wealth? GDP? Per Capita GDP? GDP growth? Balance of trade? A particular income? A particular lifestyle? Bling? We are conditioned to think of wealth in terms of economic wealth, the...
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Nature at the Centre
Nature conservation. We all (well most of us, anyway) think it is a good idea. Making sure that nature is preserved, conserved and kept in good condition for the next generation. Except, of course,...
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The Meadow Comes to Life
Last year was a drought and this year has been a deluge - and it is obvious what Betty's Wood meadow and trees prefer! We have had some worrying moments since the meadow was planted in October 2010...
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Forestry Panel Report
On 4th July, the Independent Forestry Panel published their final report into the future of forestry in England. Although it was initiated in response to the public outcry at plans to sell off a large...
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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
I am constantly blown away by the beauty of the natural world, and by the beauty of the landscapes and creatures of our lovely woods. How is it possible to convey this to other people, so that they...
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Dream come true...
The woods are beautiful. There really is no way of improving on nature. But despite knowing this, I have had a frustrated urge to try and do just that over the last few years. In early 2010, I...
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Respect
There has been lots in the news recently and most of it boils down to one thing – respect, or rather lack of it. The lack of respect between people from different countries, of different religions (or...
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Fossil Fuel or Not? - Not a simple choice.
Should we use it or not? I mean, we are supposed to be an eco place, right? So we should do everything by hand, so we don’t use fossil fuel, and thereby end up making a bigger impact on CO2...
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The right tree in the right place by the right method
There seems to be a perpetual tension between trees and other habitats, and within the tree category between planting and natural regeneration, sometimes with very entrenched and strongly-held views,...
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Natural Balance
It struck me last night, as I was watching the new BBC programme that reconstructs our human ancestors, just how precarious our situation is. We were once one of several species of hominids...
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Autumn in the Woods
At the risk of sounding repetitious, autumn is my favourite time of year. Oak trees aren’t usually colourful in autumn. Many years they simply go from green to brown to fallen in a very short space...
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Ash dieback and Alvecote Wood
An ironic twist, that ash dieback should rear its head in the UK just as all trees are dying back for the winter, making it much harder to detect. It was with a heavy heart that we realised that we,...
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The World has Changed
This blog is a bit different - but please bear with me. Some of you know, and some of you don't know, that I have cystic fibrosis - an inherited condition that I was born with, diagnosed at age 10,...
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Changing the world a bit at a time
I’ve been reading a very good book called “So Shall We Reap” by Colin Tudge (http://www.amazon.co.uk/So-Shall-We-Reap-Worlds/dp/0141009500). It really is an excellent book, and everybody needs to read...
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Observations on Bird Feeders
NuthatchIt has been a bit of a birdy week at the woods this week, having completed a review of our nest boxes (all the hole-fronted ones were used last year, although one of the 26 had an incomplete...
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Who will fight for nature in future?
The woods look fantastic in the snow - a world transformed by snow and ice into a fairyland of wonder. All around us are the signs of the struggle nature has at this time of year - the busy seed...
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