I stretched my back after a night of sleeping on the hard Mammoth Cave NP backcountry ground. The small packers air mattress I brought along for the occasion helped...some...through the night, but after several hours of tossing and turning inside my cramped packers tent, well my back needed a good adjustment. As I tried to straighten out the kinks and shivered in the morning chill, I cast a gaze upward along the steep slope that angled toward the treeline along the top of the ridge. The morning light was just then beginning to filter through the canopy of trees flooding the early fall foliage with a golden glow accented with an almost fluorescent green tint. Standing in the shadows where I camped, the entire area rapidly began to fill with a soft iridescent glow, the kind that takes on an almost eerie feel to it. I removed the camera from its tripod, and searched the view finder for the right moment. The allure of morning light once again resonated from within my photographers heart and another woodlands image was added to my growing list of the finery of what nature offers.
Morning light in the woods offers perhaps the best opportunity to capture a woodlands photograph with surprising detail and allure. The canopy will often glow with a resonance unsurpassed in its quality of light and it is this light quality that matters most. Framing the image will many times simply present itself when the light is right. Being able to recognize the moment and capture it can often seem elusive. But, the moments of light are there, it just takes a willing eye to find it.
It is important to locate an uncluttered area when making woodland images. I look for places with an openness and length to it along with a measure of depth and purpose to its layout. Sometimes, maybe even most times, finding such a location takes time and patience. But when you do find one and catch it in morning light, well, the results will justify the effort. Framing an effective composition is so subjective, it is near impossible to suggest any kind of how-to advise. My best advice would be to simply allow your eye to wonder both physically and imaginatively. When the right framing, the right light, the right moment appears...you will know it.
The most important trick is to possess a willingness to be there...I call it 'The Art of Being There'. Doing so is not always comfortable, often time consuming, and many times frustrating. It requires an educated eye, an instinctive sense of potential, an awareness of place, and a preparedness to endure what most try to avoid.
You will discover just how many rewards can be absorbed by simply taking an early morning walk through the woods . The satisfaction gained when it all comes together, well, it is quite difficult to place a value on such things. I suppose the allure of morning light is what draws me toward such things and allows my often tired body and mind to push past what I might otherwise think I am capable of achieving. When those moments of light present themselves, all the uncomfortable efforts leading up to them suddenly not seem so bad after all.
