Being in a new environment when travelling is often quite stimulating to the creative process but being sensitive to the small seasonal changes in a familiar environment can also open up creative opportunities. Walking the dog is a daily exercise and a camera usually goes with for the walk. My recent photo-impressionism workshop homework had me looking at some subjects in a new way and some fresh sunlight after a rainy spell with puddles in the forest gave me a good opportunity for an impressionist forestscape.

I have previously played with vertical panblurs of tree trunks but there are no end of opportunities for this in a forest so this resulted in some new images too. Both of these images were with the Fuji XT1 and 35mm f2 lens.

The seasonal changes are especially nice with each bringing its unique combinations of colour and light. You never know what you will find as this next image showed. I had gone out geared up for birds which didn’t happen while this splash of colour with a bee was too much to pass up. Just goes to show that bird gear can work for close-up work  too.

A damp spell will often bring an eruption of fungi. This next image shows a group of tiny fungi that I found next to a track on a dead log. This was very close to home so I headed back with my Fuji extension tube and a small LED light and spent a happy time getting photos and bitten by mosquitoes.

And always when walking the dog you have a happy canine subject if nothing else shows itself.