The Enchanting Chiltern Woodlands

Wood­lands to many are endear­ing places to be, sur­round­ed by nature and peace and qui­et, they offer an escape from the trap­pings of an often-busy life. Pho­tograph­ing wood­lands and their sur­round­ing areas is some­times con­sid­ered dif­fi­cult, but it needn’t be. The aim of this work­shop is for you to take your time explor­ing and expe­ri­enc­ing these beau­ti­ful envi­ron­ments whilst hav­ing Mark with you every step of the way, work­ing with you to ensure you cap­ture the very best images.

The work­shop will con­cen­trate on two main areas, Stoke Com­mon and Burn­ham Beech­es. Stoke Com­mon is a 200-acre area of exten­sive heath­land with paths that are easy to walk. Stoke Com­mon boasts spaces of sil­ver birch, pine, along with mixed decid­u­ous wood­land which are nes­tled in the sur­round­ing rolling heath­lands. Although many heath­lands began their lives 5000 years ago when mankind began to clear wood­lands grow­ing in fer­tile soils, they still have a feel of being wild and untouched to this day.

Burn­ham Beech­es, our sec­ond loca­tion is sit­u­at­ed only three miles away from Stoke Com­mon and has a unique char­ac­ter all of its own. This wood­land is one England’s finest exam­ples of ancient wood­land and cov­ers a vast 480 acres of Buck­ing­hamshire coun­try­side. Although its name relates to beech trees of which they are plen­ti­ful, it is also an area rich in grass­lands, ponds, streams and ancient pol­lard­ed oaks. As with Stoke Com­mon, we will take our time and wan­der along the paths that take us beneath the canopy of trees and across the glades, stop­ping to cap­ture these his­tor­i­cal trees that have been in exis­tence since the last ice age.

As part of this excit­ing work­shop we will also vis­it Coombe Hill locat­ed near to the ham­let of Dun­smore. The major­i­ty of the hill (an area of 106 acres) once formed part of the Che­quers Estate but is now owned by the Nation­al Trust. At 850 feet above sea lev­el, it sits on one of the high­est and most strik­ing spurs of the Chilterns, com­mand­ing a wide view of the Vale of Ayles­bury. Here there are both inti­mate mixed decid­u­ous wood­land scenes and wider views of the sur­round­ing land­scape and, if we are lucky, the mist may roll in and pro­vide us with some very dif­fer­ent pho­to­graph­ic opportunities.

After soak­ing up the calm of heath­lands and wood­lands we will head back to our hotel and share the images we have made and engage in con­ver­sa­tion about our expe­ri­ences. Of course, Mark will be on hand to offer valu­able advice on how to improve your wood­land pho­tog­ra­phy, and of course we aim to have fun dur­ing our time together!