Featured Photographer - Tim Pearson

Looking for a location to get away from the madding crowds, Tim stumbled across North Cliffe Wood on his doorstep. Immersing himself in the woodland and visiting through the year and at different times of day, Tim has grown to appreciate not only the healing therapy that photography can possess, but also how out natural world is so undervalued as a place of refuge.

You wouldn’t know it was there. I didn’t until recently, but having discovered North Cliffe Wood almost on my doorstep during the first lockdown, it has now become a refuge from our increasingly mad world and a source of photographic inspiration. Importantly, what North Cliffe is teaching me is the value of returning, of seeing the same place at different times of year, in different light, from different angles; the possibilities are limitless.

North Cliffe Wood lies to the south of Market Weighton in East Yorkshire, at the foot of the Yorkshire Wolds. A little-visited gem overseen by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, it was drained and cleared in the late 19th century, with many mature trees felled in the early twenties. This has left space for birch and rowan to flourish and for young oak trees to develop and join their mature parents. At its south west corner lies a heath of heather, rush and cotton grass, which catches the low dawn sun perfectly. Of course, the wood and heath are a magnet for wildlife and its relative isolation means that all you hear is the sound of the trees, the birds and perhaps the roe deer. In spring, the wood itself is swathed in bluebells and every turn of the path brings different light and different opportunities.

Into the Woods (Setting Moon) - ISO 100, 24-70mm lens at 70mm, f14, 1/25 The sun was beginning to rise behind me, with the slightest illumination of the silver birch trees beginning to show, but my attention was on the setting moon. Having exposed the image to capture a clear moon, I further exposed the foreground in Lightroom to better reflect what I saw.

Heathland Sunrise - ISO 100, 24-70mm lens at 36mm, f11, 1/100, medium grad filter I boosted the white balance in camera to enhance the warm glow of the sunrise and its effect on the grass.

I am a relative newcomer to photography and have spent the last couple of years slowly studying, experimenting and learning (I hope) from my mistakes. But the one piece of advice I read constantly, and have found to be absolutely true, is to keep going back; keep exploring the same place; keep looking anew at that place which might otherwise feel so familiar. And guess what? It works.

My most recent visits have focussed on the heathland on frosted early mornings. Arriving before dawn and walking the paths through the woodland, stopping occasionally to photograph the setting moon between the trees or the first hint of light on silver birch. Then, arriving at the open heath, capturing the rising sun, or the light on a hoar-frosted fence, or the narrow paths created by the deer across the heath.

Many of my ideas come to nothing, because my timing, or the conditions, or my technical expertise, aren’t quite right. There are reflections in the shallow ponds to be captured; countless compositions of birch and oak; moss and lichen with their textures and subtle variations of tone; and of course, the bluebells which, to date, I have only snapped, hand-held, while walking with my partner.

I know that I’m not the only photographer to visit this place. I wish it was all mine, but it can’t be and shouldn’t be. One regular I spoke to recently is two years (two years!) into a project photographing a single split oak. His focus is, in a sense, very narrow on that one tree and yet, I know that he sees just as much variety, just as much opportunity, in that one subject as I do in the wider wood. I’d love to see what he produces.

In the context of what the last year has thrown at all of us, when we have been forced to shrink our worlds and lower our horizons to the strictly local, visiting the same place time and again would, for some, feel like part of the problem; living in an open prison, waiting for parole. I feel the same as everyone for much of the time, but I look forward to, and cherish, my visits to North Cliffe Wood and, in between, I plan and envision what I hope to photograph next time, because there surely will be a next time.

Tim Pearson Instagram tim_pearson_wolds_ photo.

All photographs taken with a Nikon d850.

Skeletal - ISO 400, 24-70mm lens at 58mm, f/11, 1/40 The attraction here was threefold: The delicacy of the foreground grasses; the skeletal form of the trees against the sky and a slight warming glow of the early sunrise.

Drifting - ISO 100, 24-70mm lens and 70mm, f/11, 1/10 The stillness of the frosty morning allowed me to use a slow shutter speed without losing clarity, and I loved the way that the lone tree is set within drifts of frosted grass.

Bluebell Walk - ISO 100, 70-300mm lens at 70mm, f/9, 1/125 hand-held This was a snap on my very first visit to North Cliffe Wood, in spring 2020. I had a 70-300mm lens on the camera, thinking that I’d be looking for wildlife, but it was impossible to resist the bluebells.

Through the Heath - ISO 100, 24-70mm lens at 52mm, f/14, 1/30 Deer leave paths that criss-cross the wood and heath. Setting the tripod low, I found a composition to include the moon setting between twin oaks.

Hoar Frost - ISO 100, 70-200mm lens at 120mm, f/11, 1/60, medium grad filter Image 7 – Through the Heath New Year’s Eve morning, 2020 and a beautiful frost on the heath. I occasionally see other photographers at the wood, but on this occasion, they were out in force, with four of us arrayed around the wood. I picked this spot so as to be out of shot of everyone else!