An English Spring
It’s not too short of a year now that I’ve been coming to a little village that I discovered over a year ago and seeing it change through the seasons. This last weekend I took myself off there to see how the trees by the lake were getting on for changing leaf colour. It wasn’t the day for doing photography; the sun disappeared on me on the way over and it became one of those dark days with little light that we’ve been having recently.
So I missed my opportunity, yet I saw another side of life to this lovely village. As I was driving along their were horse boxes parked on grass verges and Rangerovers coming towards me, men wearing flat tweed caps and wax jackets looking over the hedgerows, and I of course realised that there was a hunt on.
Now I’ve always liked the hunts for the colour of the red jackets that riders wear and I have been as a child to see the riders and there horses all meet before going off to ride across farmland. And the farmer who I’m doing the year in a life of offered me the opportunity to go onto his property to take photos shoots with wild birds. And I wasn’t quite sure, I thought that I would take the opportunity to go as it wasn’t something that I’ve done before, I wasn’t sure if I would like it. I haven’t yet got around to doing that and I now know I wouldn’t want to.
One Autumn Weekend
As I was driving along thinking that maybe I’ll get some shots of riders in their red jackets riding their horses over the fields, maybe even jumping hedges. It was then that I suddenly realised that actually if the hounds found a fox as I was taking a picture, I wouldn’t want to see what the dogs do to it. I wouldn’t want to be a witness to that and I certainly wouldn’t want to take pictures of it. So it made me have second thoughts about going down to the shoot as well for the pheasants and the partridge.
Even though it crystallised my feelings for me of killing animals for sport, I still enjoyed seeing this village in yet another skin. I’ve been there this spring to photography the daffodils beside the red phone box and the daffodils on the bank in front of the church. I’ve experienced the village summer fare, or what was supposed to be summer, it was a very wet day. And now I’m there to do the autumn colours if I can get some sun one afternoon to shine on the trees before all the leaves come off, as the oaks are just at the perfect time for getting warmth and colour. Soon they will be falling to start their winter regeneration.
So I retired to warm my hands and body in the village pub, which I affectionately think of as my second office as I love being there. It’s a lovely friendly pub, the food is good, the tea is good, they always have peppermint tea for me. Saturday it was the place where all the riders came after their hunt, so I got to experience the pub heaving for a change and that was nice to see it in another disguise.
What’s really nice about having a location that I go back to time and time again is that I know where the sun rises and sets. I know that to get the trees at their best I need to wait until the afternoon when the sun is shining onto them for warmth and reflections into the lake. I know what time of day I need to be where for different shoots of the village and of course I know what time the pub opens and closes so I can get the all-important tea and lunch or dinner.
Tropical Sunset
I enjoy very much working on my home turf so to speak, travelling and exploring new locations is good fun too, but to have somewhere close to home that I can be at in a short time is a wonderful luxury, and I am very grateful to this little village for all the different scenes it provides me with. I’m just trying to work out if I’m brave enough or is it stupid enough to visit it if we get snowfall, travelling down narrow country roads that without a doubt will be untreated. I’m thinking that the answer is no, I’m not going to go and get the photos, not unless I can cycle all the way there!
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Living in the beautiful rural county of Yorkshire it was perhaps natural for Ruth to have an affinity with the countryside and its wildlife. Creativity is Ruth’s driving force finding an outlet in television & radio she worked for many years as producer for BBC & ITV.
However a love of photography and for being surrounded by nature called her to go back to her photography training and bring pleasure and joy to people through her connection with our planet.
Staying in the moment when taking her images allows her to experience the natural magnificence unfolding before her eyes. It is this moment of mediation, of gratitude, that she evocatively conveys through her images.