Inspiration Rises from the Mist

Towards the end of 2019 I was driving along the main road from Hartington way in the Peak District towards the town of Ashbourne where I intended stopping for lunch. I especially like to buy local Staffordshire oatcakes when I’m in the area.

I noticed every now and again wisps of mist drifting across the distant landscape. I made a spur of the moment decision to take a detour towards the valley between Thorpe and Ilam. Something was pulling me there. As I passed through the village of Thorpe and started to drop down towards Ilam I was rewarded with the most glorious mist rolling across the valley.

The mist was swirling gently around the bare branches of the winter trees.

I parked up quickly, grabbed the lead of my little dog Ted in one hand and my camera in the other. Poor Ted only has little legs and I don’t think he was very impressed at being walked across a muddy field. Anyway, he’s my photo buddy and faithful friend and fortunately by now he’s becoming more used to my adventures. .

This was a scene I would expect to see early morning. However it was midday and I could hardly believe my luck. I remember filming a spontaneous video expressing my sheer joy at witnessing the light and trees. It was very rough and unedited but I wanted capture the raw emotion and post it for a group of creative friends on Facebook. I knew instinctively that my little tribe would ‘get it’ and of course yes they did! With hindsight I’m quite embarrassed at how amateurish it was. However it set the ball in motion for me to learn video editing. So that scrappy little film was the start of a new project.

But it didn’t end there. Over the next couple weeks, and after bouncing ideas off my creative buddies, I decided that trees would be the focus of a new project for 2020. And so it was from these trees in the Peak District that my Tree Project 2020 has evolved. The intention is that I photograph trees over the course of twelve months and so take time to observe the changing seasons. I have one particular tree in mind but I don’t intend to narrow the project down to just the one tree. The project will be a celebration of interesting trees and creativity inspired by these trees. I already have a few ideas but I definitely don’t want to stick to a rigid plan.