One of my favourite places is Kingley Vale in West Sussex, one of the largest Yew forests in Europe. This mysterious and evocative place is rich in myth and folklore. Despite appearing timeless it is a landscape that has been shaped by humans for thousands of years.
Under the canopy it is dark and monochromatic but closer inspection reveals subtle shades of purple, red and brown. The extremes of light and shade, the chaos of bent and twisted branches and the endless shapes and textures both inspires and challenges the photographer.
A good source of information on yew trees including those at Kingley Vale is ancient-yew.org
In 2024/25 the Royal Photographic Society Landscape and Audio-Visual groups created the Sound-Scapes project. Participants were asked to produce audio-visual (AV) presentations as a means of showcasing landscape photography and to explore AV as a method of showing photographs in an engaging and meaningful way. The Great Yew Forest was my contribution. This slightly amended version of the video was awarded second place in the 2025 Southern Counties Photographic Federation's AV championship