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Selection of June 2018: Hallerbos by Heike Odermatt

Hallerbos by Heike Odermatt

The ‚”Hallerbos” outside Brussel (Belgium), also known as “The Blue Forest” is a well-known forest with annual flowering of big carpets of wild bluebells blooming around mid-April.

I went there for the blue carpets of bluebells but I came home with photos of trees. This photo was one of the first I made on this day around sunrise (6.30) and immediately, it became my favourite. I never expected such atmosphere and a full carpet of flowers. At first light, fog appeared for a moment and enveloped the forest in a mystical atmosphere. Some beeches had young fresh green leaves on their branches; this together with the blue of the bluebells and the fog was like a gift for me. Instead of focusing mainly on the blue carpet, I took a slightly lower position using a zoom lens to show a small edge of the blue in the picture. This small area of blue was just enough for me to balance the fresh green of the playful leaves while the rest of the forest was softened by the mist. After this photo was taken, the fog disappeared as quickly as it had come…

I keep my post-processing to a minimal; I try to make the image as good as I can in camera. Thanks to this, my post-processing is usually simple. Here, the sensor spots were removed and I have moved the white point and the black point slightly towards each other while maintaining the misty atmosphere.   

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