“The Green Veil shimmers richly around me,
in tones of deepest emerald and muted olive;
a dominating threshold between earth and sky.
Yet, through this veil, 
gold light pierces and shimmers,
lighting the path and bright undergrowth,
in a dance of life and light.”
– Ed Lehming

I’ve been wanting to create a new series of images for some time, but the greens of summer, while lovely and filled with life, do not generally lend themselves to the photo abstractions I love so much.

Yesterday I felt inspired to get out for an early lunchtime walk and took my camera with me, as I often do, hoping for some inspiration. It did not take long, but a chance venture off my regular route brought me into an area of the forest with the most beautiful late summer light I have experienced this year. The forest surrounding me felt magical and filled me with joy. I had to do something with this moment, as it just felt right.

I made several images, reviewing each in my camera’s viewfinder. My abstraction technique is unpredictable and every single shot is slightly different, due to changes in the light and my movement. I was quite pleased with the resulting photos and believed I had enough material to create a new series of photos. The problem was, since it was a late summer forest, everything had a green cast to it. The human eye filters this out and we see a forest, but the camera is not so forgiving.

This green cast was bothering me and I was looking at ways to minimize it, without affecting the colours of the forest. Finally, I just gave up and processed and image, posting it on my blog yesterday for feedback, still having no idea what I would title this series. My last series: God Light, was quite easy to name, since it focussed on the wonderful patches of light that are created in forests. Those same patches exist in the summer too, as evidenced in the image above. But, what to call this summer series.

One of the followers of my blog David – It’s Complicated, wrote back with comments on the image and that they “like the color and effect of the green “veil”. Then it came to me, the “Green Veil” is dominant in all the images, and when I see it as a crucial element to the photo, I’m no longer inclined to remove it, but rather enhance its effect on the photos.

So, here’s the start of the “Into the Green Veil” series, the first image, above, is of the path leading into this forest glade. The title is also a bit of a play on words, as I was walking into a ‘vale’ as well.

Nikon D800
Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro 1:1 (272ENII)@90mm
1/4 sec, f/13.0, ISO 100

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