Sihouettes of beech trees being backlit by rising steam from the forest floor. This was actually photographed whilst teaching a workshop after the lunchbreak. The light was harsh and you would never expect something like this to happen, yet when the warmth of the sun reached the forest floor and the bottom halves of these tree trunk steam started to rise up and I spotted the potential of this scene immediately. It not longer exists as it is of course built up from fallen trees. It was a transient scene in every meaning of the word. The conditions and the scene with its diagonals came together at this exact moment to create something truly magical and quite spectacular. You can image the delight of my workshop client, because we just never expected this to happen in the middle of the day with bright sunshine. Sometimes magic comes to those who are persistent. This has proven to be my most popular photograph amongst editors, publishers and award judges. It has also been on the cover of On Landscape Magazine
Ellen Borggreve is a landscape photographer and author of Woodscapes and Praxisbuch Wälder fotografieren, among others. She was born and raised in the woods of the Veluwe where her love for trees originated. Besides forests she also likes to photograph Dutch coastal scenes.
The focus is on tranquil scenes..
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