Weekly Competition #94 - Woods and Forests

Here's a thread to chat about the latest Weekly Competition. We will note #100 when we get there by the way, but enough of that at some future date.

In the meantime, lets get into those woods and forests and see what we can find.

Does this mean wood and forrest? Or can it be just wood as in Wooden table etc?

Carl, in the comp section it states


This time, as summer tries to arrive, I thought it might be good to get out and about and into the woods and forests. Could be a landscape, could be architecture, could be people in your images, but the brief is to shoot something in our woods and forests.

I can feel the sun filtering through into leafy glades already.....

Doh, Thanks,Ps i retook those city hall shots, will post them up soon

I spent a few hours in our local woods this morning to see if I could come up with something original for the competition. It was a lovely warm spring day and I took over 130 shots.

I was tempted to put up the following but in the end decided to go for something a little more traditional

[IMG]http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w20/GlynM/Misc/IMGP2654-c1-small.jpg[/IMG]

Glyn

why all this?

Aiki - there are several army training grounds in the UK and there are legal roads (no hard surface but still roads) that pass through them. Salisbury Plain is probably the most famous and it's quite legal to drive on these roads but ill advised to stray too far!

There are many unexploded shells and other hazards off road. I wanted to drive the Trescastle area but I couldn't find out if they were firing live ammunition that day or not. You basically have to go along and see if the red flag is flying and if it is then you don't drive!

Glyn will doubtless be along and explain better in a moment.

Mike

Appolagies, I've been busy today and only just had a chance to catch up with this thread.

I live close to Aldershot which is a garrison town. Because of this we benefit from some interesting features. For example it is quite normal to come across a tracked armoured personal carrier with L plates on our local roads. Another feature, as Mike has indicated, is that there are large areas of "protected" landscape given over to army training. The picture is from the edge of some live firing ranges close to where I live in Ash Vale Surrey. There are two levels of these ranges. There is a boundary area which is open to the public. Further in there is a danger area where live firing takes place. This inner area is fenced off and live firing is indicated by the presence of red warning flags. However if the flags are not flying then the public is allowed to enter the area. Here this only happens a couple of times a year, in August and at Christmas. The outer areas are open all the time and are mainly conifer woodland which gets used for non-firing training. It is not unusual to come across groups of troops when exploring this woodland.

The Ash ranges are used for small-arms training although the by-law that defines its use also indicates that it can also be used for anti-tank weaponry training but I have no experience of that actually happening here.

My picture shows the signs at an entrance to the outer area. No live firing takes place in these areas but I suspect this a standard set of signs put up by the MOD.

We have to put up with the sound of live firing but otherwise it is a real privilege to have access to these areas. The inner area is protected heath-land and is the habitat for a wide range of wild life.

Here is an example picture of the flag & signs at the boundary to the live firing areas:

[IMG]http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w20/GlynM/Misc/IMGP2763-c1-small.jpg[/IMG]


And this is what the inner heath-land looks like, taken from outside the wire!

[IMG]http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w20/GlynM/Misc/IMGP2744-small.jpg[/IMG]


I hope this makes sense,

Glyn

yep.
thanks