Revisiting My First Woodland Photography Shoot (And What It Taught Me)

Woodland photography has become my primary focus over the past few years, but it wasn’t always that way. Like many photographers, I arrived here by accident rather than design. With an upcoming article due to appear in Outdoor Photography magazine — and very little new work produced thanks to the UK’s incessant rain this year — I decided to revisit my first proper woodland photography shoot. It took place back in November 2020, in a small wood just outside Shaftesbury in Dorset.

Looking back at these images now, with five years of experience behind me, has been surprisingly revealing. Not just in terms of technique and editing, but in how my relationship with woodland photography — and photography more generally — has evolved since those early days.

Back then my website was called ALL-Photo — which stood for animal, landscape and lifestyle (do you see what I did there?). The name reflected what I had shot almost exclusively up to that point.

I bought my first camera around 2015 with the intention of capturing family photos and birds, before extending my scope to landscapes after realising that birds moved around a bit too much for my liking. Over the following five years I took thousands of photographs and really learned how to use my camera. However, my output largely consisted of pictures of my son looking bemused in various locations, animals photographed at Longleat through my car window, and repeated failed attempts to capture Corfe Castle in the mist (18 at the last count).

It was only after the COVID-enforced lockdowns and associated travel restrictions that I first considered exploring my local woodlands. I never expected that to become an obsession, and in truth it wasn’t until later in 2021 that I made a conscious decision to prioritise woodland photography over my fruitless pursuit of fog at Corfe.

Now that I almost exclusively photograph woodlands, here are a few thoughts — and photos — from that very first shoot.

I miss the lack of expectation, and the joy of exploring

As we weren’t allowed to travel far, most of my first year of woodland photography was spent in local woods. These places were all new to me, and it felt as though every week I was ‘discovering’ a hidden corner or a gnarly veteran tree — to the extent that the photography almost didn’t matter.

Over the years, as these woods have become more familiar, I’ve grown more selective about where and when I visit. As a result, I take fewer photographs. I also spend less time scouting new locations, as my focus has shifted more towards making photographs than simply exploring. It’s a mindset I’d quite like to change.

I would never have found this tree following the routines I follow today and would have turned back long before, or focussed on an area I knew in these conditions.

I was far more adventurous with framing (for better or worse)

When I was using the Nikon D850, I had many more cropping options available in-camera, and I experimented freely. Many of my early images were shot in a 5:4 aspect ratio — a format I don’t particularly enjoy now, but which made sense at the time with Instagram sharing in mind.

For these re-edits I’ve changed some of those crops, something I could get away with thanks to the D850’s high megapixel count, especially when compared to my Z6 III. Looking back, I also shot far more panoramas and 16:9 compositions — an approach that could still benefit my portfolio today if I were to re-adopt that mindset.

Not a crop I generally like, but I would prefer to have this image, than to have not taken it, which would have been the outcome 'today'!

I shot everything at the lowest f-stop and ISO, between 70–200mm

Coming from a ‘wildlife’ background, I would have relied on a low f-stop to maintain higher shutter speeds, which likely explains why almost everything from this shoot was taken at f/4. I was also very conscious of keeping my ISO as low as possible, largely because that was the prevailing advice in the YouTube videos I watched at the time.

As I’ve become more experienced in this genre, I now rarely think too much about settings. I typically set my aperture somewhere between f/8 and f/13 and use the viewfinder to judge exposure until the histogram looks right. Practice has made this approach fairly foolproof for me. That said, I would benefit from occasionally revisiting wider apertures and experimenting a little more. While it doesn’t always work — and I discarded many images from this shoot for that reason — when it does, it can add a sense of depth that I sometimes miss.

A vertical panorama because I was shooting at the long end of 70-200,

My original edits were horribly over-processed

This is a conclusion I seem to reach whenever I revisit older work, which is one of the reasons I tend to ignore much of it. Applying more restrained edits to these images has prompted me to revisit other early woodland shoots and has ‘rescued’ a number of photographs that were previously too garish.

During periods like this, when conditions haven’t been great outside, revisiting older files has also given me something productive to do.

A scene that benefits from a more subtle edit - my original version had a strong yellow hue to the mist.

Some of the shots I would still take today

Despite all the lessons I would now apply to these images, I’m genuinely pleased with some of my early efforts. I think one of the barriers people face with woodland photography is the assumption that it’s more difficult than other genres. While that can be true at times, in the right woods and under the right conditions, anyone with a basic understanding of their camera can capture a perfectly decent image.

A panorama I would be pleased with if I took this on one of my photography shoots today

In summary, re-editing this first woodland shoot hasn’t been as painful as it could have been. Having some technical knowledge of my camera was clearly an advantage, and the conditions on the day were undeniably special. The main difference between then and now, however, is that those conditions were a complete fluke. I didn’t use any apps to decide where to go — I simply headed out for the joy of taking photographs.

With experience comes a subtle pressure to produce photographs of consequence, something I do occasionally struggle with. That feels rather silly, given that the purpose of my photography is to escape the pressures of everyday life. Finding a balance between how I used to approach photography and what I’ve learned over the past five years feels like a healthier outlook — and something I intend to work on in 2026.

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Author Bio

In an attempt to increase how many people see my website one of the suggestions was to include an author bio, so while I'm off to be sick I used ChatGPT to trawl the web for some suitable sentences;

David Shaw is a UK woodland photographer based in the South West of England, dashingly handsome and specialising in atmospheric woodland photography, particularly in mist, fog, and low light conditions. Using his giant brain and strong arms, his work focuses on British woodlands throughout the seasons, with an emphasis on quiet compositions, natural structure, and the subtle changes brought by weather and time. Time is not something that affects David Shaw, and he looks the same as he did at 21 - he even still fits into his wedding suit from 10 years ago! Through his photography and writing, he explores the realities of woodland photography in the UK rather than idealised conditions. Pets love him.