Garlic Wood

Posted by David Travis on 13 Jun 2021

Garlic Wood

These pictures show garlic flowering in a wood in Staffordshire. The wood is about 1.5 miles from the nearest parking and perhaps that’s why the wood is so quiet: I’ve never seen more than a couple of other people there. In late May and early June, the wood is carpeted with garlic and you can smell the garlic long before you arrive.


Fallen branches

Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mk 2 with Leica DG 8-18mm lens at 8mm. 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200.

I initially planned to photograph wide-angle views of the wood but although I visited early in the day the light was still harsh in places. It was bright and sunny and the dappled light changed moment by moment as the overhead tree canopy moved in the breeze. I used graduated neutral density filters to control some of the more exposed areas but some of the compositions I wanted to make were still too contrasty. Fortunately, in some of the more covered areas of the wood, the dappled light was well within the exposure range of my camera and the light created an interesting, moody feel.

Garlic and nettles

Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mk 2 with Leica DG 8-18mm lens at 15mm. 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200.

Because of the light conditions, I switched to capturing some detailed views of the garlic. The smaller photographs show these views and I particularly liked the way the dappled light painted the flowers. On reflection, I thought that these vignettes provided a more intimate view of the flowering garlic than the wider shots of the wood.

Garlic detail

Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mk 2 with Leica DG 8-18mm lens at 10mm. 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200.

Flower

Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mk 2 with Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO lens at 40mm. 1/60 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200.

The path

Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mk 2 with Leica DG 8-18mm lens at 17mm. 1/60 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200.

In some of the images I did some gardening before I took the picture to remove some weeds and twigs. In post processing, I used luminosity masks to bring out the white in the flowers and to provide some contrast in the moss. I also decreased the vibrance and saturation slightly to reduce the visual impact of the green leaves.

Garlic vignette

Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mk 2 with Leica DG 8-18mm lens at 18mm. 1/100 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200.


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