Forest Panorama

Cooling off at Campbellford Seymour Conservation Area

Jul 14, 2024

I’m catching up on posting some photos I took back on a very hot day in June at the Campbellford Seymour Conservation Area just south of Campbellford, Ontario. About 10 minutes from my house. I stopped in here before, as reported in Nature’s Return from earlier June.

During this second visit, I accessed the north end of the park via a small trail leading off Forest HIll Drive at the south end of town. There is only parking for 2 vehicles at this location, but the main park entrance on County Road 30 has plenty of parking.

This 200 acre property has been operated as a park since it was purchased by the Lower Trent Conservation Authority in 1973. Trails are well maintained and give access to a lovely range of natural habitats.

At the south end of the park is an abandoned quarry, long since filled with water and a popular swimming hole and picnic spot. Stepping inside the forest is like stepping into an air-conditioned room.

5 frame Panorama - 35mm held vertically, F2 1/250 sec ISO 160

I have been somewhat obsessed with shooting panoramas lately and this day was no different. Most of the pictures in this set were taken with my standard 35mm F2 lens on a Fujifilm X-T3 so this APSC format is the equivalent of about 52mm in full frame. The black and whites were shot in Acros + Red filter mode, one of Fuji’s standard black & white film simulations. Some are panoramas, hence the title of this piece, but together they form a glimpse of what the park has to offer.

Panoramas are multiple images shot in succession and stitched together, in this case, in Camera Raw. This includes the horizontal image above, and the vertical image below.

I made a critical error in the image above, in that I did not set my focus and leave it through the series of individual frames. Instead I focused each frame independently. The result does create some visual interest in that we see leaves in the foreground on both sides of the trail in sharp focus, as are the woods in the background. However, the blended image reveals areas between these zones as being quite out of focus. If I hadn’t been shooting so wide open, the effect wouldn’t have been quite so obvious. Oh well, live and learn.

In the image below I am breaking with normal convention to create a large vertical panorama. Forests are naturals for this treatment with trees that tower overhead. Often the biggest issue with vertical panoramas is presentation. They don’t lend themselves well to display on the web. I thought I would set it here large, so you could scan the image from top to bottom and see all the detail. Click on the image to shrink it down to see it in a single view.

10 frame Panorama - 35mm held horizontally - F2 1/250 sec ISO 160

I love the wide range of tones on display inside a forest on a sunny day. From the backlit canopy at the top to the dark shadows at the bottom, the magic of dappled sunlight cascading through the forest is always something I marvel at and treasure. Add to this, the sound of songbirds and gentle breezes above and you have a truly remarkable sensory experience.

Then there are the understory plants. These two shots were actually captured the following day with my 13mm Viltrox, but these roadside plants are typical of the forest understory at local conservation areas.

Trails at Campbellford Seymour are well marked, kept clear and are easy to follow.

I’m not an expert at identifying tree species by any means, but I believe the image below is of a black cherry.

The lovely old bark of a black cherry tree

It isn’t hard to identify sugar maples. The familiar looking leaves dominate any canopy in areas where they thrive.

Not all plants are welcome in the forest. Dame’s rocket below, is an invasive species introduced to North America in the 1600s for its beauty and fragrance and is often confused with purple phlox. While phlox has five petals, dame’s rocket has only four. It grows prolifically in disturbed areas and tends to choke out native plants which are more beneficial to local wildlife. But still, a very attractive plant.

Well that’s enough for one newsletter. I will end this here and take my leave. If you are looking for some relief from the oppressive summer heat we have been experiencing this year, consider a walk in a local park or forested area where temperatures are moderated by shade and transpiration1. The latter occurs when water, sucked up by trees is released into the air cooling it by several degrees. A fascinating process that works equally well in urban landscapes.