Summer vacation . . . time for some forest walks. This is a map of the area around the Bin Forest, outside of Huntly, Scotland. The blue double loop trail is the Queen Tree Walk . . . about 5 miles altogether.
The Aberdeenshire countryside around Huntly (seen at right) is beautiful at any time of year.
The Queen Tree Walk is well maintained and easy to walk.
This is a managed forest . . . planted and cut many times throughout history.
The walk presented many photographic challenges . . . I lost many photos to difficult lighting.
There was a lot to see . . including some exposed geology . . .
. . . and ferns, lots of ferns.
And a few flowers. I do not know if these are wild or the remnant of some forgotten farmstead.
The scenery was serene and quiet, except for an occasional rush of wind trough the high branches.
We enjoyed the walk immensely.
The trail was very well marked . . . we didn't get lost.
I saw this bouquet stuffed in the crotch of a tree out in the forest. I don't know why, but it was such a strong image.
I had fun trying to think through what a good forest still life portrait might look like.
Except for a few steep sections, the trail was mostly flat. We enjoyed ourselves and only had a few drops of rain fall. [All of these photos were taken with the Fuji X-E1 camera and 27mm f2.8 lens.]