Imagine there was no camera in my pocket and this wonderful forest scene had been but a memory… Would anyone have caught the essence of the atmosphere just from my description? Would they have ‘got’ what I meant about a magical glade in the forest dappled by hazy shafts of liquid golden light? Would they have imagined how the texture of the moss and ferns stood out in sharp 3D thanks to the angle of the incoming rays? Would they have appreciated the strong backlighting on the two senior citizens and their dogs - “Patches” to the left and “Angel” to the right - on the forest floor and how it outlined the dark tree trunks? Would they have understood that the man on the left in the check shirt with the walking stick had found just the perfect natural chair to sit on between two trees? Would they have imagined the sense of relaxation in the second character, shirtless and drinking a cup of much-looked-forward-to coffee from the blue flask which he had hiked in with – maybe there is steam rising from it too? Would they have seen that he was happy for the dogs taking a break there on the soft natural flooring? Would they have sensed that it would soon be night and just an hour to get back home? No. I doubt that hardly any of it would have registered, for an interesting picture truly is worth a thousand of these words…

And then there was the composition that framed the shot just right from where I stood, the angle of the light being still steep enough to avoid destructive lens flare, and the “cleverness” of the Canon digital wizardry that added a subtle amount of fill-in flash. And all this from a little 2 megapixel camera. Yes, the Minolta D7i could have done it better and the film SLR better still thanks to more dynamic range, but neither are exactly pocketable. So they stayed at home and missed their chance - yet again - to be in on the ‘big one.’

Or could it be that the forest world, just like the human one, simply reacts better to a small and unobtrusive camera in the hands of a photographer who comes across a wondrous scene? Maybe it’s like when you hear that special music at a dance and you just have to get up and do something about it. Yes, Forest Gold, this picture is alive in so many ways. Watch quietly and you can hear the stillness too…

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