Penn Wood nearly became a golf course. Burnham Beeches hid 100,000 military vehicles under its canopy before D-Day. Two heavyweight ancient woodlands, two very different characters, and between them some of the finest woodland photography conditions in the Chiltern Hills.

There are over a thousand named woodlands in the Chiltern Hills. Ancient, atmospheric, and free to walk into on any given morning with a camera and a dog. This is where the series starts — two of Buckinghamshire's finest bluebell woods, and why woodland photography will test your patience and reward it in equal measure.

The Sony A700 is a camera that was built to be used — and that's exactly why it still earns its place in my kit today. A second body that keeps me in the same Sony A-mount system, fits in the hip pack, and delivers smoother black and white JPEGs than anything I'd spend ten times the price on. Sometimes old is still good enough, even today.

Can you really do photography on a budget and still get good images? I put that idea to the test with a £110 Sony A-350 from 2008 — proof that you don’t need the latest gear to capture something worth keeping.

A slower space for black and white photography, countryside walks, and quiet moments from everyday England — where the focus is on the picture, not the platform.