Zonienwoud (Forêt de Soignes)

Tall beeches, soft light

The Zonienwoud is a quarter of an hour's drive from the center of Brussels, but it feels like a different world. Tall, straight beeches close together above your head into what photographers sometimes call a 'cathedral forest'. The comparison holds. The trunks stand like pillars, the canopy forms a vault, and the light filtering through behaves like light through stained glass. Soft, filtered, directed.

That light is why you need to be here in fall. Between mid-October and early November the beeches turn yellow and orange. Not spectacularly vivid, but deep and warm. Combine that with a misty morning and you have everything you need for compelling forest landscapes.

Mist makes the difference

Mist is your friend in the Zonienwoud. On misty mornings, shafts of light appear as stripes between the trunks, the so-called crepuscular rays. The effect is strongest shortly after sunrise, when the sun is low and falls at an angle through the trees. Come early. An hour after sunrise and the effect has largely gone.

Focus on the views between the trunks. A focal length between 35mm and 85mm works well to emphasize depth without distorting the trunks too much. If you want those long receding lines of trees, a short telephoto, 100mm to 135mm, will compress the rows and strengthen the cathedral effect.

Macro on the margins

Beyond the wide landscape shots, the Zonienwoud is also worth exploring for macro photography. Mushrooms, moss on tree roots, frost-covered leaves in the early morning. Along the paths around Tervuren and near the ponds of the Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika, those details are easy to find. It is worth stepping off the main path for a moment.

Practical

You can park at the parking lots along the Tervurenlaan or at the museum in Tervuren itself. The forest is freely accessible. Rules do apply: keep to the footpaths outside designated zones, and drones are in principle not permitted without a permit from the Brussels Capital Region or the Flemish Agency for Nature and Forests, depending on which part of the forest you are photographing in. Check this in advance, as the forest extends across three regions.

Sources and further reading

• Zoniënwoud, Natuur en Bos (Vlaanderen)
• Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika, Tervuren
• Zoniënwoud, Leefmilieu Brussel
• Zoniënwoud op Wikipedia