Hobbity Places: Photographing Mossy, Fairy-Tale Forests
Hobbity Places: Photographing Mossy, Fairy-Tale Forests
by a.d. elliott | Take the Back Roads – Art & Other Odd Adventures
Dear Henry,
Although I enjoy photographing a wide range of landscapes, my heart keeps circling back to a particular elevation—roughly where the aspens begin to thin, and the air cools just enough to make you breathe more slowly. Somewhere between 7,000 and 11,000 feet, the land feels alert and awake, balanced between abundance and restraint. It is there that my favorite images seem to find me.
Running water is almost always part of the equation. A creek slipping over stones, a hidden cascade threading its way through roots, or even the quiet presence of moisture darkening the earth—water changes everything. For me, it often marks the difference between a photograph I simply like and one I truly love. Water adds motion, sound, and memory; it suggests that the place is not static, that it has been shaped patiently over time.
But there is another element, harder to define, impossible to measure, that pulls me in most strongly. It’s a feeling more than a feature. A moss-softened, primal stillness. Dappled light filtering through tangled branches. Roots lifting from the earth like ribs. A sense that the forest is not merely scenery but a participant, quietly observing.
These are the places where you expect to see small things: a caterpillar inching along a fern, a mushroom pushing up overnight, the imagined flicker of a fairy just out of sight. They feel storybook, but not in a saccharine way, more ancient than cute. Worn. Lived-in. Honest.
This is the quality I always struggle to name and usually end up calling hobbity.
It’s the landscape equivalent of a well-loved book: a little damp, a little dark, endlessly inviting. The kind of place where paths narrow instead of widen, where curiosity matters more than destination, and where you feel gently encouraged to linger.
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About the Author
a.d. elliott is a wanderer, photographer, and storyteller traveling through life
She shares her journeys at Take the Back Roads, explores new reads at Rite of Fancy, and highlights U.S. military biographies at Everyday Patriot.
You can also browse her online photography gallery at shop.takethebackroads.com.
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