Epping Forest.

Fifty thousand ancient trees across 2,400 hectares, and fifteen years of visits that still feel like scratching the surface.

I once stood in an Epping snowstorm for a whole evening. I stuck it out without making images while the snow fell, which I regretted afterwards. Then the clouds began to clear, golden light broke across a grove near Ambresbury Banks, and I made more pictures in the hour that followed than some months give me.

That evening is Epping Forest in miniature. The place rewards being there, in the conditions other people sit out, more than it rewards any plan.

I have been photographing this wood for fifteen years. I started slowly and now visit almost every month, and I still feel like I am scratching the surface. Across 2,400 hectares there are photographs I have not seen and probably never will, despite walking past them many times.

The trees were pollarded here for centuries, cut above browsing height so they could be cropped again and again, and the multi-limbed giants that fill the wood today are the direct result. When neighbouring Hainault Forest was largely destroyed, the loss helped drive the campaign that produced the Epping Forest Act of 1878, and the City of London has looked after the wood ever since.

There are more than 30 car parks around Epping Forest and I have parked in most of them. My favourites, roughly north to south: Genesis Slade (CM16 7DR), Piercing Hill (CM16 7JW), Jack's Hill (IG10 2NY) and Long Running opposite it, Broadstrood (IG10 2SD), Honey Lane (EN9 3QT), Mount Pleasant (IG10 1JD), Hill Wood (IG10 4HR), and Wake Valley and Claypit Hill (both IG10 4AF). All are chargeable and prices change, so check the boards when you park. The gates open at around 7am and most close at or around dusk; the closing time is on the board too, and it is worth reading before you commit to a long walk in.

For dark starts, Piercing Hill can be parked out of hours, and there are a few spaces outside the Hill Wood barriers that are useful on very early mornings. There are other early options, but the spaces are so limited that naming them would cost the photographers already using them, me included. That groundwork is yours to do, the same way it was mine.

I have never arrived by tube myself, but the Central line runs close to several parts of the wood. For Chalet Wood and its bluebells, Wanstead and Redbridge stations are the easy way in, easier than driving.

The wood is open on foot at all times; only the car parks are gated. Drones need a permit, as on any site like this. Fungi picking is banned, which is good news for photographers: the subjects stay put. Rules and notices are posted at the car parks, so read the boards.

One more thing, since Epping is the busiest wood in this series. It is as much everyone else's place as it is mine, and the pictures have never once been ruined by other people enjoying it. If you want solitude, do what I do and visit when other people are at home: early, or in weather.

Rain is my most productive condition here, by a distance. Snow, hoar frost, fog and golden light have given me more dramatic photographs, but rain is the one that almost always delivers, and I have written about why woodland works in the rain at length.

The wet woods near Honey Lane hold fog and frost better than most of the site. Jack's Hill and Ambresbury Banks are special in fog, rain and snow.

Twilight is the other condition I love here, especially after a sunny day. Better still if a few clouds are left to catch the sun once it has dipped below the horizon: the golden glow reaches into the wood's interior, most of all around the edges of clearings, meadows and ponds, and wherever there are gaps in the canopy.

There is no single condition Epping needs. There is so much to shoot that I just go. On a recent workshop we made images in the middle of a sunny day, waiting for the sun to pass behind cloud to drop the contrast. They were competent rather than outstanding, and that is fine: every frame you make banks a composition you can return to and farm when the conditions come good.

The trees, above everything. Epping holds around 50,000 ancient trees, and fifteen years of monthly visits has not come close to exhausting them. Work them as individual portraits, then go closer: the trunks carry textures and patterns that reward a long look.

Then widen out. In the denser areas the better pictures are often about the relationships between trees, how they lean, crowd and answer one another, rather than any single specimen.

Look down as well. Some of the big trees stand with their roots fully exposed, and the root structures are subjects in their own right. The silver birch stands offer a lighter, cleaner subject when the giants get too much.

Water plays a supporting role. Connaught Water and Hollow Ponds are popular for reflections, and Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge and the Copped Hall estate add built history to the edges of the wood, but none of these is where my own work comes from.

Beech. The ancient pollards are the signature: multi-limbed, sinewy, and at their most graphic in winter when the structure stands bare. The younger beeches carry the autumn colour.

Hornbeam. Fluted, muscular bark and a dense, characterful habit. Epping holds them in numbers, often in groves, and they suit close work on trunk and texture.

Oak. The oldest here are thought to be over 800 years old, hollowed and sprawling, more monument than tree.

Silver birch. Stands of them break up the big-tree areas around High Beach, white bark against everything else, a different discipline entirely.

The 50,000 ancient trees make this one of the most significant concentrations in Europe. If that term is new to you, start with what ancient woodland actually is.

Spring. Bluebells at Chalet Wood from the last week of April into early May; by the 5th they are usually past their peak. If you photograph bluebells a lot you will know the difference between the rich, deep violet of peak flowers and the slightly faded purple that follows, and it is worth a scouting visit to any bluebell wood in mid April to see whether you need to bring plans forward. I will be honest about Chalet Wood: it is an excellent bluebell wood, but woods closer to my home give me as much or more, so I rarely make the trip. If it held more ancient trees it would be unmissable.

Summer. The middle of the day is workable here if you wait for cloud to soften the contrast, and the pond edges come alive with dragonflies and damselflies.

Autumn. Colour peaks in the last week of October and runs to mid November, sometimes into December if the storms stay away. The leaves hang on, and the character of the pictures changes the deeper into the season you go.

Winter. Epping delivers in snow and hoar frost, and holds fog well. The snowstorm evening near Ambresbury Banks remains one of my favourite sessions anywhere.

My most visited corner of the wood, and the setting for that snowstorm evening. The groves here are special in fog, rain and snow, and Ambresbury Banks itself, an Iron Age earthwork, is worth a visit in its own right.

Another Iron Age earthwork deep in the wood, ringed by some amazing ancient beech pollards. The history and the trees carry the same story: this ground has been worked, defended and cropped for a very long time.

A different Epping: low, damp ground unlike most of the site, which is exactly why it earns its place. The wetness makes it the most reliable corner for fog, and it is excellent in hoar frost and in rain.

I shoot around High Beach a lot, though I almost never park at High Beach itself; the smaller car parks nearby serve the woods better. The draw is the big trees, a huge range of them, each with its own character, and the stands of silver birch that give you a counter-subject when the giants get too much.

The woods near the pond hold fine pollards and some interesting ancient root structures. There are images and reflections to capture around the pond, too. The area works in rain, in overcast, and even in golden light.

For the same City of London stewardship at a fraction of the scale, and pollards you can meet one at a time, read my guide to Burnham Beeches. All of the guides live at the location guides index.