As my den building skills and the complexity of the dens structures changed at the different ages i was when building the dens i wanted to try and make a much simpler version of a den. Looking back through my archive photographs the den i built when i was youngest was literally just a blanket over the trees. When i was really young even this really simple bit of shelter seemed like an entirely new world to play in.

I decided to build the really simple den in my next shoot down La Mielle as i was aware that it is mainly fields and therefore a hard location to create a den in. The areas of La Mielle that we used to play in are the fields filled with blackberries and in these locations there are very few starting points in which you can consider building the den structure off of. I therefore decided that this den design was going to be very different to my other structures, the whole point of the den being just to consider creating a roof and some shade. I wasn’t sure exactly how this was going to translate into the environment until i got there but i just wanted the den to be a lot more simplistic.

Remembering the environment of the location is very sparse and expansive i decided to theme this den around an African expanse of land. I therefore in my colour scheme chose to use bright orange blankets and a purple blanket. These colours for me are very reflective of an intensely sunny environment and also they all compliment each other. I learnt from my last den that bright colours work really well in making the den stand out in the environment and therefore all these colours are very bright but they also this time compliment the environment as well. The fields at La Mielle contain a lot of golden and green colours, orange and purple both clashing and complimenting these colours. As my colours were so bright i also decided i wanted the weather to reflect this sunny atmosphere that i was creating with my den and therefore i have decided to do this shoot on a really sunny day. I also think that i want the really washed out with light sky, to add to the feeling of being in the african heat. I will therefore plan to take the pictures at 12.00 ish when the sun is highest and their is the most intense amount of light. Hopefully there will be a few clouds the day i choose to go out, just to break up the expanse of the sky a bit but otherwise i am aiming for a washed out. sunny landscape to build my den in. 

In actually deciding where to build my den i had quite a struggle to find somewhere when i went to scout out the area. La Meille is made up of vast expanses of land and blackberry bushes which are obviously prickly and therefore we wouldn’t have built dens there in the past. There were quite a few locations that i really liked as a background but there was no way that i would be able to build a structure there, even a very simple one. I eventually found a spot in which some bush like trees were fairly closely clumped together and decided this was the location to build my den in. The first picture below gives an impression of the environment as a whole and the second picture is where i have decided to build my den.