Buckland Beacon, Autumn 2020
These pictures were taken on a sunny, but windy, day on the footpath to Buckland Beacon from the Auswell Cross road. The stand of pines is recognisable from a distance and i've had my eye on it for a while. It will be familair to the many dog-walkers and hikers that use this path on a regular basis. The shots were taken with a converted 5D mk2 and standard kit lens.
Halshanger Woods, Winter 2019
I’m not sure if this stand of (mostly) pine and coniferous trees actually has a name. I call it Halshanger Woods, simply because of it’s location (somewhere between Halshanger Cross and Hemsworthy Gate). The stand of trees stretch from a small car park just off the Ashburton to Widecombe road, down to the river Ashburn at the bottom of the valley. It’s a spot very much like any other coniferous woodland on Dartmoor, except for the fact that it’s in an excellent location for a bit of fog, being situated not quite on the open moorland where the mist quickly disperses, but still being high enough to keep the cool air around until mid-morning.
These images were taken over a few days in winter of 2018/19, with a converted EOS-M (micro 4/3) and a 20mm pancake lens. IR photography doesn’t work all that well in misty conditions, especially in woodlands. The light is too dim and the contrast is almost non-existent. Quite a bit of processing was involved to get them looking reasonable, but the grain/noise in the final images adds to the lo-fi Blair Witch atmosphere, so I ended up keeping it.
