Plan A

I like Fridays. It’s the end of the working week, the weekend is just around the corner and I’ll probably open a bottle of wine in the evening and eat something with a few red lights on the packaging. More than all that its the day where I almost always get out for a dawn shoot. That doesn’t mean the weather will be good though!

The Friday morning of this blog I had planned to meet up with a friend and fellow photographer for a bit of a catch-up. We were going to head down to the coast to shoot some moody seascapes. The weather forecast was for showers and overcast skies, but hopefully perfect for what we had planned.

Unfortunately my friend had to cancel. This of course isn’t a problem. Life and work sometimes change your priorities. Something of which I’m all too aware of myself. I would of course need a plan B.

Plan B

I could of course stick with plan A, but the location was further than I probably really had time to travel to. This mattered less when I was meeting up with someone, but as this shoot would be on my own I decided that I would pick somewhere closer to home.

Combestone Tor in 2014 - my first and last visit.

As part of my plan to take more risks and be more spontaneous in 2020 I decided that I should try somewhere new. Having just read an article by Ross Hoddinnot on some Dartmoor locations I decided that I must try and photograph Combestone Tor. Though this location wasn’t completely new to me, I had only shot it once some 6 years ago, so I still thought it would still be somewhere fresh for me to shoot.

When Friday morning came round I went outside to take the dog for a quick walk before I headed up to Dartmoor. Despite the weather forecast predicting overcast skies I could see some high cloud and a lot of stars. It looked like it could be a great morning after all!

I had to make a decision. Do I go to the coast and make the most of the sunrise, or stick to my original plan of going to Dartmoor where the weather might well be very different. My closest coastal location is Dawlish Warren and it is very much the safe bet but I have photographed this location many times before. This would not achieve my goal of shooting somewhere new. Despite my gut instincts to go to Dawlish Warren I decided to keep to my plan of going to Dartmoor. I felt it was important to spend some time working on new locations.

The weather up on Dartmoor that morning was as predicted. Very windy and cloudy. Not worry, the point of the visit was not to get a great image but explore the location. And explore I did. However, I never really got inspired. I never even got the camera out. It seems like a location with plenty of potential but I just couldn’t find something I wanted to photograph. Maybe it was just the lack of morning light, or the chilling wind, or maybe I just need a few more visits so I can get to know the location better.

Whatever the problem, I wasn’t going to capture any images there so time for plan C!

Plan C

I hate to head out with the camera and take no photos, so knowing that this might happen if I went up to Combestone I decided I needed a backup plan. The route up to Combestone fortunately takes me past Holne Bridge. This is a location I’ve photographed a few times, but only in autumn. This tree-lined river location is perfect for catching those wonderful autumnal colours.

I’d never really considered shooting it during the winter. With most of the trees probably being bare I didn’t think it would make for an interesting photograph. However, if I had to drive past it on my way home why not stop and take a photo anyway. I wouldn’t even have to walk very far!

So on the way back from Combestone I pulled over, grabbed my gear and popped down to the river. This was my plan C location so I was a little short on time which meant I didn’t have a lot of time to go exploring for new compositions. I decided that if I wanted to get a shot I would go with what I already knew. I did try a few different angles from a couple of new spots, but I eventually decided that I would capture roughly the same composition that I’d done during a previous visit.

Winter at Holne Bridge, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z7, Nikkor 14-30mm f/4 at 24mm, f/11, 0.5 seconds at ISO 320, Kase Filters K9 Holder and CPL.

OK, I’ll admit, it’s not the most original composition that I’ve made, but given it was a bit of a grab shot as part of a backup plan I’m pretty happy with the result. I’d much rather have this image than have nothing at all from the morning. Besides, it was actually rather nice shooting a location in a totally different season. This is something I learnt from my year-long project on Dartmoor that I recently published. In fact it has inspired me to visit this location again in the very near future and not just wait for autumn. I think there is more to this location than just autumn colours.

A bit of a long story from me in this post but I hope you’ve found it enjoyable and that if you don’t normally head out with a plan A, B and C, then it’s maybe time you did.