Just a Little Bit of Snow on Dartmoor

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Who Loves Snow?

There is something about snow that makes some UK based landscape photographers very excited, and I admit, I’m one of them. I think this is for two reasons. First is that we don’t often get a lot of snow in the UK. Some parts of the country like the Highlands of Scotland get more than say Devon, but it is rare for us to get widespread heavy snowfall. The other appealing aspect of snow is how it can transform a location. Your favourite viewpoints can take on a different look and it can make some locations that you would never normally photograph suddenly become beautiful. So when I heard that snow was forecast on Dartmoor I immediately started to make plans for a dawn shoot.

Do You Want To Build a Snowman?

While the weather forecast was predicting snow, I already knew it wasn’t going to be a great big dumping of the stuff. While the forecast was predicting a 95% chance of snow, it was only forecast for short periods and on the very highest reaches of Dartmoor. I guessed that it would be similar conditions to the time I got snow up on Belstone Common (which you can see below). There certainly wasn’t going to be enough snow to build a snowman.

Great Mis Tor

To make the most of what snow there was going to be I needed to choose a Dartmoor location that was both high, reasonably easy to access, and offered some interesting compositions. Two tors spring to mind that meet these criteria, Great Staple Tor and Great Mis Tor. With Great Mis Tor being around 90 meters higher than Great Staple Tor I opted to go there. Experience has taught me that even a small difference in height can mean the difference between snow or no snow.

When I arrived at the car park for Great Mis Tor things looked positive. There was already a light dusting of snow. By the time I got to the Tor things were looking not too bad. As expected, it wasn’t a blanket of snow but I felt there was enough to work with. It reminded me of my last visit to Great Mis Tor where I also had snow that morning.

A Snowy Dawn at Great Mis Tor #1, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z7, Nikkor 14-30mm f/4 at 14mm, f/13, 1/5th sec at ISO 64, Kase Filters K9 CPL and ND Grad.

While the addition of snow to a scene is often a welcome addition, that doesn’t mean that the photography becomes easy. With only a little bit of snow what I really needed to add something to the scene was a bit of morning light. There were plenty of showers passing through and they would leave gaps in the sky, but I never really got a decent break in the light. As is always the way, there were many patches of great light in the surrounding landscape, just not where I was!

A Snowy Dawn at Great Mis Tor #2, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z7, Nikkor 14-30mm f/4 at 14mm, f/13, 1/5th sec at ISO 64, Kase Filters K9 CPL and ND Grad.

Looking back at my images I feel they are lacking something. I know that I talk about the quality of the light a lot but it really can make a difference when shooting Dartmoor. I’m more than happy to Embrace the Grey at the right locations, but this rarely works for me on Dartmoor. Don’t get me wrong, the images are pleasing enough but even without good light, I think the compositions need a little tweaking. I’ve only shot Great Mis Tor a couple of times so I can’t expect to instantly come away with great compositions with little experience there. I’ll just need to keep going back. Which is no bad thing?

A Snowy Dawn at Great Mis Tor #3, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z7, Nikkor 14-30mm f/4 at 17mm, f/11, 1/13th sec at ISO 64, Kase Filters K9 CPL and ND Grad.

Photography challenges aside, I had a great time. I know standing on a snowy, windy tor, 538m up isn’t everyone’s idea of fun, but for me, it was the perfect way to witness the start of a new day. The photos capture what I saw that morning and combined with the experience of actually being there, it made for a perfect morning in the wilderness.

Have you managed to capture any snowy images this year? Is snow a bonus or a hindrance for your photography? What snowy scenes do you like to capture? Let me know in the comments below.