Chasing the Light

When photographing sunrise I always like to have a plan. For Dartmoor though, a plan is a necessity. Just rocking up to a random location on Dartmoor an hour before sunrise is not likely to give you the best chance of capturing an image. However, experience has taught me that I also need to be flexible and have a plan B and possibly a plan C!

My original plan was to photograph either Honeybag Tor or Hound Tor, but when I got to the car park at Haytor (which is near to both those locations), I could see that both locations had significant cloud cover. The car park at Haytor is a great spot for surveying not only the nearby locations but also for looking towards the coast where the sun will rise from.

Looking out to the coast I could see a small gap in the cloud from which I was confident the sun would break through and give me a little light on the landscape. The key to making the most of this light would be to select the right location. In this instance, there was only one option and that was to ascend to Rippon Tor. From there I would have expansive views of the surrounding area so no matter where the light landed, I would be in a good position to make the most of it.

Well, that was the plan anyway. As it turned out, I had a little more chasing of the light to do.

I do hope you enjoyed this 5 Minute Photo Adventure and the others that I have been publishing recently. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Dartmoor Landscape Photographs - Rippon Tor