In Search of Heather

I recently wrote about the frustrations and challenges I have with photographing the thrift on the Cornish coast. It can be such a small window of opportunity to photograph it at its best and because life has a habit of getting in the way of important things like photography, I sometimes miss out.

I often tell myself not to bother with photographing these brief seasonal events. It only leads to frustration! But with that kind of attitude, I’d never capture anything interesting so here I am again, just this time with the heather!

By the time you read this, heather season will be well and truly over, but over the next few weeks here on the blog, I will share my photography adventures as I search for a compelling photograph of heather. Hopefully, I won’t run out of time and the weather gods will be good to me before heather season is over.

Heather at Haytor

Heather is widespread across Dartmoor National Park, but there are areas such as Haytor which turn purple in August. Arriving early August, I had low expectations that I would see fields of purple heather and I wasn’t exactly wrong. There were patches of heather but not enough to make an interesting photograph.

**Haytor Heather (Lowman's Rock), Dartmoor National Park** - Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 22mm, f/13, 1/3 sec at ISO 64.

I was a little too early in the heather season, but as it was such a pleasant evening I took the opportunity to go for a walk. There are few things better than taking a long walk around the Haytor area on a summers evening. It was a wonderful opportunity to clear my head and relax a little bit. Sometimes a good evening isn’t defined by how good the photography was.

As it turned out though, when I returned to the car and looked onto Haytor (Lowman’s Rock), it was beautiful lit by the setting sun, so I quickly grabbed a photograph. It might not feature any heather, but I’m still pleased with the image, and even more pleased that I spent time on Dartmoor.