And now for something completely different…

Over the last couple of years, I've spent a lot of time photographing Dartmoor. It feels like the only thing I've been photographing! Looking back at the list of blog posts I've published recently it's probably a fair assessment. Apart from the odd deviation, it’s all been Dartmoor, Dartmoor, Dartmoor!

Despite my need for a change of scenery I decided the best place for me to photograph with my next block of available free time would be Dartmoor! After such a good run photographing the heather on Dartmoor, I wanted to push my luck and go for one more shoot. However, while driving to Dartmoor I could clearly see the that the conditions weren't the same as what the weather forecast had predicated. The sky was looking very overcast. Glancing over to the coast however, there were patches of blue sky. A change of plan was needed!

It was already too late to go anywhere too far away like Dorset or Cornwall, so after pulling over to check my map, I settled on Dawlish. I had spotted a large stone groyne last time I was there, and I remember thinking it might make for a good long exposure photograph. I knew the tide was high, but as with any sunset shot there's always a risk that you get there to find the groyne populated with people or anglers.

I needn't have worried as to my surprise it was free of people, so I quickly got to work and captured this photograph.

**Dawlish Groyne, South West Coast Path, Devon** - Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 24-120mm f/4 S at 24mm, f/13, 15 secs at ISO 64, Kase Filters CPL and ND Grad.

Looking at the photograph now, I'm not convinced it works though. I like the tones, the cloud cover and the simplicity of the image. However, I think my main issue is that while the horizon is completely level, the groyne doesn’t appear level in the frame. There’s one simple reason for this and that's because it's not actually level. Well, not at that point on the groyne anyway. It does level of a bit further down, but that would require me to shot it at a lower tide. (Which would also allow the red marker post at the end to be larger in frame).

I think the groyne being unlevel unbalances the composition in a composition where I feel balance is everything. It's also possible that this view simply doesn't work as a photograph. Just because it's a simple composition, and a long exposure, doesn’t make it good. Time will tell. I'll look at it again in a few months and I'll either think it does work, or I wish I hadn't bothered. Well, that’s not true. I'm glad I tried something different. It's important that I did and perhaps I need to do so more often.