Discovering Dartmoor - All 5 Episodes Now Available
My Discovering Dartmoor Journey is Born
Want to quickly know more? Here is a 60 second introduction to Discovery Dartmoor!
If you are a subscriber to my newsletter or regular viewer of my YouTube channel, I expect you've already heard about my Discovering Dartmoor video series. Hopefully, you've already watched some of the four and half hours of content or even watched all of it! Either way, thank you and I hope you enjoyed it.
For those of you who aren't familiar with Discovering Dartmoor, let me tell you all about it. It was sometime in 2020 that friend of mine said "you can't claim to love a place unless you really know it". I might be paraphrasing a little but that was the general gist of it. He had moved to an area and then completely immersed himself in the culture, language, and landscape. He truly had taken his new home to heart.
Though I'd moved to Devon from Scotland over a decade ago, I couldn't say that I had done something similar with Dartmoor. Dartmoor was a place I really enjoyed photographing and I was getting to know all the best spots for landscape photography. But, when I thought about how much I actually knew about Dartmoor, I had to be honest and admit that I knew very little about Dartmoor.
I decided therefore to learn more about Dartmoor. Not only would this be beneficial to me and my photography, but if I also documented my journey to discover more about Dartmoor, others could be inspired to learn more about Dartmoor or their local area.
At first, I wasn't sure how to start or structure my journey of discovery, so I just decided to go across Dartmoor from A to Z. If I selected a Dartmoor location for each letter of the alphabet, I would surely cover a wide range of Dartmoor locations. With a "robust" plan in place, Discovering Dartmoor was born. Full of passion and excitement I thought it might take me a few weeks of hard work to get all the filming done. Maybe a few months. Six months worst case scenario.
The Culmination of Three Years of Work
I have to admit, I did somewhat underestimate how much work was required to film at 26 locations. First, I had to find 26 locations. Not as easy as you might think. For example, there aren't really any Dartmoor locations beginning with Z! Then, when you find a location, is it interesting? Is there something to learn there? Sometimes you can't be 100% sure so you have go and have a look first to see if the story of the location is worth telling. If not, you find somewhere else, and if it is, your return to film that location.
If you do that for each location, and you mix in the fact that you have other commitments (work and personal), time soon escapes you. As it turned out, it took over two years to film 24 locations.
You would then think that this is enough. Nope. Not me. What about the people who live, work and relax on Dartmoor? They all have stories and information to share. So, I decided to film some interviews as well. This took another year.
Add in all the post production (which I also underestimated) and over three and half years go by before Discovering Dartmoor was ready to release. But ready to release it was, and I sent it out into the world!
Watch Discovering Dartmoor
The production of Discovering Dartmoor was every bit as difficult as you might think making a 5 part documentary series about Dartmoor is. But now that it's out there, I am very proud of it and all that hard work and stress seems a small price to pay.
The feedback I've been getting from the people that have watched it, and from the people I interviewed has also been wonderful. There were some dark moments over those last three and half years, and I wondered if it was all worth the effort, but reading the comments people have left has made all that work feel worthwhile.
If you haven't seen Discovering Dartmoor yet and you want to find out what I produced from all that work, then all five episodes from the series are available to watch below (or directly on YouTube here). Let me know what you think in the comments below and if you want to know more about the Discovering Dartmoor book, prints or how to support the series, then just head to julianbaird.com/discoveringdartmoor.
The Discovering Dartmoor Gallery
Below you will find all 55 landscape photographs from the series. I’ve also produced a small book that features all 55 of the photographs and if you wish to purchase a copy you can do so by clicking here.
All the locations for these photographs are also featured in my Free Landscape Photography Locations Map.
Acknowledgments
The following text is extracted from the Discovering Dartmoor book, but it’s very much worth repeating here.
My journey across Dartmoor has been one of the most enriching experiences of my life. It’s been full of ups and downs (some literal, some emotional) but one of the highlights has been the people I’ve met along the way. The people that work, live, and relax on Dartmoor.
A special thanks goes to Tom Usher & Kelly Rich from the Dartmoor Preservation Association, Josephine Collingwood, Max Piper, Mark Owen, and Emma Cunis. I can’t thank you enough for giving up your time and talking to me. Without our conversations Discovering Dartmoor wouldn’t be what it is.
Thank you also to Rob Hayward for letting me read from his dad’s book Dartmoor 365 and to Julian Cartwright for giving me permission to use his photograph of a rushlight.
Finally, thanks to my dear friends Ross and Chris. Thank you for your creative support in helping me stay focused on this lengthy project. Most of all, thanks for your friendship during those difficult personal times that accompanied me on my Discovering Dartmoor journey.
All good journeys need good friends.