East Mill Tor - A Gem in Northern Dartmoor

To me East Mill Tor is one of Dartmoor's more unique locations to photograph. It's not that the rock stack at the northern edge of the tor is particularly special or that the surrounding landscape has any distinctive features. The stand out element are the small pools of water that are dotted about. It's not the only location on Dartmoor where a tor is near water, but I can't think of any other Dartmoor location where the water is close enough to the tor so that they can both be effectively placed in a composition.

It's not an easy location to photograph effectively either. Direction of light is critically important and obviously there needs to have been sufficient rainfall to fill the pools with water. (With no other source of water they are just muddy holes in the ground without rain). The most challenging bit is setting up the composition.

There are some elements of the composition I can't control, namely the weather. Cloud cover is critically important. Blue skies can be boring, while too much cloud blocks the light from the rising sun. A little wind is OK, and I find some movement in grasses rather pleasing as it adds a dynamic element to the composition.

The bit of the composition that keeps me coming back though is the placement of the pool and the tor in the frame and what their relationship is. A wide angle lens makes the pool appear more dominate in the frame but then makes the tor look further away. Polarisation of the pool is also a fine balancing act. Too much and the water can look black, and too little polarisation and pool has too much reflected light on it.

The final part of the jigsaw for me is where to place the tor and water. Stepping left and right, or panning the camera left and right will change the position of the tor in relation to the pool. Where this objects are placed can significantly change the balance of the composition. Despite several visits to this location, and ignoring all the other aspects of shooting here, I don't think I've created a composition where the balance feels perfect.

**East Mill Tor, Dartmoor National Park, Devon** - Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 18mm, f/13, 3 secs at ISO 64.

In the photo for this blog post I have the pool centrally placed and the tor off to the left hand side. Does it work? Yes. Could it be better? Possibly. I'll just have to come back and try again. But that's no bad thing.