That Was Truly Unexpected

The best time to make decision on where to photograph sunrise on Dartmoor is the night before. I like to make my choice, go to sleep, get up the following morning, grab my bag and a coffee then just go for it. Trying to make location decisions at 5am will lead to procrastination or worse, talking myself out of it and going back to bed (which is very rare).

However, sometimes it's worth just a quick scan of the weather forecast when I wake up, and the morning of this adventure, I'm glad I did. My original location on the western edge of Dartmoor had clouded over earlier than expected and so I needed a quick change of plan. The cloud was coming in from the west, so there was a chance that I might get a break in the cloud cover if I headed to the eastern edge of Dartmoor. With no time to consider a list of a possible locations I opted for one where I knew I'd stand the best chance of benefiting from a break in the cloud, and that was Rippon Tor.

As I drove along the M5 I could see it was looking a lot clearer towards the coast and I did consider making a very last minute change and heading to Dawlish Warren beach, but decided against it and thought it was best to stick to Dartmoor.

As I walked up to the summit of Rippon Tor, I thought I had made a mistake. It was very cloudy and the chances of seeing the sun looked very slim. As I was there I though, I might as well get my camera out. While the photographs I was taken were compositionally sound, they lacked the contrast and depth that the morning light would give them. They all looked a bit grey and flat.

Despite the flat light, I decided to start filming a video for YouTube. I honestly thought the video would never see the light of day, but after a 6 month break from making videos, this would at least be good practice and help me get back into the flow. What happened next was a surprise. It shouldn't have been. This is Dartmoor after all.

Unexpected Light on Rippon Tor - Dartmoor

Here’s the photo you saw me capture in the video: