A Glorious Morning at Great Links Tor - Dartmoor National Park
A photograph of Great Links Tor in the glorious morning light has eluded me for years but no longer thanks to this photograph. But why am I a tiny bit disappointed?
I Got the Shot, But I'm Slightly Disappointed!
Great Links Tor on Dartmoor is a hard location to photograph for a couple reasons. Firstly, it involves a strenuous walk with over 300 meters of ascent. I can make the walk in about 40 minutes, but with a heavy backpack of camera gear on my back, I can really feel it. Especially when it's a dawn shoot and I haven't quite left enough time to get to the summit with time to spare.
The other challenge is the weather. Great Links Tor sits at an altitude of 586 meters which makes predicting the weather a proper challenge. The weather at the start point of the walk can be very different than the weather at the top. I've often made the ascent in clear weather only to find Great Links Tor covered in cloud. You can check the weather forecast as much as you like, but sometimes you have to take a chance and go for it.
And go for it I do. Despite the 1.5 hr round trip in the car, and the 7 km walk, I still feel compelled to take a chance on the hope I will get a compelling photograph that will show how majestic Great Links Tor can be.
The risk has paid off though. Back in April 2023 I walked up to Great Links Tor for a sunset shot and while my patience was tested, it ultimately paid off with one of my favourite Dartmoor photographs. You can watch me capture that photograph in this blog post.
But with a great sunset photograph of Great Links Tor in my portfolio I craved a sunrise photograph to go with it. And so started my slight obsession with getting up early, and walking up to Great Links Tor in the dark. Prior to writing this blog post I had tried to capture a sunrise photograph of Great Links Tor that I am happy with several times. While each visit yielded a good photograph, I knew in different conditions I could capture something special.
Just to make things a little complicated, the photograph I wanted can only be captured during winter when the sunrises from a specific direction. This puts the pressure on!
As winter 2025 came round I was determined to try again and make what I expected to be multiple trips to Great Links Tor. I also thought this might make an interesting video story. How many ascents would I need to make? What would the conditions of each visit be? How frustrated would I get?
Well imagine my surprise when on my first winter 2025 ascent I get exactly the shot I was looking for. Setting off early in the morning, it was far from guaranteed that I would get the shot. The forecast was for clear blue skies which rarely makes for good landscape photographs. Arriving in the car park there were already a couple of vans parked up. This is often a sign that there are wild campers on the moor, and I have made the ascent to Great Links Tor before only to find a tent right in the middle of my favourite composition.
Sure enough, when I arrived there were wild campers there but fortunately well away from my composition. The camper was already awake when I arrived, and I enjoyed a very nice chat to him. But in the corner of my vision, I was keeping an eye on the conditions which were surprisingly looking very interesting. Despite much of the sky being clear there was some cloud above Great Links Tor and as soon as the sun rose above the horizon and lit the scene, I stopped chatting and got shooting!
This is the photograph I captured.
Sunrise at Great Links Tor, Dartmoor National Park, Devon - Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4S at 14mm, f/13, 0.5 sec at ISO 64.
So why am I disappointed? It has nothing to do with the photograph. I'm really happy with it. I'm disappointed as I won't be producing a video documenting my repeated visits to Great Links Tor in search of my photograph! I mustn't complain as I felt really happy as I descended from Great Links Tor. I know I had a good shot in the bag.
So, is that me done with Great Links Tor? Of course not. There is always a different and possibly better photograph to be captured. It's just that I won't spend the winter focusing on when I will next go to Great Links Tor. I'm free to explore and discover some of Dartmoor's other winter locations. So make sure you sign up to my newsletter to find out where I go and what I photograph next.
Three Days of Snowfall on Dartmoor National Park
In this blog post I tell you about the three fantastic days I spent photographing the snow on Dartmoor.
Snow, Dartmoor and Landscape Photography
While snow on Dartmoor isn't that unusual during winter, it is unusual that I get to photograph it. Sometimes you only get a light dusting of snow which, while pretty to look at, doesn't generally make for an interesting landscape photograph as it makes the foreground a little messy.
At the other end of the scale are the times when Dartmoor gets a good dumping of snow. This is when you will see the news websites flooded with pictures of families out with their sledges sliding down the hill at Haytor. It's this level of snowfall that can make for the most compelling landscape photographs of Dartmoor in the snow. However, it's this level of snow that causes me the biggest problem.
I unfortunately don’t live on Dartmoor so accessing Dartmoor in the snow can be challenging. The best time to photograph the snow on Dartmoor is in the morning when the snowfall is fresh. Go later in the day and you risk foot prints, animal tracks and believe it or not, lines left by people skiing! The problem for me going photograph the snow early in the morning when there is fresh snow falls on the roads.
If the snow fall is low enough it can make the main roads treacherous, and even if it's not, the narrow and twisty roads of Dartmoor will be. For me the risk of getting stuck or having an accident is not worth it. Every now and again though the forecast predicts snowfall high enough to cover the highest tors but it's unlikely cause issues on the roads. These are the exact conditions that were forecast late in November.
Great Links Tor - Dartmoor
With the first snowfall being forecast for the higher reaches of Dartmoor there was really only one place I wanted to photograph and that was Great Links Tor. At 586m the summit of Great Links Tor isn't the easiest place to reach. The 45 minute walk is all up hill and it can be challenging to navigate in the dark. But I was determined to be there for sunrise and to make the most of the fresh snowfall.
Over the years I had made several ascents up to Great Links Tor at dawn to try and photograph this magnificent tor at sunrise, but low cloud had often ruined my vision. The lure of snow and a beautiful sunrise was too much to ignore and so I set off on another ascent.
While the roads were clear, it was snowing, and relatively heavily. This made the walking difficult. It was still dark, so I had my head torch on, but the light was reflecting of the snow fall making forward visibility difficult. The normal land marks I look for on the ground looked very different when covered in snow. It was one of those walks where I question if it the risks are worth the effort. Fortunately, because I knew the ascent so well, I was able to still navigate by eye and I had my digital map as a backup.
As I approached the summit it was light enough to turn the head torch off and the snow covered landscape of Dartmoor looked beautiful. As I approached Great Links Tor, I thought that even if I don't capture any photographs this morning, being here on Dartmoor when it looks so beautiful would be reward enough for my efforts.
Great Links Tor, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 at 14mm, f/13, 1/6 sec at ISO 64.
It took a while, but when the sun did finally make an appearance the light was a little too harsh and the cloud cover wasn’t as interesting as earlier. However, I'm still very pleased with the photograph I captured and more than that I thoroughly enjoyed my morning up on a snowy Dartmoor. The views were amazing and watching the clouds roll across the snowy landscape made all that effort worthwhile.
Bowerman's Nose - Dartmoor
Following my visit to Great Links Tor it continued to snow right into the following day. With so much snow about I was tempted to head out again. The weather forecast in the morning was for heavy snow and low cloud so I didn't feel this wouldn't be ideal conditions for photography. However, if I waited for it to clear up in the afternoon, I could look spectacular.
There are pros and cons to this strategy. The main advantage is that even if it had been snowing on the roads in the morning enough cars would have driven to roads to make them either clear or at least passable. The downside to leaving it until the afternoon is that lots of people will have visited Dartmoor leaving lots of footprints making it very difficult to get a clean composition. However, with so much snow about I believed it was worth the risk. Who knows when I would see snow again!
The best location I could think of was Bowerman's Nose. The roads around Haytor will have been well travelled by the afternoon, and though it's in a popular location I hoped that Bowerman's Nose would be just far enough out of the way that it would be free of footprints.
As I drove up to Haytor it was looking busy. Plenty of people out walking, sledging and even skiing! Normally I park close to Bowerman's Nose, but I thought I'd be pushing my luck by driving down the road in the snow, so I decided to park at the Houndtor Car Park instead.
It was a beautiful walk along to Bowerman's Nose and my optimism that I would have a footprint free scene grew as I appeared to be the first person walking this particular route. When I arrived at Bowerman's Nose, I was a little disappointed that my normal composition was a mess of foot prints but I decided to see this as an opportunity to find new compositions.
I soon discovered that snow was not only forcing me to find new compositions, but it was also presenting compositions that weren't possible without the snow. Looking about I soon found the snow fall had created a beautiful S bend that that I could position in the foreground of Bowerman's Nose. All I needed to do was to wait for the light to soften a little bit and I would have my classic photograph of Dartmoor in the snow!
Bowerman’s Nose, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 at 27mm, f/13, 1/25 sec at ISO 64.
Rippon Tor - Dartmoor
Having photographed both Great Links Tor and Bowerman's Nose in the snow I should have been content with what I had captured over those two days. But with so much snow still about, why not push for a third Dartmoor snowy shoot? So, I set the alarm for a dawn shoot on Rippon Tor.
Arriving while it was still dark, I could still see there was snow about, so I optimistically started my walk up the hill to Rippon Tor. Unlike the last two days where the weather had been relatively calm, this morning the wind was howling making it feel very, very cold!
The nice thing about the strong wind was that it was whipping up snow from the ground and blowing it along the landscape like a scene from the arctic. It looks especially dramatic as the sun started to rise.
As I found with Bowerman's Nose, a snow fall forces you to look for different compositions. Rocks that might normally look a bit boring are transformed into mini mountains of snow. Add a bit of warm light from the sun and they become majestic.
I found a composition that would take advantage of those elements but the main problem that morning, apart from my cold hands, was that there was hardly any cloud in the sky. But even if it wasn't going to be the perfect scene for photography, it was still a beautiful view and one I was happy to photograph.
Rippon Tor, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 at 17mm, f/13, 1/100 sec at ISO 1250.
Returning to the car I felt happy with my three snow filled days on Dartmoor and the three photographs I had captured. The only problem I now had was getting my car out of the ice rink cark park I had dumped my car in earlier in the morning!
Photographing and Printing Dartmoor with Fotospeed Gloss and Lustre 310 Papers
I love printing my photographs as much as I love capturing them! Join me in this video as I head out to Dartmoor to capture a new landscape photograph and then head home to print it on the new Fotospeed PF Gloss and Lustre 310 papers!
The Challenge of Photographing Great Links Tor on Dartmoor
Capturing photographs of one of Dartmoor’s greatest tors, Great Links Tor, is challenging. Depending on your route up it can take around 45 minutes of walking (all up hill). And then, because of its elevation, it is often in cloud. But when the conditions are right it can be a spectacular location to photograph such as the time I photographed it at sunset.
Inspired by my sunset picture I was determined to also photograph it at sunrise. This was going to be more difficult than I hoped it would be. The first four attempts where non-starters as the location was completely covered in cloud. On my 5th attempt I had the opposite problem, and it was clear blue skies. Not ideal, but I was determined to make the most of it!
While I was pleased enough with the photograph when the skies were clear, it wasn’t exactly what I wanted or visualised. But that’s the great thing about Dartmoor (or the worst thing), and that is the weather can change very quickly. And that’s exactly what it did do! And that change in conditions gave the perfect opportunity to capture an image that would make for a great photograph to use as the first print for two new papers I had just received from Fotospeed.
In the video below you can see my photography adventure from Great Links Tor on Dartmoor and see what the prints look on those two new Fotospeed papers.
Great Links Tor, Dartmoor - Landscape Photographs
Great Links Tor Sunrise #1, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 14-30mm at 14mm, f/11, 0.4 sec at ISO 64.
Great Links Tor Sunrise #2, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 14-30mm at 15mm, f/13, 1/10 sec at ISO 64.
Great Links Tor Sunrise #3, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 24-120mm at 89mm, f/8, 1/160 sec at ISO 64, 6:17 crop.
Links to Products and Other Videos
*** Remember to us the discount code Julian15 and get 15% off Fotospeed papers ***
🛒 Fotospeed PF Gloss 310 - https://fotospeed.com/fotospeed-pf-gloss-310.html
🛒 Fotospeed PF Lustre 310 - https://fotospeed.com/fotospeed-pf-lustre-310.html
🛒 Fotospeed Test Packs https://fotospeed.com/paper/test-packs.html?default_brand=Fotospeed
✔️ Download Fotospeed’s Art of Printing eBook - FREE - https://fotospeed.com/ebook/artofprinting
🎞️ My video review of the Canon imagePROGRAF Pro-300 - https://youtu.be/QF3_JXuu_Ag
🎞️ My editing video with Fotospeed - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rrLOnVHcCA
🎞️ My post-processing workflow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHg4agMU-GI&list=PLJU6FMi6Tvo97OcghsCsBlKGLXY2BcMdx
A GREAT Landscape Photograph Deserves a GREAT Print
I love printing my landscape photographs from Dartmoor almost as much as I love taking them! In this video, I capture images of the iconic Great Links Tor, and then I’ll make prints of them using my new Hahnemuehle fine art papers that I got from Fotospeed.
The Wind - Friend or Foe?
Windy. It’s a word that I am using a lot recently to describe the conditions I’ve been experiencing while out photographing Dartmoor. The wind can make landscape photography challenging with fear that your camera will get blown over or that you’ll end up taking blurry photographs. As for shooting video, leaving my camera on a tripod (even with spikes) on its own while I go off and talk somewhere always makes me nervous!
The wind can also be an asset. Strong winds often mean fast moving cloud, providing me with the hope that any gaps in the cloud, while short lived, will shortly be followed by another gap.
The Journey to Great Links Tor
Looking at the weather forecast before I set out for Great Links Tor, I was hoping that the strong winds that evening would be my friend. There was lots of low cloud forecast, but some gaps were also predicted. I was hoping the wind would make sure those gaps kept coming and provide me with a few breaks in the cloud.
As I started my ascent to Great Links Tor; things didn’t look brilliant. There was a lot of cloud, and it was very low down. So low down that Arms Tor (around 130 lower down) was barely visible. As I ascended further, the cloud level did appear to rise, and I could just about now see Great Links Tor.
Patience is the Key to Landscape Photography on Dartmoor
Arriving at Great Links Tor, the full brunt of the wind hit me! The wind was fierce, which made it cold, and as I now was above the base of the cloud layer, it was also eerily dark. So, I did what every landscape photographer should do and that’s wait. And wait some more. And get cold. T hen frustrated. Then I considered going home.
However, patience is key and in true Dartmoor fashion I could see breaks starting to appear in the cloud, and patches of light formed on the landscape. I filmed a few pieces to camera to pass the time and then it clouded over again. I waited some more and then…. well, you’ll just have to watch my video to find out what happened!
Landscape Photographs of Great Links Tor on Dartmoor
Here are the Dartmoor landscape photographs I captured in the video. Let me know which is your favourite.
Great Links Tor at Sunset #3, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z7, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 16mm, f/11, 1/5 sec at ISO 64.
Links and Other Videos
I mentioned a lot of videos, playlists, and products in the video, so I’ve decided to list them here as well:
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🛒 Get your Hahnemühle test pack here - https://fotospeed.com/papers/hahnemuhle.html?paper_test_pack=1
The paper I used to make the prints are
🛒Hahnemühle Fine Art Baryta 325 - https://fotospeed.com/papers/hahnemuhle/fine-art-baryta-325.html
🛒Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308 - https://fotospeed.com/papers/fine-art-paper/photo-rag-308.html
🔗 Check out Fotospeed's free ebook, Art of Printing, at https://fotospeed.com/ebook/artofprinting
🎞️ The printer I used in this video is the Canon imagePROGRAF Pro-300. 🎥 Watch my video review of this printer here - https://youtu.be/QF3_JXuu_Ag
🛒 Purchase the Pro-300 here - https://fotospeed.com/canon-pro-300.html
🛒 Finally, I purchased my matt board from Picture Frames Express - https://www.pictureframesexpress.co.uk/
🎞️ You can see how I use Picture Frames Express designer software here - https://youtu.be/FJYOckTLbyA?t=443 🎥
🎞️ See more of my printing videos in this handy playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJU6FMi6Tvo_kuUIioDAagRJ6zsvo1X3P
🎞️ See how I manage and process my photographs in Lightroom in this playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJU6FMi6Tvo97OcghsCsBlKGLXY2BcMdx