The Best Day for Landscape Photography on Dartmoor?
With a late sunrise, an early sunset, and a sun that stays low in the sky, the winter solstice is one of the best days for landscape photography on Dartmoor. However, as I find out, trying to do too much on the shortest day can lead to problems.
A Dartmoor Photography Adventure on the Winter Solstice
I learnt a few years ago that on or around the winter solstice is one of the best times to photograph Dartmoor. Sunrise isn’t too early, sunset isn’t too late, and the sun remains relatively low along the horizon during the day. This means that for the roughly 8 hours of daylight that you get, it is possible to shoot all day and still have a relatively short day out.
Another advantage of such a short day is that it is possible to reach some of Dartmoor’s more remote locations for sunrise and not have to set an alarm for 3am! This winter solstice I decided to take advantage of this by walking to Wild Tor for sunrise. It takes me an hour to drive to the car park, and then it’s another 1hr 15 min walk to Wild Tor. I was certainly glad that sunrise wasn’t until 08:10.
My plan was to photograph Wild Tor for sunrise, then walk back to the car and take in some other locations, hopefully benefiting from sun remaining low on the horizon. Then after my mornings work, I would get a late breakfast or lunch, and find somewhere else to photograph sunset.
A great plan for sure. However, I decided to try and squeeze in something else between my morning locations and afternoon locations. This led to a few problems. You can find out what and watch me capture the photographs you see below in this video.
I hope you enjoyed the video. Despite the challenges I had with finishing the video on location, there were still many more positives than negatives to take away from my day out with the camera.
Links Mentioned in the Video
Here are some of the links I mentioned in the video.
💳 Fotospeed Platinum Gloss Art Fibre 300 - https://fotospeed.com/platinum-gloss-art-fibre-300.html
💳 Fotospeed Platinum Etching 285 - https://fotospeed.com/platinum-etching-285.html
💳 Print mounts from https://pictureframesexpress.co.uk
💳 Ikea Mosslanda Picture Ledge - https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/mosslanda-picture-ledge-white-40291766/
🎥 My video on the Canon imagePROGRAF Pro-300 - https://youtu.be/QF3_JXuu_Ag
🎥 All my videos on printing - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJU6FMi6Tvo_kuUIioDAagRJ6zsvo1X3P
Landscape Photographs from Dartmoor
Wild Tor
Wild Tor #1, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z7, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 18mm, f/13, 0.4 sec at ISO 64.
Wild Tor #2, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z7, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 14mm, f/11, 1/5 sec at ISO 64.
Wild Tor #3, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z7, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 19mm, f/13, 1/6 sec at ISO 64.
Wild Tor #1, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z7, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 20mm, f/13, 1/6 sec at ISO 64.
Oke Tor
Oke Tor, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z7, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 16mm, f/13, 1/30 sec at ISO 64.
Yes Tor
Yes Tor #1, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z7, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 21mm, f/11, 1/3 sec at ISO 64.
Yes Tor #2, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z7, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 14mm, f/13, 1/3 sec at ISO 64.
Winter Solstice Adventure
In the blog this week I share with you the highs and lows of landscape photography as I head out on winter solstice to capture some images.
The Longest Shortest Day
Back in June of 2017, I headed out with the camera to create some landscape images on the summer solstice. You can see the images I created that day along with the video I made by clicking here.
I really enjoyed that day so I knew that when winter solstice came along in December I was going to spend the day out with the camera. Being the shortest day of the year it shouldn't have been nearly as tiring as the summer solstice.
Unfortunately when winter solstice did come around the weather was grey and overcast. I had checked the weather forecast the night before and had planned my locations to suit the weather. I'm all for "embracing the grey", but a full day might well be a challenge too far even for me!
As with summer solstice, I spent the day capturing images and filming my experiences. It was definitely a tough day. Maybe I was tired, maybe I was feeling challenged, but one thing is for sure, it sure did feel like a long day. However, saying all that I did have some great experiences, and if you watch all the video you'll see something special happen right at the end.
Enjoy!
A Winter Solstice Gallery
As always I do hope you enjoyed watching my adventures. I tried to make the most of the weather conditions and the images I took that day both reflect my varying moods and the conditions I had to work with.
You'll have seen these images in the video, but here they are again in case you want a closer look.
Nikon D850, Nikkor 16-35 mm f/4 VR at 19 mm, 180 seconds at ISO 64, f/11, Lee Filters circular polariser and Big Stopper.
Nikon D850, Nikkor 16-35 mm f/4 VR at 19 mm, 180 seconds at ISO 64, f/11, Lee Filters circular polariser, ND grad and Big Stopper.
Nikon D850, Nikkor 16-35 mm f/4 VR at 18 mm, 180 seconds at ISO 64, f/13, Lee Filters circular polariser, ND grad and Big Stopper.
Nikon D850, Nikkor 16-35 mm f/4 VR at 18 mm, 8 seconds at ISO 64, f/13, Lee Filters circular polariser, ND grad and Little Stopper.
Nikon D850, Nikkor 16-35 mm f/4 VR at 17 mm, 4.8 seconds at ISO 64, f/13, Lee Filters circular polariser, ND grad and Little Stopper.
Well, I do hope you enjoyed those images and my winter solstice video. Did you head out for winter solstice? Have you had days where landscape photography has been both a joy and a drag? Let me know in the comments below.