Back to the realm of the faeries
Last weekend myself and Dave decided to venture back onto Dartmoor and pay another visit to one of my favourite woodlands. The weather reports such as they are were predicting fog and mist up to about 12pm followed by heavy rain. We met up at the ungodly hour of 5am on the Sunday and piled all our gear into Daves car (I do volunteer to drive but its always refused in a polite way!) and headed off. On the way down we had a bit of a catch up as this was the first time me and my photo buddy had been out on a proper meet up since the summer. Both of us were quietly hopeful we would get the conditions promised but British weather has a habit of letting us down so the hope was tinged with an element of anxcioussness! We drove most of the way through heavy rain and no sign of any mist or fog and when we finally arrived at the wood there wasnt much sign of the wispy stuff there either! Oh oh. Well, a good walk up the hill and hope things developed. If not it would be back down to the river and get some images from there. Luckily once I had huffed and puffed my way halfway up we finally found the elusive fog and things started to look up despite my urgent need for an oxygen pump! There was clag hanging around in the usual spot on the hill and it was a good place to get a couple of banker shots. I decided to use my Viltrox wide angle lens to capture the wide spread of this oak below.
After about fifteen minutes messing about in this section my lungs had recovered enough to attempt the rest of the climb to the top of this woodland. In the past I have nearly made it but been distracted by far too many great compositions to quite get there. This time I kept my head down and pushed to the top first with the idea to work my way slowly back down.
We were here exactly a year ago and had some of the best conditions I have ever seen in my years as a woodland photographer. This time the fog was not as thick and the woods themselves didnt seem quite as far on into autumn as they were last year, so it made for a very different feel to the images I was capturing. Below is an example of the same scene taken one year apart
Anaconda 2 2024
Anaconda 2023
Okay there are different edits to these two images but the previous year it felt much darker and colder than this year. Once I reched the summit I realised the fog was gone so I hung about for thirty minutes or so just soaking up the sounds and the feels of the woods around me. It never ceases to amaze me how much of a boost I get to my mental health when I am in places such as these. That sense of being in touch with nature, feeling it all around you is like dipping your toes into a really hot bath. I have had a pretty tough couple of months with my mental health through the summer and a session in the woods was sorely needed to restore some sanity.
Anyway enough on that. I did some filming with my nifty new drone, the DJI Neo whilst up top and here is one of the clips below. I have gone through more drones than the Ukrainian army in the last few years but I really do like this little wizard. its so easy to fly, is small enough to capture great little shots like these and best of all doesnt trigger my anxiety when flying it!
On the way back down I tried to find some new scenes to photograph. Often, when you revisit woodlands you find yourself going straight back to the same old scenes. Thats okay but with such a huge amnount of trees around you its a great challenge to head into the thick stuff in search of new compositions. However I still couldnt resist recapturing some old friends.
This little oak should by right be dead but one little branch is all it needs to cling to life.
Eventually we made our way back down and unusually it was Dave waiting for me at the car rather than the other way round. A quick discussion led to us heading to a local farm that serves one of the best breakfasts I have ever had and after working up quite the appetite I wolfed down the “Shire” version which came out on a platter! The look of incredulity on Daves face was quite amusing.
After this we headed over to another little woodland that we have often driven past but rarely seen any fog in it but today our luck continued and it was thick with it. Parking up I ambled off into the easy to reach section, unwilling to do anything too strenuous at this point as I was carrying some extra weight! Sadly the fog didnt last long but it drifted in and out for about 45 minutes allowing us to get a few compositions.
Once we realised the fog waszn’t coming back it was time to head home. And just as we got back to the car the heavens opened and it threw it down with rain. Perfect timing!
Thats it for this week, I hope you enjoyed the read.
Toodles!