We walked in to the south east moors from Reddacleave Kiln area and headed north to go around the back of the Avon dam reservoir.  It was cold but sunny and the moors had that wintry feel which I love.  everything seems somewhat muted and we didn’t see another person all the time we were out.

We headed up the Western Wella brook towards Huntingdon Warren.  This smallholding provided food for the local tin mine and the warrens would have provided a good supply of meat in the form of rabbits.  The enclosed ground seen above is the main part of the farm – the remains of the buildings are just out of sight to the right of the tree.  Some remain of the workings can be seen down the valley with the tip of the reservoir in the distance on the right.

We headed up to the top of the hill behind Huntingdon Warren to the wonderfully named “Heap of sinners” which is a fairly large cairn and decided to stop for an early lunch break.  The above image was our view.  It captures the winter bleakness of the moors quite well for me.  As I am enjoying a little more image manipulation these days I’ve taken quite a bit of the colour out of this really only leaving reduced levels of blue and orange/yellow.  To me that has enhanced that wintry feel a little.

Getting to our feet after eating it must have been just about midday…  This was the view in the direction we were heading.  A brief conversation suggested a change of plan was wise but by the time we had put on a layer or two more the rain was with us, it became very cold and we got quite wet in the following half hour.

Hitting the main track running down the ridge in the direction of the car we looked back.  Rainbows are seen quite frequently however this one was nicely placed on the top of Pupers and all too often the weather is not the best for using the camera.  The weather bot north and west of us suggested that heading on back to the car would be wise.

A few minutes later there was a full rainbow the right hand end of which can be seen here.  Despite the wide angled nature of my lens I couldn’t get the whole rainbow in sadly.  This was the last shot of the day as the next batch of weather hit us immediately after this.  We agreed that the hail that came then was a little painful when it hit!  Overall a good winter walk however also a reminder that even the nice looking days can change quite quickly on Dartmoor.

The image above – taken on Paignton beach – is one of my recent favourites.  When I took it I was aware of how the colour of the kite in the distance stood out and it was an obvious candidate for desaturation.  I realised that leaving some of the colour other than just the red of the kite enhanced the mistiness of the images too.

The fact that the tide was very low (although not quite a maximum spring tide) made for quite large expanses of beach which were useful to me from a photographic perspective.  The one above of Goodrington  combining crespuscular rays from the sun with great reflections of the clouds and shy in the sand is one of the better images I’ve taken in this part of the Bay.

It wasn’t only me who was making good use of the sands.  Running across both Paignton and Preston beaches a guy was kitesurfing on the sand.  The wind was fairly strong and he was getting some good runs.  His largely red kite could been seen easily and he stood out whether looking into the sun or away.

Out at sea a number of people were making the most of the wind and the waves.  The wind was slightly easterly which is the only direction which brings waves into the Bay.  Not enough surf for surfing itself but it appeared good for both kitesurfers and windsurfers and quite a few were out.

Finally heading back to the car and walking the rather wet sands the light, reflections and colours were exceptional.  This burst of sunlight over the promontory between Paignton and Preston beaches seemed to catch the feeling quite well.

A final look back got what was for me another good shot that caught something of the day well.  Far fewer people around now and the tide was turning however that just enhanced the feeling of space on the beach in the late afternoon winter light.  I’ve enjoyed making the most of the coast at very low tides in the past and blogged that a time or two before but that has been largely looking at what can be found in rockpools and the like.  This sense of exploration of the space created made for another dimension for me and a pleasant walk.

I actually started a blog on this subject two years ago but it has remained a “draft” all that time.  Over that period I have learnt quite a bit and still have a lot more to learn.  These images do not relate to a specific walk but have all been taken over the past couple of months, the weather for the last week or so has mostly just been grey!  Most of the images have been seen on the Westcountry Wanderings page on facebook too as I do sometimes put recent images on there before they make it into a full blog.  Not particularly a fan of facebook but I do appreciate the feedback I get there.

For quite some time I couldn’t “see” black and white images in my scenes.  I realise that I could set the camera to black and white however one thing I have learnt is that it is better to process the images to grayscale after they are taken not at the time.  This actually allows far greater flexibility in processing and I will manipulate grayscale images more than colour ones which I prefer to be as true as possible.  Given we do not “see” in black and white” creating more or less contrast is not about reproducing a scene but more about a feel for the look of an image

The idea of “colour popping” has always appealed in a sense however it is something that can be overdone and so I rarely look for it in my images.  However the one above which was almost monochromatic on a grey day seemed worth trying it on.

Quite a few of my images have tended to be somewhat monochromatic anyway with my love of shooting into the light and I am starting to see that some of my better colour images will also work in grayscale.  In fact the above image is quite “wrong” in colour and does work better in monochrome.

I have always been a fan of Ansell Adam‘s work.  His monochrome landscapes are extremely evocative to me.  They manage to capture the scale and grandeur of some scenes in a way which almost seems harder to achieve in colour.  I have a long way to go yet but I like the sense of space here.

The drama of light and cloud which I love can also look good in grayscale.  The mistiness on the coast – something I like in colour – also works in grayscale as seen above.  The idea of the vessel being in a spotlight has more drama in monochrome than in colour actually.

This one quite surprised me.  The colours in the clouds at sunset were lovely and I got a quick shot or two in.  I suddenly wondered what it might look like in grayscale and was pleasantly surprised by the results.  The colour version can been seen on facebook too in this album.  This will not be the last monochrome post I think even if it has taken me two years to get it done.  I’ll close with very best wishes to all readers for 2012 – hopefully it will bring some good photographic opportunities too.

Out for a walk a couple of weeks back now we decided to wander up the Redlake tramway on southern Dartmoor.  This was originally used by a small railway line which served the china clay works at Redlake however work stopped there in 1933 and there has been no rails there in my lifetime.  It is actually not the best walking surface however it is usually less wet than the surrounding moorland.

The “watery” sunlight in the top image shows that we got some sun however it was weak and the weather was more than variable.  The two images above were both taken just after we set off from the car near Ivybridge.  The left hand image shows that weak winter sun on the South Hams while the right hand image, which looks a little left of the left hand one, shows the interface between the good weather and the rain more.

Walking up the tramway we left it to head a little right handed at the base of Three Barrows (so named as it has three barrows at the summit).  It is one of the highest points of the moor in that area so gives – on a clear day – great views over the surrounding area.  The above image is taken part way up to the top and looking back south the way we had come.  The tramway can be seen lower down the hill heading off to the left.

Taken from the top of Three Barrows this looks roughly west over the valley of the river Erme.  The low winter light creates good contrast in the shadows here.  The small broken up granite in the foreground is known as “clitter” and is a regular facet of Dartmoor tors formed be erosion.

Dropping off Three Barrows north towards the tramway as the moorland was both rough and very wet around here, we reached the old china clay works at Leftlake which is roughly halfway to Redlake.  The remains are quite significant here and the pool seen above is where the granite was washed out to get the china clay.  An old bridge allows the tramway to cross the water course that flows out from the pool to the river Erme.  I have seen otters here but there was no signs of wildlife today.

We walked further north but at one point the actual tramway turned into something of a river which does happen in wet conditions so we decided to turn west and head down to the valley of the river Erme.  The image above epitomises this part of the moors in winter for me.  The ground is very rough with large tussocks of the straw coloured grass and rare patches of green.  As can be seen it is fairly featureless other then the obvious valley of the river and I guess it is not a very hospitable place for a fair weather walker.  However both my companion and I have been roaming the moors for many years enjoying both better and worse conditions than this and we agreed more than once on this walk that we preferred winter conditions frequently even if it can be very wet.  This was almost the last real sun we saw!

It did start raining from time to time after this and the camera was in and out of its case quite a bit.  In the winter the days are quite short so we started heading south down the valley of the Erme intending to strike up left lower down and get back to the tramway around Leftlake again.  The above image capture the valley of the lower part of the Erme on Dartmoor quite well and the clouds in the distance that looked like rain were just that.

We got back on the tramway as planned and headed south on it for a while forking left near Hangershell Rock to go down the spine of the ridge.  Stopping for a drink in relatively benign condition at Butterdon, one of the high points on the way back, we sat enjoying the views.  There was sunlight on the sea (the English Channel) with lines of cloud and rain moving from west to east across the South Hams.  I could have filled this blog with the image I took from there – the light, colour and drama of the weather was something very special and we probably stayed longer then we intended.  It certainly was a very good winter walk.

A “footnote”

When my friend spotted this I said that this image would make a good footnote and we both laughed – maybe others will enjoy the humour too.  This single boot was some 3 miles up the the tramway and there was no sign of anything else left abandoned nearby.  We saw no one with a missing boot and still had both of ours when we got back – there is a back story to this .

Looking back quite a few posts recently have related to the coast so I thought it was time to return to the moors.  These are from a walk a week or so back.  While we have walked the moors at night for many years we are less keen these days and so we try and get out in the daytime when we can.  It rained hard the day before and we set off knowing it was likely to be very wet under foot and we were proved correct!  Much of the time the tracks were more like streams.

We walked from Nun’s Cross area south along the track to Eylesbarrow and then headed east over the Plym and then towards Erme Pits which is a very old tin mine working near the centre of the southern moor.  The mine workings there are both extensive and in places quite deep.  What was achieved by men working solely with their hands and basic tools in a very remote part of Dartmoor never ceases to amaze me.

From here we walked along one of the old workings towards Ducks Pool stream and stopped to look back down the valley of the Erme.  This part of Dartmoor sees very few people particularly in the winter and it always feels fairly remote here which is something I love about the area.  Equally, in winter, the low and often “watery” light, adds to the beauty of the moors for me.

Heading north through a peat cut – any ancient trans moor track through (very) bad ground brought us out at Fox Tor and it seemed a good time to stop for a late lunch.  The view across the centre of the moors looking northwards from there was great.

We were not the only ones at Fox Tor!  It was quite a windy day with the temperature down towards zero with the wind chill and even the sheep were staying in the lee of Fox Tor (which is really quite a small tor).

Dropping down from the tor brought us into Fox Tor mire which is quite well known for being the setting for the Hound of the Baskerville’s story by Conan Doyle (as Grimpen Mire).  The area has a lot of historical interest.  Tin mining was prevalent in the area and there are a number of ancient (& more modern) crosses.  While the area is a peat bog it is quite possible to walk across it in reasonable conditions if you know the area well (& I would stress that – one of those “do not try this for yourself” ones).  The image above is of Childe’s Tomb – the legend is an interesting one and the Wikipedia article is quite good in this case (rather less interesting on Fox Tor though).

Heading west again now along the edge of the peat bog, we started the walk back to the car.  The relatively short walk was actually over some of the worst ground conditions we had encountered all day despite being on a “path” for most of the time.  We seemed to be wading as much as we were walking.  The conditions are not unique to the winter either – I have crossed the bog in winter when it has been dry and failed to do so in a wet summer.  The above shot looks back towards Fox Tor and again catches a feel of the remoteness.  Hopefully there will be a few more winter walks over the next few weeks.