The shift in my photography
2020 changed many things in everyone’s life, some good and some bad, but it had a positive shift in my photography. All of a sudden we were limited to how far away from our homes we could travel, and we were no longer meant to come into contact with others.
Edburton Hill - patches of light breaking through the clouds
Balmer Farm with Ashcombe Windmill in the background
My usual subjects
Up until this point I was always heading to the touristy hot spots and photographing honeypot locations. But these places were further than I was allowed to travel, and there was a greater chance of meeting others.
Rolling hills at Falmer
It was there all along
I live in Shoreham By Sea, which is literally 5 minutes walk across a bridge to get to the South Downs national park. But I had never seen the land as a photographic subject. We were being encouraged to get out and exercise, and reconnect with nature, due to everyone starting to go a bit mad, being locked in their homes. The phrase ‘mental health’ has since become a buzz word, and it made us realise how much we ned to be outside. This is when I opened my eyes and started to discover the photographic potential of the South Downs.
I don’t think that I am the only local photographer following this path either, I have been bumping into many other landscape photographers at 5am in the morning, standing in a field with our fingers cross hoping for mist to roll in across a farmers field.
A new category on my website
I realised that I had so many photos of the South Downs that it was clogging up my ‘traditional landscapes’ section of my website and it deserved a page to itself. These images can be found here.
The South Downs is massive!
The SDNP spans all the way from Winchester (north of the Isle of Wight) to Eastbourne. In the last 4 years I have familiarised myself with the right hand side of the South Downs, broadly speaking from Cissbury Ring all the way to Seven Sisters Cliffs in Seaford/Eastbourne.
It is fair to say that I am only just getting started on understanding the many miles of beautiful views to be discovered across the south of England.
Misty sunrise at Balmer Farm
Seasonal crops
Subjects like poppies and sunflowers are never in the same place each year. The farmers rotate their crops and this in turn leads to discovering new places every year, attempting to track them down. This year for example, poppies have been particularly illusive, and I had to make my way to Bedham to find an established poppy field. A place that I had never been to until this year.
Poppies at the Amex Stadium, Falmer
Sunflowers at East Chiltington
Blue sky days
The reason that I like having a list of potential locations on the downs to shoot is that the scenes work in different weather conditions to other landscape locations. In the middle of summer, when you have those beautiful clear blue sky days, these are the most boring conditions for landscape photography; as there is no interest in the sky and the light becomes harsh, very quickly.
Photographing The South Downs is about the interaction between the light and the land. The sky plays a secondary role, if included at all. There are times when I cut out the sky completely, to avoid the challenge of contrast and distracting the viewers attention from what I actually want them to look at.
When I check my weather app and it say 0% low, medium and high cloud, I am heading to the downs for a sunrise/sunset shoot!
Balmer Farm - sunrise
Balmer Farm
Balmer Farm
Shooting with a long lens
As per my video ‘blue sky days' having a long lens for this type of photography is a must. The reason for this is that you have to stick to the public footpaths and that limits your ability to ‘zoom with your feet’ like you can with other locations. You may be standing in front of a beautiful vista and ‘the composition’ is a small area in the distance. You have no choice but to zoom in using a longer lens. Having something like a 100-400mm lens allows you to cut out the sky, as well as find unique compositions.
Misty morning at Falmer
Between the storms at Ditching Beacon
It looks like Tuscany!
I haven’t been to Tuscany, for now this is the closest I am going to get. I have shared multiple images of the South Downs and on many occasions the comments have been along the lines of how much the images look like Tuscany. Balmer Farm in particular, link to a complete video here, has an unbelievable meeting of multiple hills with a windmill perched on the top of the scene. There are quite a few instances of compositions like this scattered around the South Downs, you just have to seek them out.
Wild Garlic woodland
View towards Truly Hill from Devil’s Dyke
Not a happy accident
You can’t just turn up at these locations and expect the conditions to be incredible. I use an app called Sunseeker, but there are others that perform the same task, and it lets you see the sun path throughout the seasons. Most of the locations in my South Downs portfolio require a summer sunrise for the best results, which means a very early start and lots of trial and error. 2020 was the year of exploring the South Downs for future visits, and I am still benefitting from all of that earlier research that I did.
Lancing College from Steep Down
Lone tree at Stanmer Down
The Grain Store, Lewes - tucked amongst the South Downs
Stump Bottom - Kingston
OS Maps and further research
This year I have purchased the OS maps app, so that I can attached my phone to bike holder and explore more of the South Downs than ever before. Not to mention overcoming the fear of getting lost! The South Downs has the South Downs Way which connects up most of the locations in my portfolio. You have to do your research to see with paths are accessible, how steep they are and which pubs are along the way!
I am just getting started
As I said, I have only started to scratch the surface of the places to visit on the South Downs. I look forward to sharing more and more with you as I capture them.
Thanks for reading.
