I had great plans for sunrise on Sunday morning, just like a large percentage of landscape photographers. With sunrise being at 5:10 am I knew that getting up at just before 3am would be really tough; especially as I find it really difficult to go to bed early.
I have silent alarms on my fitbit to try to minimise the chance of me waking up my partner. I remember waking up briefly to a couple of them, but with 5 alarms I must have slept through some, finally waking up at a much later 8 o’clock or so…
I was determined to head to Dartmoor anyway despite the golden hours having been and gone. The cloud and showers that had been forecast meant that I could hope for some sort of drama if I was lucky, especially when combined with the erratic Dartmoor weather. With all this in mind I decided to head to Foggintor Quarry. The disused quarry has become a bit of a nemesis for me and while I have some good photos from there I just haven’t got one that I am really happy with.
I spent some time taking photos on my way to the main quarry and got a few photos of the farm that sits all alone in the rolling moorland hills. I took them from the large platforms of rocks that are an unmistakable mark on the landscape from its previous industrial existence. I eventually made it into the quarry to find that there were loads of people enjoying it along with their picnics. It is great to see plenty of people enjoying the moor but it meant I couldn’t take the main photo that I had envisaged for the day.
Making my way back through the ruins I spotted the potential for this photo. I took some standard compositions but I felt the scene really needed to be panoramic to convey the scale. I really like the photo but on hindsight, I wish I had taken it from just a little bit higher to make the tors in the distance much more obvious. From here you can see Kings Tor, Staple Tor, Roos Tor and Mis Tor. The view is stunning.
My elusive great photo from the quarry still eludes me, but I got a few photos that made the trip worthwhile.
