Another wet weekend on the high weald around Kent and East Sussex. For this weekends autumn landscape photography walk over the High Weald in Kent I chose to start from the little village of Benendon.

Benendon High Weald Research

The area around Benendon looked interesting on the map.  Especially Beacon Hill and the windmill.  This would be my target and hopefully the main subject of any landscape photography over the high weald.

This would be a 15km circular walk over the high weald in Kent, starting and stopping in Benendon.  The weather was going to be overcast with a small chance of rain although the ground would be sodden.

Benendon Church Portrait

The walk from Benendon started at the impressive church of St Georges.  There is plenty of free parking along the side of the village green opposite the church.

One of the better compositions I got of the church was shooting portrait mode on my mobile phone.  Its a lot easier to shoot portrait with a mobile phone rather than your DLSR.  Even so,  compositions with a more vertical orientation should be shot in portrait wheres those with a more horizontal bias should be shot ‘landscape’.

High Weald Landscape Trail

I followed the footpaths onto the the High weald landscape trail and where there used to be a Roman road.  The Romans use to mine Iron ore on the high weald which continued to be a source of prosperity for the area for many centuries after, until coal replaced wood for smelting.

Even with OS maps it is still easy to stray off the footpaths along the High weald, but sometimes that exposes some viewpoints you would not otherwise see as in the one above, just beware of angry farmers with shotguns.

High Weald Oast Houses

I am really keen to get a landscape composition on the high weald that include some oast houses.  Oast houses are iconic on the high weald and the county of Kent.  A couple were captured above in the background of the image and are the main subject of the composition.  I like the grazing sheep creating a leading line onto the oast houses.  This required a faster shutter speed as dont want any motion blur with the sheep that are moving.  With the clouds and overcast day, this reduces shutter speed by a stop or two compared to a sunny day.

Being late autumn, you really want the low sun highlighting the golden brown colours of the leaves of the woodland.  On the approach to Beacon Hill back to Benendon there was a fast flowing stream and decided to get my tripod out and polariser.

Actually focus stacked this image in Photoshop as wanted sharp focus in the foreground mid-ground and background.  Polariser was used to remove any bright reflections on the waters surface.  A good time to photograph streams and rivers is after heavy rainfall and we have been having a lot of that during the autumn months so far.

Beacon Hill letdown

Beacon Hill and the windmill were a anti-climax, one of those subjects that looks good on a map but a let down when you arrive for the first time scouting the area.  I made it back to Benendon and enjoyed a pint in the local pub, the Bull, before driving back.

High Weald Oast Houses Opportunity

On the drive back towards Hastings I had to pull over and get the camera out to shoot some high weald landscape that included some oast houses on the hillside.  Also the sun was just peaking through the thick clouds bringing out the autumn colours of the high weald woodland.

Just handholding and focusing on the white tips of the oast houses and including the woodland into the composition.  To the left was the town of Hawkhurst in the distance from this vantage point along Conghurst lane.

These opportunist shots while driving home were the best of the day.  It was the only time that the sun made an appearance well into mid to late afternoon.  Should have used a polariser to bring out the saturation of the autumn colours in the trees with the sunlight at a 45% angle.

Eyes Peeled

Pays to keep your eyes peeled, and ready to pull over if a composition presents itself, while still paying attention to the road.   Studying the maps around this area has also produced a new walk for next week over the high weald.   If we are lucky then there is still a week left in late November to still catch more of those autumn woodland colours.

But for sure the high weald landscape is beginning to look more winter than autumn.  Winter is coming….