May 2016 and I decided after nearly 18 months to leave my job and enjoy  some free time, maybe do a bit of travel.  In the meantime I was free everyday to travel somewhere in the south east of the UK and enjoy a walk and practice some landscape photography.

Improving Landscape Photography

No more weekends indoors bored, it was great to get out in the sun and air and do a 5 mile walk.  Improve my health and landscape photography at the same time, kill two or three birds with one stone.

Technically as a landscape photographer I was improving.  Basic settings were tripod, F/11, ISO 100, Polariser. At the time this workshop book Landscape Photography Workshop took me to the next level. Composition still had room for  improvement.  Always room for improvement.

Parnham

It was a beautiful day the first day of May and I decided to visit the small Sussex village of Parnham at the foot of the South Downs. Out of Parnham it was a steep climb up the escarpment of the South Downs with beautiful views over Sussex below and the Parnham Stately home, which has Oak trees over 500 years old.

I took so many lovely landscape photos that day in May in and around Parnham. It was difficult to showcase just one. Also when this happens you will spend hours post processing your photos in Lightroom once returned from your walk.  The deciduous trees were blooming and the bluebells lay like a carpet on woodland ground.

Shipley

A pleasant walk around the West Sussex countryside near Shipley.  A bright harsh sunny day makes hard work for landscape photography and capturing a memorable image.  What did make for a good subject is the graveyard at the churchyard in Shipley.

What stands out for me on the otherwise morbid church graveyard photograph is that no doubt just after death this person was someone important and loved to warrant the expense of such a lavish gravestone.  But now they are dead and forgotten, no descendants today visit the gravestone. It reminds me life is so brief and very few of us will ever be remembered outside of living memory.  Graveyards are full of indispensable people.

Pevensey

The furthest I had pushed so far into East Sussex was a visit to the Pevensey.  It was a cold and overcast day mid May when I visited Pevensey so options were limited.

It was Pevensey where the Normans actually landed in 1066 and a fort still remains here which was originally Roman.  After visiting the castle it was a nice walk along the marshlands of Pevensey Levels and along Pevensey Haven where I managed a keeper of two swans together.  The thing here with the dull day was finding a composition that cut out the sky. I was lucky to not have motion blur on the swans at a shutter speed of 1/10 sec.

Outwood, Surrey

Most of my walks were based on the AA’s 50 walks in Sussex & the South Downs, by now I was beginning to run out of new places to visit.  I lived in a part of West Sussex that was close to the Surrey border, so I invested in the AA’s guide to Surrey too.  My first jaunt into Surrey was Outwood, not too far from where I lived at the time.

The above corn field is the best I could manage my long walk that day around Outwood Surrey.  Its an example of using a Hard graduated neutral density filter that is too strong 3 stops rather than 2 stops, the ground is too bright relative to the sky, but has an artistic flair to it.  What puts Outwood on the map is its windmill and I failed to photograph this.  A landscape photograph of a given location should include its iconic identifying unique features.

Horsted Keynes

Horsted Keynes was the first place I actually visited using the AA’s walking guide to Sussex back in March after my visit to Burling Gap. I left late afternoon as wanted to catch a sunset but realised I had timed it wrong and would probably end up lost in the dark.  So I abandoned mission and  had a pint in the pub in the village of Horsted Keynes.   I returned in May one bright sunny weekend morning.

What Horsted Keynes is famous for is the Bluebell railway, like stepping into a time machine of pre WWII but at the time I failed to capture it.  Still its a lovely walk around the West Sussex countryside.  And in May you get too see all the wild flowers in bloom.

Highdown Hill

Near Worthing in West Sussex Highdown hill is a popular recreational area so I arrived early one windy morning in late May.   Highdown hill has alot of ancient settlements, burial grounds and some good downland and coastal views.

Too windy on top of Highdown hill for landscape photography.  I was attempting to use the poppies above as contrast against the once windmill in the background.  There is nothing going on in the sky and probably would have looked better with a faster shutter, F/8 focused on the poppies and ISO 200 to avoid motion blur.

So that was my Landscape photography for May 2016 the best being taken at the beginning of the month at Parnham in Sussex.