Penultimate weekend here in the west midlands on the border between Worcestershire and Gloucestershire.  Weather not great in this region for Saturday but after being couped up in an office all week decided to head to the Clent Hills in Worcestershire.

Walsgrove Hill

The Clent hills in Worcestershire is only a stones throw from the Connurbation of Birmingham.  The Clent hills is suppose to be very popular with city folk who want to get away and visitors to Worcestershire alike.   I was using the AA guide to the Clent Hills and this time managed to not get lost.

I arrived early around 8AM at the National Trust carpark of Nimmings wood parking all day was £3.  They close the carpark at 5pm but you can park for free along the road with limited spaces.  Ontop of Walgrove hill visibility was good but cloudy with the constant threat of rain.

On the descent down Walton hill towards the village of Clent I jumped over the barbed wire fence to take the above landscape photo.  Lucky I have got long legs.  I was using a graduated filter on the sky and think maybe it was too strong?   The foreground is well exposed but the background is not.  I think I am trying to expose to the right too much which is resulting in me skewing the contrast between the sky and the land.

When to use a Graduated Filter

You only need to consider using a graduated filter on the sky, if the difference between the brightest and darkest parts of the image are greater than 5 stops.  Or to push things a little maybe just a 1 stop filter.  As the ground was wet, it had rained heavy during the night I had a polariser permanently on to cut down on any reflections and increase color saturation.

With the overcast sky and the polariser my photos of bluebells are improving inside woodland.  Notice the shutter speed of 2 seconds due to the dark canopy of trees overhead cutting out a few stops of light.   Notice the motion blur of some of the ferns in the wind which I think creates a nice effect.  A tripod is absolutely essential for landscape photos of this length of time.

Ascending the Clent Hills around the other side and through country park it was more breathtaking views of the surrounding landscape.  By now more people were around also taking a hike in the hills and admiring the views.

Its suppose to be good up on the Clent hills for sunset photos with the lights of the Birmingham Connurbation coming on, probably better in winter though.

The AA walk around the Clent hills had this walk about 3.5 miles as a landscape photographer I think you do more probably around 5 miles and it takes more time.  The AA guide recommended 1.5 hours but took me 3.5 hours.  Some of the hills around Clent were quite steep to climb and my legs really felt it.  Beautiful views all around the Clent hills highly recommended.