From a hotel on the outskirts of Shrewsbury moved to a shepherds hut down in the south of the Shropshire Hills. That first evening visited nearby Clun and the ruins of Clun Castle.
Scouting Long Mynd and The Stiperstones
After checking out of my hotel in Shrewsbury I scouted out more potential locations for landscape photography on the Shropshire Hills. These locations included The Long Mynd and the viewpoint at Pole Bank and then the Stiperstones.
The better option for a landscape composition was at Burway hill viewpoint above the Devils Mouth looking back over Church Stretton and the iconic hills of Caer Caradoc and The Lawley. The plan was now to return to Burway Hill one evening for golden hour and sunset.
The Long Mynd and the Stiperstones looked good for walking and may be good for a sunset. The landscape there reminded me a lot of the hills in Herefordshire like Hergest Ridge.
The northern end of the Shropshire hills has the more dramatic landscapes and more iconic walks and hills. The better options for accommodation or camping would be at Church Stretton, this would put you in the heart of the best area to explore and photograph.
Avoiding dirt roads with Google Maps
Google maps took me through dirt tracks basically all the way to the farm where I was staying in the south Shropshire Hills. A tip for avoiding google maps routing you through single track and dirt roads is to route from and to the nearest town village or settlement. Then it tends to use major A and minor B roads.
Clun Castle Ruins
So that first evening in my shepherds hut on a farm in the south Shropshire Hills and I was miles away from anywhere. I needed supplies, the nearest village with a shop was a place called Clun. On the way to Clun noticed the ruins of a castle on the outskirts.
After a pub meal and got some shopping, did a little scout of Clun castle grounds. Not much to photograph close up. Took a walk along the Shropshire Way but this not really open up any good compositions.
On the drive in to Clun I had noticed a small layby near a field gate and in my mind I knew from there would be much better compositions using the 70-200mm lens. So thats what I did took a small drive back to the layby.
I was handholding only so bumped up the ISO to 400 to get a faster shutter speed. An aperture of F/8 and image stabilisation on. The sky was featureless but a deep blue as the sun set at 90 degrees to the castle ruin highlighting the stonework with a golden hue.
I just kept shooting at different focal lengths catching the best of golden hour as the sun set on the ruins of Clun castle. Originally it was built by the Normans to defend against Welsh invaders. Such a fantastic photogenic relic from the past, perched up on the spur of a small steep hill. Not using a polariser, but should have maybe to more saturate the colours, problem then would have been losing 2 stops of light.
Not plan to shoot Clun castle during golden hour and sunset as not even know it was there until saw it with my own two eyes. Glad I had my camera gear in the back of the car.