The forecast was a cloudy Saturday morning but needed to get out for a good walk and not too far away.  My initial plan was a walk from Wilmington over Crane Down and then onto Friston forest.

Wilmington to Crane Down

I followed the footpaths from Wilmington pass Folkington towards Crane down hoping to get a good shot of Wilmington and Folkington south downs hills from ground level.  From the A27 there was a good view but on the footpaths I was too close to get the full frame.

Still there were good landscape photos to shoot if you looked around, including the peak of Bo Peep.   Although the forecast was cloudy the sun was still making an appearance casting some interesting shadows.

High Dynamic Range

At the bottom of Crane Down, contrast was high between the ground and the sky.  Using the histogram within live view the dynamic range was too high for the camera.

I liked the composition in front of me with the flowers in the foreground,  so chose to shoot it bracketed by two stops without using any filters.  Posting processing in Lightroom using HDR and the image has come out well.

Been a long time since I last used HDR.  I find on a cloudy day when the sun has put its hat on, this is when contrast is highest.  The sky is like white and the ground dark.  When the sun is shining the sky is usually blue and the ground lit up by the sun producing a more even range of contrast.

Spot Lighting

When the sun does break through the clouds you can often get spotlights highlighting the ground below as in the landscape photo below of Folkington Hill.

Access over Folkington Hill

Iv always wanted to walk over Folkington Hill but assumed it was one area of the south downs without any access.  Looking at OS Maps online there is no apparent footpaths.

The footpaths go around Folkington Hill but not over it although there is a black line between two tumuli that leads to a trig point, but assumed this was some kind of border?

Anyway after my exploration of crane down, I got back on the Wealdway with the intention of heading to Friston Forest and maybe get some wide angle shots from the ground of the white horse at High and Over.   I took a little detour along a side footpath just to check if there were any good landscape views  at the foot of Folkington Hill.

Great Views

It was then I noticed a new gate with access had been erected leading right over Folkington hill back to Wilmington.

I took that footpath right over Folkington Hill and what great views there are over the east Sussex coast between the south downs and  Hastings and the high weald in the distance.

Folkington Hill would be a great spot to return for  the golden hour,  moon rise or a sunrise especially now as the days were getting shorter.  Watch this space.