June is a popular month for photography Poppies. It can be pretty random from year to year where the poppies will grow. Being a member of many social media groups dedicated to landscape photography and the countryside, postings into these groups will soon notify you where the poppies are growing.

Where are the Poppies?

Various Facebook groups were indicating two locations on the South Downs where the poppies were growing June 2022. The first was along Ditchling road near Brighton, opposite Stanmer Park. The other was Titch Hill near Lancing in West Sussex. Had scouted out the Stanmer park location June 2021 but no poppies then. There had been late poppies August 2021 on the south downs near Lancing that I did visit.

Poppy Visualisation

Decided to visit the Ditchling road Poppy location near Brighton mid week and late afternoon early June. The weather forecast was a mixed bag with some pretty strong winds. Strong winds are usually a lot stronger on top of the south downs. Strong winds are not ideal for photographing poppies or any flowers. But the mixed weather should give good lighting conditions. Was visualising dark moody skies and backlit poppies with the sunlight breaking through the clouds. Intention was to hang around on Ditchling road until sunset as would be facing north west.

Ditchling Road

Not entirely sure where the poppies were along Ditchling road so would partly be a scouting trip too. At the far end of Ditchling road is parking at Ditchling Beacon. At the other end is another parking spot called Upper Lodges, but gate gets locked in the evening, not ideal if intending to hang around for sunset. Between them, these two car parks cover the complete stretch of Ditchling road and can use to turn round and come back in the opposite direction. Studying OS Maps online there were lots of footpaths running parallel to Ditchling road so should be able to find the poppies. First though I would just drive the length of Ditchling road and see if I could see the poppy fields that way. Need not have worried, the poppy field was easily spotted driving along Ditchling road and there is lots of little parking spots that are not marked on google or OS Maps. Was a little disappointed though as the density of the red poppies was not as thick as I would have liked. You could see this from the road.

Challenging conditions

Found a small parking spot right on the corner of the poppy field and there was a short trodden path onto the location. This is not really public right of way but the farmer can only tell you to get off. Not far away could hear the farmers with their shotguns! This was causing a murder of crows to fly over the poppies but was not ready and a little concerned. Had a lot of time to kill before sunset, but the blustery stormy conditions were giving rise to some good light and interest in the sky, just like my visualisation. So far had a lot of rain in June, the ground was very wet and muddy. Needed waterproofs and wellingtons. As anticipated was very windy. Shooting the poppies was going to be challenging in these conditions.

Photographing Poppies in the Wind

Found a good spot to setup the tripod facing west a little along the poppy field running parallel to Ditchling road. The strong winds were going to be problem if going to avoid motion blur. The field of view was directly opposite the Chattri Indian war memorial but is just a small speck in the background and not the main subject of the composition. The undulating land of the South Downs added lots of layers to the composition giving depth and dimension.

In challenging DOF and lighting conditions my preference is to take multiple exposures either focus stacking for a large DOF and or bracketing to capture a large HDR. Had both of these conditions attempting to photograph the poppies at Ditchling road.

Large DOF

Generally when shooting poppies or any flowers need a large DOF, to get front to back focus. Needed to stop down to a small aperture like F/16 or focus stack. With the strong winds and motion of the poppies could not really focus stack. It not harm to experiment but likely get a lot of artefacts focus stacking and lots of post processing corrections. So chose to stop down with small aperture F/16 and take a wider angle shot at the 24mm end of the 24-105mm lens. Could have gone wider with the 16-35mm lens to get extra DOF and maybe crop out any dead space in the foreground.

Check your Images

You really need to review your photos on the camera LCD screen using the magnifying function and scrolling to check in acceptable focus front to back. Was not doing this in the field, partly due to poor eyesight and my glasses polarising in the daylight! But had a 2x loupe in my bag that I not think to use. The images are a little out of focus in the background, could have maybe pushed the focus point back a bit using the hyperfocal point had I experimented and reviewed. Not reviewing your images in real time is the same disadvantage film photographers have where they must wait for their images to be developed.

Fast Shutter Speed

With the windy conditions needed a fast shutter speed to avoid any motion blur. Fitted the shutter release cable and set to burst mode. This would help if there were any gaps in the wind, firing off a burst when there was a lull. A burst of photos increases the chances that one of them will be good. The disadvantage of this approach is a lot more images to sift through back at home on the big screen.

Generally found that needed a shutter speed of around 1/200 to avoid any motion blur. With the small aperture of F/16 needed to raise the ISO to 400 to achieve this shutter speed. Again need to experiment to get this right. Another trick for getting a faster shutter speed when this is a priority is not to ETTR. More expose for the shadows or to the left. As long as you are not blocking the shadows.

High Dynamic Range

Another problem was the composition had high contrast between the sky and ground especially when the sun was behind the clouds AKA HDR. Without motion blur can bracket the shots. Again OK to experiment, taking one exposure for the sky another for the poppies. Problem is the longer exposure would not have had a fast enough shutter speed.

Remembered this problem photographing sunflowers on a windy evening in Woodingdean also in Brighton. The alternative is to use GND filters over the sky and this was the approach I took, in camera with a 2 stop HE. Disadvantages with using ND filters is that putting more glass in front of the lens which can soften the final image assuming they are top quality. Colour casting and simply lining them up correctly over the horizon.

Other Considerations

The poppy flowers were a little wet and soggy with all the rain. Ideally the composition would have included some well formed and defined poppies up close in the foreground, rather than just red blotches. With wet flora a polariser could have saturated the colours and removed any reflections. Problem with a polariser it is also a 2 stop ND filter. Still not hurt to experiment, should have tried this, just keep raising the ISO to reciprocate. With wet conditions need to constantly check the front of the lens or filter for any water drops. Not realise most of the shots included two blobs of water droplets that had to remove post processing. What would have really made the photos pop! would have been a thicker density of the red flowers.

Time to Kill, Experiment

Intention was to hang around Ditchling Hill and photograph the poppies into golden hour and sunset. The weather though this was not guaranteed. Its a long drive from Hastings to Brighton and wanted to avoid rush hour so arrived around 4pm. Had a lot of time to kill, given June sunset was not until pass 9PM. Given the time should have experimented more. Have a drone, could have flown it over the poppies and got a birds eye view. Maybe with the motion of the poppies in the wind and the clouds and sunlight taken a time lapse. Even getting arty with long exposure intentional motion blur of both the poppies and sky. Shoot some video, Lots to try.

Peak Time Return

On the ground though could see the poppies were not at their peak. There were still a lot of buds. So maybe in a week it will be a lot thicker.

Thick rain clouds were moving in so chose to pack up. The intention is to return in about a weeks time when hopefully there is less wind and more poppies, a great sky and sunset. Given all the points highlighted above and having now scouted the location feel a repeat visit to photograph the poppies along Ditchling road will produce a much better image.

Check out the East Sussex Landscape photography gallery