Rose early but not early enough for a sunrise and full moonset from Firle Beacon on the South Downs in East Sussex. After golden hour the plan was then to walk the whole ridge from Bo Peep to Itford Hill and back.

Firle Beacon Return

The weather forecast looked promising. Cold with some frost, but sunshine, some clouds and maybe some mist and fog down in the valley. Have visited Firle Beacon a few times over the last couple of years but not got anything spectacular from a landscape photography viewpoint. What was special about this morning was a full moon setting over Mount Caburn and the Lewes Downs.

Sunrise or Moonset?

Parked up for free at the Bo Peep end. Dragged myself out of bed half an hour later than intended. Sun was already beginning to rise to the south east while the moon was setting to the north west. For a few moments did not know in which direction to head, towards the rising sun or the setting moon? Chose the latter as have photographed the rising sun from Bo Peep before, but never the setting moon from Firle Beacon.

Was rushing towards Firle Beacon. Even though been here before not really know where the best compositions were. A small location like Firle Beacon can have millions of possible compositions to shoot. Much better results can be achieved with a set location in mind. Was worried was going to miss the setting moon. So just stopped in front of a barbed wire fence with Firle Beacon in the frame and took some shots.

Firle Golden Hour

Further along was another landscape photographer who had been there about 30 minutes. As the sun rose into the Golden Hour the setting moon was beginning to disappear. Not have long left to include the moon but managed to find a good composition just before it vanished.

The rising sun of the Golden hour was just catching the peaks of Kingston Ridge, Black Cap and Mount Caburn. The full moon was just beginning to become obscured behind the lilac coloured clouds. The best shot of the morning and not a minute to spare. Shame there was not more mist down in the valley.

Scouting Firle Beacon

With the best of the golden hour over, the plan was now to scout out the remainder of Firle Beacon all the way to Beddingham Hill and then back to Bo Peep.

Managed to capture one of Firle Tower and some grazing sheep on the South Downs Escarpment being hit by golden spot lights. Now I was so glad I dragged my lazy ass out of bed.

Kingston Ridge

Further along off the path managed a good composition of Kingston Ridge with the 50mm lens. Cant wait to get the 70-200mm telephoto.

The morning sun was still relatively low in the sky, casting shadows on the escarpments adding depth to the image. Kingstone ridge would be a good location for a dawn shoot too.

Mount Caburn Lewes Downs

Another composition across the valley from along the Firle Ridge towards the Beddingham Hill side is Mount Caburn and the Lewes Downs.

Using a 50mm lens not think at the time to shoot a panoramic to get more into the frame. Have to think Panoramic! St Andrews church in Beddingham makes a good focal point with mount caburn in the background.

Black Cap

Another group of south down Hills visible from the top of Beddingham Hill is Black Cap beside the town of Lewes to the east and further west is Ditchling Rise. Want to explore more from Black Cap in the future.

Clouds were moving in now and had to patiently wait for the sun to break through and light up Black Cap. The sunlight adds interest else these type of landscapes lack depth in overcast flat light.

Chalk Hills

Below is the river Ouse and can see the land is flooded from recent heavy rainfall. Walking on the south downs way though is mostly quite dry, not muddy except for near the gates. The reason being the South Downs are chalk hills and chalk rarely gets saturated and drains very well.

Seeking Compositions

Walking back to Bo Peep and pass Firle Beacon car park there is lots more people about now, The car parks were empty dawn, come 10am and you will find it hard to park. The South Downs way across Firle Beacon starts to get busy. I kept off the main path beside the steep escarpment seeking out further compositions.

Handholding wide angle

Changed lenses back to wide angle and experimented handholding using an aperture of F8 ISO 100 was getting a shutter speed of around 125/1. The images taken were surprising sharp. I like handholding much more freeform, gets the creative juices flowing, but most of the images taken were not keepers, just experimenting. With the wide angle lens was not using a polariser today due to the dark patches it can cast over a blue sky.

Further along the escarpment think I found what would be better compositions. To add depth, good to have something in the foreground, a small isolated stunted tree would do nicely. The silhouette of walkers on the tip of the ridge add scale to the landscape here.

No Sunset

Would have liked to stick around until sunset and check out what the light does here, but was knackered and hungry and it was cold! Good thing is this time of year the days are short so not long to wait. Its quite a walk across the entire ridge and back on the Firle Beacon. Would be really cool to have a campervan now. Could return to that, cook some food have a sleep then pop back out for sunset. Maybe 2021 it will become a reality.

Check out the best Landscape Photography gallery of 2020.