After the witnessing of a beautiful red dawn from Beacon hill on the Hampshire south downs, I was now making my way to Old Winchester Hill.

This was the first landscape photo walk where I left my  Canon compact camera at home.  If I was going to take any handheld shots then I would use my Canon DLSR.  This would save me post processing time using Lightroom and potentially give me better quality photos.

South Downs Morning Mist

I was now at the foot of Beacon Hill looking up, the morning mist was still clinging to the peaks of the south downs.  A good landscape photo should really include foreground interest.

The foreground in the above landscape photo is just rolling grass, an empty space really, some flowers would have been nice.   Walking deep into the Hampshire countryside and it’s really peaceful and quite beautiful.

Old Winchester Hill

As I was approaching Old Winchester Hill a red kite was flying high above.  I tried to capture a shot by changing my settings but my Canon lens that I use primarily for wide-angle landscape photography not have the magnification to get in close.

On reaching the summit of the Old Winchester Hill on the Hampshire South Downs it was typical cold windy February morning weather.  I scrambled around with my tripod trying to capture a composition of this magnificent place.

I would love to wild camp and follow the south downs way all the way from Winchester in Hampshire to Eastbourne in east Sussex.

The Meon Valley

Checking OS Maps Online, there were some interesting ancient Yew tree forests to explore further along the South Downs Way.

Reading some information boards Old Winchester Hill is awash with wild Marjoram and butterflies.  Surely I would return in the summer to this part of the Hampshire South Downs to capture my iconic Landscape photograph.

I really was enjoying this walk over the Hampshire south downs.  It really is a beautiful area.  I was now heading down to Meon to a pub for a pint and from the road side just had to capture some shots of the Meon valley.

Back to Beacon Hill

After a well deserved pint I continued the last leg of my hike back up towards Beacon Hill where my car was parked and where I had left something else.

This area of the Hampshire south downs  is a nature reserve with Abbey house as the focal point in the above landscape photo.  I would have liked to hang around for sunset.  But after arriving before sunset I was exhausted and was heading back to Bournemouth.