Having scouted out the poppy field along Ditchling road on the south downs near Brighton the plan now was to return for a sunset shoot. What follows is a couple of attempts to photograph the poppies at Ditchling and a scout of Titch Hill.

Titch Hill Poppies

After scouting out the poppies along Ditchling road a few days previous was now waiting for better weather to return for a poppy sunset composition. The weather forecast was good all week mid June getting very hot by the end of the week. Again left mid afternoon to avoid rush hour giving me many hours to kill. The plan was to continue on past Ditchling hill and scout out the poppies on Titch hill also on the south downs in West Sussex.

Great area for Hiking

There is a country road that runs from Steyning to Sompting pass Steyning bowl and the views here are amazing. Amazed not been to this part of the south downs before. Iv been close before walking from Steyning to Chanctonbury Ring, Cissbury Ring is nearby. Last year shot some late poppies closer to Lancing the other side of Steep Down. Titch hill is a great area for exploring and hiking lots of footpaths.

There are a few small carparks along Titch hill road. From the road the poppies were not visible just a small walk over the hill brow and then the poppy field comes into view. In the distance are the hills of Devils Dyke.

To fully explore the area around Titch Hill requires a fair amount of walking. With my foot injury had to restrict how far I could go. It would take a few visits to work out the best compositions at Titch hill. Looking south, down to the coast is the impressive building of Lancing college. Which would be a good element to include in any composition.

Experimented with the 100-400mm lens zooming in on the grazing sheep in amongst the poppies on Titch hill. Surprised on the sharpness of this lens and should use more. Would have loved to have spend a lot more time on Titch hill. To see the area under different lighting conditions dawn and dusk. It was tempting to stay in the area for a full moon rise that was happening tonight. The plan though was to catch a sunset from Ditchling road so made a return there.

Ditchling east side Poppies

While exploring Titch hill, got a comment on the Ditchling road poppies post about another poppy field hidden from view on the east side. On arrival decided to explore this area first.

About a 5 minute walk east from Ditchling road towards Stamner Park and you will come to another poppy field. The poppies here are thicker and look fresher. In the distance is the range of south down hills from Firle Beacon to Bo Peep.

Full Moon rising and Shadows

Later around 8:30pm the full moon would rise in the east but not sure if I could work a composition here. As the sun was setting to the west, deep shadows were being cast including me which is a problem with the sun behind you. Another area that would require a lot of walking around to scout out the best composition relative to the main light source. Was sticking to the original plan, A Ditchling poppy sunset to the west. a wise man once said “if you attempt to follow two paths you end up nowhere” So sacrificed the moon rising for the sun setting…

Ditchling Poppy Sunset

Back across Ditchling road facing west, to the same position was in a few days previous when photographing the poppies in wet and stormy conditions. From observation the poppies were now thicker, they had dried out and looked more vibrant. Unfortunately there was a young couple in the middle of the poppy field taking selfies. Attempting to exclude them from the composition was not working so would either leave them in as a scale feature or photoshop them out. Went with the latter.

The Ditchling road poppies on the south downs are now getting well known and popular with all the social media postings and being on the outskirts of Brighton. There was a little wind so attempted to use a filter on the sky rather than take multiple exposures, problem is was getting sun flare due to the filters facing the sun directly. Needed to raise the ISO to 800 to get a fast enough shutter speed. The sky was featureless no clouds. To get the sunburst on the setting sun was using an aperture of F22 which also gave front to back focus at 24mm. What really makes the composition pop is the sunburst but also the backlit petals of the red poppies, very eye catching.

Return to Ditchling Moody Sunset

Like the above composition but felt could do better so made another return to photograph the poppies at Ditchling road at sunset a few evenings later. Driving on the way did not know what way the sky was going to go. there were clouds and it was either going to be a light show or a no show. On arrival around 7pm lots of people, managed to park Ok. Then walked the entire field of poppies at Ditchling looking for that eye catching composition. It was almost back at the original location had shot the previous two attempts that something caught my eye.

In the foreground were two poppies facing forward a full frontal. That was important. Many of the poppies were not showing off their interior. The plan tonight was to use a wide angle lens the 16-35mm framed the composition up around 18mm at F/16 giving front to back focus. Was using a 3 stop GND HE filter over the sky, 2 stops was not enough. This evening there was almost no wind, so not have to worry to much about motion blur, shutter speed and a high ISO. The light was mostly lacklustre though, thick blanket of clouds to the west blocking the sun. There were a few moments where the sun poked through the clouds and rendered a moody dramatic sky over the poppies.

Cropping the same composition really emphasises the poppies in the foreground in all their glory. Its was this type of flora composition that wanted to achieve during April and May of the wild garlic in the high weald woodlands. But with the wide angle lens, a 3 stop GND HE filter and F/16 can get the entire scene in a single exposure. One serious problem not realise in the field only when post processing the images is long grass breaking the horizon, very distracting. Should have clipped these in the field, had to use the crop tool in Photoshop to remove them. This is like doing an edge patrol but within the composition.

Poppy Mania

There were a few poppies now wilting on Ditchling road, not sure how much longer there is to photograph poppies, maybe another week or so. Its quite some distance from me and the cost of petrol is prohibitive especially when its a gamble if going to get the right light. Would love to return to both Titch Hill and Ditching and do a lot more walking around the areas, make a day of it, but foot injury is also prohibitive. Its very challenging photographing wild flowers and have really enjoyed it and feel have learnt from it. Days out I will always remember…

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Check out the West Sussex landscape photography gallery