First photography walk of July 2023 was a scout over a section of the south downs from Falmer road near Brighton. The intention was to photograph golden hour and sunset.

June Drought 2023

From Falmer road there are some nice views north of the south downs back towards black cap and Ditchling beacon to the west. Lots of undulating countryside and farmland. I visited this patch of Falmer road last year and wanted to come back and explore more.

What inspired this particular trip was there has been a drought during June 2023 so the ground is dry and turning a yellowish brown. In fact June 2023 was record breaking in terms of heat and lack of rainfall. Had observed this part of the south downs before during a drought back in 2018 from Kingston Ridge which is not far from this location.

The plan was to capture the undulating countryside here during golden hour. The warm light should then compliment and enhance the yellow hues of the dried landscape. Maybe also catch a sunset looking back west

Falmer Road Scout

There are quite a few laybys along the Falmer road B2123 where you can park for free. From there followed the footpaths east towards Kingston Ridge. There was a thicket of woodland wanted to check out.

Immediately along the footpaths compositions opened up more at the telephoto end of the 24-70mm lens. Already the evening light was looking good still a few hours away from sunset. Some lovely cumulus clouds above casting highlights and shadows on the ground below. A polariser helped saturate the colours.

No Drone, Too Windy

I had brought the drone, wanted to put the drone up to better scout the area but far too windy. Might spot some late poppy fields or other interesting elements to photograph. But due to the wind not today.

Fireweed in the foreground

Made it to the wooded area and found an exit on the western side that could be a potential location for a sunset. In the foreground were some fireweed that added a nice colour contrast and foreground interest.

The wind was very strong and up on the south downs its gets multiplied. To avoid motion blur which is a problem including flowers in the foreground had to raise the shutter speed significantly. Was still using a polariser and with foreground needed to lower aperture to F11. It can be a difficult decision if to go wide angle versus telephoto, your often sacrificing the background for the foreground and visa versa. Need to be careful too not introducing dead space in the midground.

Hand holding settings

Hand holding the camera always shoot in aperture priority, auto ISO and set a minimum shutter speed depending on the lens in use. A higher than usual ISO wont be a problem with a good quality camera. Still I really want to switch to a mirrorless camera like the Canon R5. Really want the EVF so can see the histogram, more dynamic range, IBIS etc etc. One day soon.

Falmer Road Golden Hour

Decided to head back to the car and rest a little before golden hour. Checked out the other side of Falmer road towards Falmer hill but no real compositions presented themselves.

Similar composition shot at golden hour as shot a few hours earlier. Not a huge difference in tones and hues apart from the clouds catching the golden light.

Was on a tripod now, ISO now set to the base level of 100. Not need to bracket so kept in aperture priority. Still using a polariser to more saturate those colours. The sky had as much interest in it as the land so wanted to include both in the frame.

South Downs July Sunset

With golden hour coming to an end and the land being thrown into shadow. Now was a simple step of turning the camera around to face the setting sun as opposed to it providing light from the side.

Nothing in the foreground and if there was the setting sun would then be too small. Zooming in have some layers of hills to provide a bit of depth. An aperture of F16 to F22 gives a sunburst effect. Was bracketing 2 shots. Was having issues auto bracketing so switch to manual bracketing where I could expose independently for the shadows on the ground and highlights in the sky. Problem with manual bracketing and strong winds those clouds were moving fast across the sky. This caused ghosting issues merging HDR during post processing. With a relatively straight horizon might have been better to use a graduated filter.

Finally the sun disappeared behind the horizon to the west and blue hour would soon be upon us. A full moon was now rising to the east but I would need to drive to another location to capture that.

Rest

Im good for a couple of hours when out walking and landscape photography but then I need to rest and eat. Hopefully would have a shot at the moon another day. Good evening out on the south down near Falmer road.

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