Another early morning rise, another McDonald’s, another sunrise on the Hampshire south downs.  This time,  I was heading for St Catherine’s hill which should have great views over Winchester Cathedral.

St Catherine’s Hill Plan

Managed to get up at 5:30am, good thing with even late winter, sunrise’s are relatively late.   This time, I had some toilet roll in the back of my car, after breakfast at McDonalds and filling up my flask with extra coffees.

As always I did my planning using OS maps online.  The plan was to be on top of St Catherine’s hill right next to Winchester before sunrise.

When I arrived at the car park beside St Catherine’s hill it was closed due to workmen.  I managed to find parking further down the road but with a time restriction, I was now seriously wasting time.

I was going in blind, and managed to find the footpath and scrambled up St Catherines Hill as morning was breaking.  There should have been a near full moon setting, but missed it.  What I had instead, again not anticipated was lots of morning mist clinging around the trees.

I set up on my tripod and set my aperture to F/8 which should be my lens sweet spot.  I had nothing in the immediate foreground so not need a deep depth of field.  My focal point was Winchester Cathedral rising above the morning mist with the rising sun beginning to just catch the tower and spire lighting up the stonework adding texture.

Now I had not seen these cityscape shots before and I had planned something like this purely by studying OS maps and photopills etc.   And felt I had achieved some unique shots.  Feels good when a plan comes together especially in landscape photography.

Looking the other way from Winchester cathedral from the top of St Catherine’s hill was the St Cross Church.  The church spire rising above the sweeping morning mist made a great focal point.

River Itchin Winchester

I was going to do a morning hike in the sunshine over the Hampshire south downs reaching Cheesefoot head then across to Magdelen Hill down before returning to St Catherine’s hill.  Problem was had a time limit on my parked car below so decided to head down to the river Itchin while there was still some morning mist around.

A couple of inquisitive swans floated up the river Itchin hoping I would throw them some scraps.  But they made a great focal point with the morning golden hour sunlight creating a great backdrop.

Soon the morning mist had cleared as the sun rose.  Looking back I got one last shot of St Catherine’s hill in the background from the banks of the river Itchin.

Returning to the car I did drive to Cheesefoot head.  I took a little look around but not get my DLSR out.  I studied the map and the area would make for a great hike.  I took some compositions with my mobile which you can check out on google photos.

The best Light

Its all about the light. What a difference it makes getting to the location early in the morning at first light.  As difficult as it is to get out of bed at such an unsocial hour.  But needed to do more of it in the future.