Having returned from my travels abroad in June and already through one third of the month of July I was keen to resume my landscape photography around the south east of England predominantly Sussex and Surrey.

Mount Caburn Lewes

I had driven pass it many times but never been to its summit to admire the views of the Sussex weald and the south downs.  Researching online I discovered the hill I was interested in was called mount Caburn popular with sky divers due to its height and clear run.

I managed to park up in the nearby village of Glynde and made the ascent up mount caburn for some spectacular views of East Sussex below.  It was a windy cool day for July with a high contrast between the sky and ground.  Not ideal in the wind but I was experimenting with some long exposure landscape photography using a small aperture of F22 and even some Neutral density filters of 2 and 3 stops.

Leith Hill Surrey

Using the AA’s walking guide to Surrey I ventured to Leith hill for a 7 mile walk through ancient landscape of thickly wooded downland heaths and hills.  The walk first takes you through Surrey’s smallest hamlet called Friday street where there is a nice pub for walkers called the Stephen Langton where I stopped for a pint.

The walk then continues through thick forest around the village of Wotton and then along the Tillingbourne to a waterfall.  This was my first chance to photograph a waterfall and in order to get the silky water effect needed a long exposure.  Not enough to just use a small aperture like F/16 or F/22 and also with the smallest aperture like F/22 can begin to lose sharpness through an effect called Diffraction.  I was using a neutral density filter of 3 stops to slow down the shutter speed.

The final part of the this walk through Surrey brings you out to the top of Leith Hill with fantastic views south and north.  Looking north you can clearly make out the skyline of London, south you can see as far as the coast.  I wanted to stay until sundown but still had to navigate my way through woodland to the carpark and not know the area so not want to get lost again like that time around Devils Dyke.

Box hill Surrey

You not done Surrey unless you done Box hill.  Box hill is a summit within the north downs that run through Surrey.  Its a very popular spot for day visitors especially on a warm sunny summers day which it was not for late July when I arrived

The best viewpoint on top of Box hill is just down from the carpark.  I was now experimenting more with ETTR expose to the right rather than HDR.  Over exposing without blowing the highlights, using the histogram helps with this.  The reason to do this is that more data is recorded in the brighter areas of the image.

Requires post processing later in Lightroom to then bring the exposure back down.  Although the above landscape photographs of Dorking from Box hill are a little contrasty they do have an even distribution of tones.

Charlwood

Last but not least was a visit to Charlwood Surrey in late July and not far from my home at the time in West Sussex.  The area around Charlwood is well wooded landscape good for plane spotters with the expansion of nearby Gatwick airport always threatening its survival.

When your not in woodland the countryside around Charlwood is mostly agricultural and it was proving difficult to get a good landscape photo of the area. I like the contrast of the white horse against the trees and field in this photo.  None the less it was a good walk around Charlwood on a beautiful sunny July morning and not far from home.  I met a butterfly photographer in the woods who was also taking a break from work, so much better than being in an office.

July Landscape Photography

.So that sums up my landscape photography and the places I visited mostly in Surrey in middle to late July 2016.  Compared to the landscape photos I took in May that year I was making an improvement.  What makes a good landscape photograph can be subjective beyond a certain technical and compositional competence.
The litmus test for me is what sells within my portfolio on Shutterstock.  Would seem the most popular landscape photographs are hills, bright sunny days, fluffy clouds.  This goes against the grain as to the best time to shoot landscape photographs which is early or late in the day when the sun is low on the horizon or just under it.