First visit to the Shropshire Hills in the West Midlands. Wanted to do this trip for a few years now, finally got round to it. Needed a break and a change of scenery, the first hill climbed of the Shropshire Hills was The Wrekin for a sunset.
Up The Wrekin
I was staying at a hotel just on the outskirts of Shrewsbury. The Wrekin hill dominates the landscape in the area. The Wrekin was going to be first climb of the Shropshire hills.
The Wrekin is a popular beauty spot, quite a few people about, but as usual the number reduces before sunset. Its quite a climb to the top at over 400m. Its not far from some major west Midland towns and cities. The hill is right on the north eastern outskirts of the Shropshire hills.
In the distance could see the outline of other well know Shropshire hills like Caer Caradoc which is the most famous and iconic. To get the detail needed to switch to the 70-200mm lens.
Unfortunately being July and summertime the sun was not going to set over the iconic summit of Caer Caradoc but further to the north.
Shropshire Hills Sunset
Interesting being this much further west the sun sets about twenty minutes later than it does in East Sussex. Slowly but surely the sun began to sink in the sky and over the distant horizon of the Shropshire Hills.
We were now experiencing a summer heatwave but feels a lot cooler on top of a large hill. It was quite windy too, a fleece would not have been out of place. Nothing in the foreground just focusing on the distant hills.
As the sun dropped and was more parallel with the camera lens, sun flare was becoming a problem although not realise until post processing the images. Really need to practice the thumb blocking the sun method for the ground exposure. Generally was taking 3 exposures 2 stops a part and then blended using Lightroom HDR.
Thinking about it should have taken a panoramic or wide angle telephoto to include those iconic crests of the Shropshire hills. Problem is not much time and the sun is slowly moving.
Not long and the sun had set and disappeared behind the horizon. Waited a little while to see if there was going to be an afterglow but not happen. Happy with what I got from the top of The Wrekin, my first evening on the Shropshire Hills. Long hike back down to the carpark now in partial darkness.