I discovered Westwell and the Kent downs though a magazine I picked up in the pub at Woods Corner on the High Weald.  Aspect Country which had a feature on the little hamlet of Westwell, its pub and the good walks over the Kent downs nearby.  On a gloomy wet Sunday morning, that was where I was heading to Westwell.

Westwell landscape walk

I researched Westwell on os maps online, assumed would be able to park near the church or pub which I would visit on completion of the walk, the pub that is.

I meant to arrive at dawn but got up late again, not setting the alarm.   It was around 25 mile drive from my base in Hastings and would take around an hour.  On the way for a few minutes there was some fantastic light as the rising sun shone low and it rained simultaneously.  At that moment I thought rainbow and then one appeared right in front of me.  I should have already be on the Kent downs when that spectacle occurred.

Foggy on the Pilgrims way

I parked in the pub at Westwell and made my way onto the Kent downs following the Pilgrims way.  It was a gloomy foggy day.  Capturing a good composition today would be a challenge.  I had visited the Kent downs once before at Wye, but that day had been hot and sunny.

It was a good walk but with flat light I was not going to capture any of the late autumn colour of the woodland on the Kent downs. The fog was a point of interest and tried to capture it late into the walk towards Eastwell lake along the Pilgrims way.

Handholding settings

I really was trying to capture the fog in the distant hills of the Kent downs half a click along a country lane just out of Westwell.  I was handholding the camera in manual mode with image stabilisation switched on my lens.  With such foggy gloomy conditions you are losing a few stops of light even by midday.  Im reluctant to come off of F8 aperture as know it is my lens sweet spot.  To compensate I boosted my ISO by a stop up to 200 and then relied on my steady posture and hand.   Im reluctant to setup on my tripod unless there really is a stunning composition in front of me.

The fog on the kent downs was the subject but the sheep and isolated late autumn deciduous trees added depth and interest.  Next stop the pub in Westwell and I was missing the sun, thats all folks…