Rocks near Haytor, Dartmoor

Dartmoor rocks

Continuing with the previous thread about panoramic format photographs here is another.  Perhaps not so large, this was only 3 x 50M pixel un-cropped!

Looking at this image you could be forgiven for thinking it was a warm summers evening.  How wrong that would be!  I took this only recently (November 2017).  There was a 20 to 25MPH wind blowing, the air temperature was about 3 degrees Celsius and the afternoon had been pretty much dominated by very heavy dark clouds and rain showers.  Basically it felt like a couple of degrees below 0 Celsius.  Chilly when you are stood pretty still for over an hour! :-)

Haytor is one of the famous Dartmoor tors.  I've spent time in its vicinity before but never been happy with the results.  This time I walked away from the tor to the West just exploring the landscape looking for nice compositions.  On one occasion I had to shelter out of the wind as a heavy rain shower passed through.  That rain must have been almost frozen as it really hit hard and stung the face.  Most unpleasant!  After some distance I spotted this tree which I felt contrasted nicely against the rocky tor.  I stayed at this location until after sunset shooting images of the surrounding area but this turned out best due to a the rookie mistake of not ensuring the camera was absolutely still in the buffeting wind.  Lesson re-learnt :-(

I must admit to being surprised when another photographer arrived and then another just before sunset.  Having three photographers converge at a random location on Dartmoor must be pretty unusual.  But maybe I stumbled on something more well known...

Andy