Club members suggested a Sunday sunrise meet at Westleton Heath in Suffolk, which meant an 05:15 meet up, and a get out of bed time of 04:15!
For sunrises, I tend to spring out of bed at the alarm time as I don’t trust myself not to sleep through snooze alarms!
I made it the meet location just after 05:15 to find the guys chatting and kitted out ready to go!
About Westleton Heath
Westleton Heath is a nature reserve and is part of the best remaining tract of lowland heath in Suffolk.
In medieval times a large area of heath known as the Sandlings (on account of its dry sandy soils) stretched along the Suffolk coast. Today only about 20 per cent of the heathland remains; the rest has been lost to modern farming and forestry.
Birds of open heath and light scrub are well represented here and include tree pipit, Dartford warbler, stonechat and nightjar. The woodlands support nightingale and woodcock.
The local flora is typical of acid soil, with species such as harebell, tormentil, heath bedstraw and mossy tiliea on the grassheath. Cross-leaved heath may also be found in the damper areas.
Of the heather species, common heather and ling predominate, and these, together with deep purple bell heather, provide an important nectar source for invertebrates such as the white admiral butterfly.
The Shoot
We made our way up the path from the car park and wandered up to the end and across to the top of the Heath. There were parts of the Heath that had a low mist swirling over the ground and we were all looking for that first composition.
After discussing the merits of the higher ground position looking down to a lone tree and mist, some of the guys decided to stay put, and I joined the others who made their way back down the path to use that as a leading line.
As we made our way along the path back towards the car park, we all chose to start shooting away. I turned to my right to see that lone tree and grabbed what would be possibly my best shot of the morning.
The sunrise happened quickly and it became apparent that it was impossible to shoot in that direction and be able to control the exposure. Therefore, I grabbed quite a lot of shots to the left of the path with the sun behind me.
The warm glow of the sunrise light was very pleasing though especially when the light casts across the heather or lit up the silver birch trees.
I took a shot of the path leading upwards to the top of the heath but I look at it and think why bother?
I then grabbed the shot below which is a good example of the sun lighting up the trunks of the silver birch trees.
If I’m honest, I was struggling to find compositions that inspired me. One or two of my fellow club members were engaged with their creative minds by getting low down, shooting just the tree trunks or cleverly going behind the trees and shooting towards the sun using the tree as a mask.
I was just not feeling it, and this is the composition block I sometimes get. Perhaps the fiercely early start and tiredness was kicking in now?
After a chat with one of the guys who has shot here more times than I, he suggested walking over the road from the car park and scouting for some compositions there.
I did exactly that and found this really nice tree with two big clumps of heather which looked really nice against the vibrant greens of the heathland. As the sky was disappointingly plain and flat on this morning, I cropped the image to keep a hint of the tree and minimise how much of the image was sky, and I’m quite pleased with it.
My final shot of the morning was spotting this scene below where the trees were reflecting in the big puddle. It’s another snap in my opinion, nothing to write home about! When writing these blogs, I feel it important to share what I’ve tried, what’s not worked and any disappointments as well as the epic grabs!
Walking back to the car park, the sun was a lot higher now and really search light bright. Decamping my gear into the car, and reaching for the flask of coffee, we all had a debrief in the car park.
We thought we may return for a sunset, or that an Astro shoot one evening could work well as one of the guys said the wide expanse of heathland, and minimal light pollution make this a good location for it.
We all agreed it was disappointing we didn’t have some sky detail and that a less harsh sunrise light would’ve been perfect with the mist. On the other hand, we all were pleased to be out, enjoying shooting and mingling.
I said I might return later in the day with my wife to revisit and try out more compositions.
With that, we all departed and I headed home with my customary breakfast drive thru courtesy of Ronald! And when I got home, I went to bed and grabbed a couple of hours of sleep.
Usually, the blog ends at this point but there was to be another heather-hunting trip later in the day so when writing this post, I thought I may as well throw the details of that trip in here too.
My wife and I were enjoying such a chilled Sunday that it got quite late when we declared we must get out for a walk. I would take my Fuji camera as I wanted to go light without bags, filters and tripods etc, and this was a casual shoot.
It was too late to go back to Westleton so I suggested Buxton Heath as this is a location recommended by a club member, only a short distance away and somewhere neither of us had been before, so off we went.
About Buxton Heath
Buxton Heath is a 67.3-hectare (166-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north of Norwich in Norfolk. It is a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade 2,and part of the North Valley Fens Special Area of Conservation.
This site has areas of dry acidic heath on glacial sands, but the main ecological interest lies in the mire along the valley of a small stream. There are a number of rare relict mosses, liverworts and fungi, and uncommon invertebrates include one species not previously recorded in Britain.
The heath is managed by the Buxton Heath Wildlife Group, and I recommend taking a look at this website which cites Norfolk’s most famous naturalist Ted Ellis as a regular visitor.
Great captures from a fly-by visit
We drove to the location and into the entrance through a metallic surround structure, presumably designed to limit the height of vehicles entering the car park. The car park is a little further down and really just a small sized circular part of open land with just enough space to run your car round. It’s quite secluded, and not somewhere you’d want to be in the dark!
We walked straight across the Heath via the well made pathway and immediately I could see the reason a fellow club member had recommended this location.
I took several images and picked out four as my favourite ones to share here.
First up is the shot below of bell heather in the foreground with the tree in the background.
I decided to get low down and get a more close up capture of the glorious bell heather.
As we walked further into the Heath, we walked right into Dartmoor Ponies on either side of us which I wasn’t particularly keen to get close to, but my wife Kathryn stroked one of them and they seemed very friendly.
As we walked towards the Eastern end of the Heath, I spotted this white pony which looked great against the purple of the heather.
As we made our way towards a small woodland trying to plot a path round the edge of the Heath, his pony was enjoying a quiet moment, and the scene made a fantastic shot with the rays of the evening golden hour light shining through, and the splash of purple heather to the left.
We tried to find a path that circled round and back but the ground off the main path was quite boggy and wet so we made our way via the bracken back to the path.
The sunset had passed, again the sun dipping very quickly once it started and the light was fading so it wouldn’t be a good idea to hand around too much longer.
Heather Heaven – Reflections of the Day
Two fantastic trips in one day grabbing heather shots was awesome, especially to do so at sunrise and sunset.
Both trips would’ve captured great over good shots had there been some cloud detail in the sky but you have to go with what you’ve got.
It’s ironic that my favourite shot of the day is one of the pony shots at Buxton Heath so the casual, go light trip delivered something more pleasing than the 4am get up and one hour drive into Suffolk!
I’ve already done more heather shoots this year than ever before, and there may be more yet.
Onwards and upwards…