Exmoor Gold
Bossington Hill, Exmoor National Park, Somerset, England. 20:52 local time. 19 August 2013
On the rolling hills of Exmoor in late summer, and David Noton is wondering: How low can I go? What degree of motion blur? And why is my back killing me?
The rolling hills and moorland of Exmoor National Park come alive with colour in late summer. The purple and mauves of the heather and the bright yellow of the western gorse mix with the gold of the long dry grass in an explosion of colour that defies belief, especially when bathed in the low warm light of a summer’s evening. Contrast all that with the lush green of the valleys below and it’s a scene that pulls me back time and again.
I’m crouched by the low tripod, straining with a protesting spine to see the camera back. With such a low viewpoint composing is tricky, I wish my 5D Mark III had a flip-out screen. I know why it doesn’t of course; too flimsy for a pro-spec body, it wouldn’t last a month on the road in Australia. Except I’m not in Karajini, I’m in Somerset, and my back is killing me. Well, we have to suffer for our art I suppose, and we all know the advantages of getting low; a whole new world of compositions opens up. Here the front element of my tilt-shift lens is just millimetres from the bell heather, I’ve a little bit of droop tilt dialed in to optimize my depth of field, and the light is just getting better and better.
After much grunting I’m happy with my composition. It will be one of those images with almost infinite depth made by the strong foreground interest, but the patchwork of fields below and the interest in the sky are also key. A strong breeze is blowing; rendering the swaying grass sharp will be nigh-on impossible, so as I can’t fight Mother Nature I might as well join her and go for some motion blur. The big question is how much?
I reach for my polarizer; with the angle of the light as it is sidelighting the scene it will really saturate the colours of the heather and make the blue in the sky pop. The problem is, however, with such a wide angle of view its effect on the sky will not be even, producing an unsightly donut effect. I think though there’s just enough cloud in the sky to mask the effect; it’s got to be worth a go. Now I need to consider additional filtration; having decided to let the grass sway while my shutter languishes open I could opt for an exposure stretching into the minutes if I deploy my Lee Filters 10x Big Stopper, or I could use the 6x Little Stopper, or a more modest 0.9 (3x) neutral density. Which to go for?
It’s easy to fall into the trap when considering motion blur to assume that the longer the exposure and the more blur the better. Breaking waves, bending trees, babbling brooks, swaying grass, streaking clouds all take on a dreamy look with long exposures. But here on Bossington Hill I’m looking at those traces of high altitude cirrus in an otherwise unbroken blue sky. They are artful; I want them in my shot. Skies make landscapes, it’s as simple as that. I know if I now fit the Big Stopper and leave my shutter open for some 90 seconds they’d be rendered as indistinct streaks, barely visible. No, I want motion in my foreground, but not in the sky, meaning an exposure of just a few seconds is called for. I reach for my 0.9 ND; combined with the polarizer and an aperture of f/16 it’ll do the job. I shoot a test frame, adjust my exposure using the histogram display, double check-focus and depth of field again, and press the button on my remote release. The light will only continue to get better, but that cloud will soon drift out of frame. Now is my decisive moment.