[BTS] No.1 Wild Camping On Dartmoor

The abridged version of how I ended up camping on Dartmoor...

I had just completed and sent off a wedding collection and I had an urge to explore. A few ideas went through my mind, some street photography maybe, a quick train trip somewhere possibly, however I ended up popping to a nearby camping shop picking up a tent and sleeping bag and headed off across the moors.

I decided upon Foggintor Quarry. For those of you who want to find it, it's about a half an hour walk from Princetown, along the old rail road. The Dartmoor Visitor Centre is a good place to park up and get the info you need. I'd never even heard of this quarry before, but it looked like a great spot for some landscape photography, the prominent features making a nice change from the rolling hillside.

I've said before in these Behind The Scenes posts that I like to try all sorts of photography. It's a different type of challenge from my usual wedding photographer Devon work, and it provides a chance to try different techniques, making for a more well rounded approach. Below you'll find shots with fast and slow shutter speeds, a panorama and a tweak from my normal editing. For the photographers reading this, the below are all on a 24 or 50mm lens and occasional use of a tripod.

I had a plan to capture the sunset, sunrise and some astrophotography in between. Three chances to capture some colours and/or stars, sadly, it never materialised. There was too much cloud for sunset colours to appear and rain kicked in around 10pm. Dartmoor 3 | Me 0.

So instead it was a 4:30 wake up in a slightly wet tent, a 5.30 pack up and a damp walk back to the car. I did bring swimming shorts as well, but tales of leeches in the lake from fellow campers was enough to put me off!