The latest (autumn 2024) edition of Exmoor Magazine contains a lovely circular walk around the wonderful Dunkery & Horner Wood National Nature Reserve near Porlock. I photographed the walk for the magazine at the end of October last year so that the images that would match the season in which the walk would be published.
These walks are a great way to discover locations I would otherwise miss and I have started coming up with my own circular walks for other locations for this reason. Plus, of course, I really enjoy walking. Inevitably, no matter how early I start, or late I finish, lighting during these walks is often less than ideal, but that is not the point. While on these walks I will get a much better idea of how the landscape might look in different conditions than I would just looking at a map and I will usually come away with a list of potential images for future visits.
This is one such image I saw while doing the walk last October. Between Stoke Pero Common and Bagley Combe are rows of beech trees lining the lane to Cloutsham. They looked splendid in their full autumn colour in the sunlight with the backdrop of Dunkery Hill. But I am especially fond of infrared images of beech trees and so I knew these would also make a great subject for infrared in the summer.
With the promise of lots of cloud and intermittent sunlight, I returned earlier this week. While I could have just driven right up to these trees, I chose a slightly longer version of the magazine walk which took me along Horner Water. I kept busy photographing the river flowing through Horner Wood for a few hours while I waited for the sun to appear. By the time I reached the lane out of Cloutsham, patches of sunlight were racing along the landscape just as I had hoped. A couple of hours later I was heading back to the car along Dicky's Path on the northern slope of Dunkery Hill. The clouds were thinning by now so image opportunities were few, but I was content to enjoy the walk and take in the views over Horner Wood and Porlock Vale.
The Exmoor Magazine autumn issue is out now for anyone interested in having a look and perhaps trying the walk. I thoroughly recommend both.
