Almost 2 years ago I wrote a short post about Whistman’s Wood on Dartmoor. You can read that here if you wish. On that visit I used my Bronica SQA and a roll of Kodak Ektar. It seems that it became too well known, overvisited, and it is hoped that both people and animal visitors may be “encouraged” to stay away, or admire from a distance for a while, to allow this rare and valuable landscape to repair itself. With this in mind, of course I decided to stay away on this visit. There is a secret twin however, one that I’ve never visited before, so I thought I’d make the effort to visit that instead, and what an effort it turned out to be!
The car park is at Meldon Reservoir in Devon. A nice spot that looks over the reservoir. Walking out of the car park on the road that I drove in on, I made my way down to the dam! Just to the left of the road that takes the walker over the dam, is a small viewing area, that’s where I made the first photo from. Walking to the right and along the shore of the dam, eventually I reached the end of the reservoir where the West Oakment River flows into it. Looking back you can just about see the dam in the far distance. At this point there is a very nice, fairly flat bottomed valley. Time for a couple more photo’s!
All of the images in this post were made on Ilford Pan-F Plus film. If you don’t know it, it’s a traditional grain type film, i.e. not tabular, and it’s only rated by Ilford at 50 ISO. It does give lovely fine grain, and I have to say I’m really enjoying the results so far. Combined with my home brew D23 developer, holding the highlights, whilst not clogging up the shadows too much, even on a bright sunny day, seems manageable if not easy! Certainly I’m holding more detail in the sky with D23 than Ilfosol!
I took the wrong route out of the valley and headed up onto the moor. To a certain extent, I’m glad I did as I came across the Tor above, that doesn’t even seem to have a name. As a point of interest, “as the crow flies” it’s less than 3 miles from Brat Tor! I have to say that with my general fitness level, carrying a rucksack with a Hasselblad kit, and a tripod, the climb up there was heavy going! I made a stop for 20 mins, to catch my breath, make some photo’s, and enjoy they view. I’ve written recently that one of the pleasures of using this gear and the tripod is that it does slow you down.
I even popped on the 150mm lens I’d been carrying around with me all week and not used. Partly to justify carrying it up there. It’s a lump, (850g), and certainly one thing I’d leave behind in future unless I knew I’d need it. Break over, from here I could see the destination, and title of this post. The terrain down to it however was tough. Steep hillside, large tufts of grass hiding deep troughs, boggy at times. Once down to the river there was nowhere safe to cross, and so eventually had to jump/scramble across the rocky river bed. By the time I reached the woods, I was done – but still only half way!
Above you can see the Black-a-tor, mid-ground Black-a-tor Copse, mostly hidden is the West Oakment River, and in the foreground the last little bit of the hillside down to the river.
The copse is apparently the highest Oak Wood in the country, with the stunted gnarly trees sitting between moss covered boulders (above). I also made a few colour images here which I’ll share in another post. To the eye it’s magical. I think it’s very difficult to photograph, especially in black and white, as it’s almost impossible to get separation. See what I mean above? That’s why I decided to put the trunk right in the centre of the frame. I’d love to visit again on a nice foggy day – it would be a cooler walk and misty trees – perfect!
Out towards the edges, and along the banks of the river there are some solo trees. These make wonderful studies, so had to stop a few times and set up the tripod! Technically I was now on my way back. Just under the canopy of the tree below, to the right hand side you can make out the tor I photographed earlier in the day, in the far distance, and again in the photo below that!
Below is the last frame on roll/last photo of the day. The walk in total was about 7 miles. Usually not a problem, but the terrain was tough at times, and it was about my current limit. I was pleased to have done the walk, pleased to have got a few good photo’s, and pleased to see the car again. (There was a flask of coffee inside!).
Chatter: Hasselblad 501CM with 80mm, (except 2 images with the 150mm CFi), all on Ilford Pan-F Plus, developed in D23.
S.H.O.U.T. 