Sharpitor in winter sunshine

Had a chance to get out to Burrator, the reservoir on Dartmoor that feeds Plymouth, on a recent day when, unlike recently, the sun actually peeped out from behind the storm clouds.  Late afternoon, low angled winter sun fleetingly a illuminated the tors that surround the reservoir.  This is Sharpitor, to the north of the reservoir and, at 412m high, a typical Dartmoor craggy outcrop with bracken strewn slopes, golden brown in the sun.  The view didn't last long.  The rain returned - but at least I got a memory of a golden landscape in bleak midwinter.

Four views of Sheepstor

To get from my house in North Plymouth to The Garden House at Buckland Monachorum I take the A386 towards Yelverton.  To the east is the bulk of Sheepstor, a 369M high Dartmoor tor (granite outcrop).  Last January I was returning home after a day spent photographing the garden.  The light was lovely. low angled sun illuminating the massive bulk of the outcrop and a blue sky full of clouds.

I'm not a landscape photographer but I couldn't resist turning off to take these shots.  All taken with the Em1 Mkii and the 40-150mm f2.8 Pro, using focus stacking to get a better depth of field for the first two.

Hardly in the class of Hokusai's famous 36 Views of Mount Fuji - but every artistic journey has to start with small steps.  Tiny in my case.