DECEMBER 2023 · GROUNDED
Central Dartmoor
Central Dartmoor, Devon
Two Bridges to Postbridge, Great Mis Tor in early December. Snow on the tors — not deep cover but enough on the granite to change the surface, packing into the cracks between the blocks and sitting on the flat tops. The moorland below the tors is frost-covered in the mornings, the grass white and stiff. A dark pool surrounded by snow-covered boulders, the water still and black against all that white.
The Dartmoor ponies are in winter coat by December. Shaggy, wider in the face, moving slowly through the frost-covered grass. One close-up: the face portrait, the eye, the texture of the coat in the low afternoon light with the rest of the herd and the moorland behind. They don't move away from the camera in any particular hurry. They were here before the camera and will be here after it.
They were here before the camera and will be here after it.
Two Bridges and Postbridge area — December 2023
The light at dusk and dawn in December on Dartmoor is a different order of thing from the middle of the day. The middle of the day is flat and grey and the moor looks like moor. The last twenty minutes of light goes gold, then orange, then deep orange, the silhouette of the ridges and tors cutting across it in layers. The plateau at Postbridge at sunset: a minimalist horizon line with the sky gradient above it, nothing else. Then that same sky going pink and the clouds above the distant hills catching it.
Dawn brings the mist. Layers of cloud and moisture sitting over the landscape, the light coming through in bands, the distant moorland going in and out of visibility.
Two ponies in frosted grass, a white house visible at the edge of the frame. The ordinary scale of the place.
Brown Dartmoor pony face portrait with flock and moorland in golden light
Silhouetted moorland landscape at sunset with layered hills and golden sky
Snowy granite tors and moorland with distant valleys and a telegraph pole
Dark moorland water pool surrounded by snow-covered boulders and rocks
Pony with winter coat grazing in frost-covered moorland grass
Snowy moorland with granite outcrops overlooking distant water and valleys
Minimalist sunset silhouette with horizon line and golden sky gradient
Sun setting over moorland ridges with deep orange and golden sky
Dawn sky with clouds and mist layers over distant moorland landscape
Dramatic sunset with golden light streaking across moorland silhouettes
Two Dartmoor ponies with frosted grass, white house visible in background
Moorland landscape at dusk with layered hills and vibrant orange sky