This is the very beautiful Burrator Reservoir near Sheepstor on Dartmoor shot with the setting sun lighting the bare late winter trees. Reservoirs, as opposed to natural lakes, are quite often bare banked and fairly unlovely affairs, but the trees and moorland setting rescue this one, and certainly after our heavy winter rains when it is full (its outflow is in full force at the moment) it looks really stunning. It is certainly a popular spot being just a few miles North of Plymouth.
It was not very easy to access the shore for this shot; it is just as treelined as the view it depicts and is steeply banked. In the end I had to use the tripod as a walking stick to get down the bank and jump across to a rock in the water. The tripod itself has its legs in the water for this shot.
The tor rising above the trees in the background is Sharpitor.
As noted in Dartmoor Pony, Sheepstor, an image that I posted a few days ago, we have only just discovered this area and we were keen to return as soon as possible to explore it a little further. We’ll be back again and I will certainly want to take some photographs here when the trees are in autumn colours. I can also imagine that in (albeit rare) perfectly still conditions perfect reflections are available.
Burrator Reservoir, Yelverton, Devon, UK
Camera: Sigma DP1 Merrill
Lens: Sigma 19mm f/2.8 (built in lens)
Focal Length: 19mm
Aperture: ƒ/11
Shutter Speed: 1/30s
ISO: 100
Very little needed to be done to this shot which is close to perfect at default RAW conversion settings. A tiny contrast boost in Color Efex's Pro Contrast and a little LAB colour separation applied to the trees only. The result is pretty much as I recall the scene at the time.
1 Comment
Gorgeous photo!!