3am alarms: Why would you? Our body clock is normally set to wake up at a decent time, usually just before the alarm goes off to get us up for a day at work (annoying when it’s the weekend and we fancy a lie in). So I’m guessing for most that would be around 7am. But 3am… on a Sunday?! Surely those that do it must have either a screw loose or something they really love to get up for. Well that’s when my alarm went off yesterday, and I’m glad it did.
Our location was chosen a couple of days before but things didn’t look favourable on the Saturday morning but Sunday was looking better so the alarm went off, we rolled out of bed, filled the flask and headed off to Hound tor and, in particular, the mediaeval village just beyond. We chased a gap on the horizon most of the way up hoping it wouldn’t close, stealing any light.
After the short walk from the car park through Hound tor the view opened up in front of us. I’ve seen it before but it was Phil’s first time and she was a little impressed with the view of the eastern fringes of Dartmoor. We made our way down in the half light to the village and had a quick scout about for places to plonk our tripods down and hopefully make a picture or two.
The sky was clear over Greator rocks but an ominous shower cloud loomed closer from above Hound tor. Luckily we had our coats on but it could make taking photos tricky. Then typically, just as the rain hit us the light came. The sky behind us turned a burnt orange. I stood and watched knowing I could do nothing about it. Phil leapt into action with lens cloths and rain covers. The light was sublime and I was missing it. Phil dashed about changing compositions between wiping the rain from her filters. The rain and gorgeous orange sunlight combined and gifted us with a pink hued rainbow. We had to capture it somehow. I had a brainwave and used my cover (a large zippy bag) as a shield while I wiped the drops from my filter. I would whip it out of the way, fire off a shot and hope I got away with it. Amazingly it worked! I tried a couple more but the rain was too heavy now so they were ruined. I didn’t care, I had at least one shot. The light faded and the rain abated so we resorted back to our original compositions and waited for the light to return.
After the excitement we both packed up and I took Phil for a wander around to Greator rocks where we plan to return another time. Let’s hope for more pink tinged rainbows
