I am nearing my deadline for MEDI 268 and I decided that I needed one or two more different locations in Dartmoor for me to equip in my city/countryside contrast piece, which meant travelling to Bellever Forest, which is about 15 minutes North-East of Princetown nearer to the village of Postbridge. The East Dart River passes through Bellever Forest with the tor of the same name overlooking the entire forest; it’s recently been going through deforestation for building purposes, but new trees are being planted in its place to sustain the forest. I mainly used my Sigma 70-300mm Macro DG lens to shoot a lot of close up footage of foliage and parts of the river, rather than shooting a complete overview of the area. I also did two time lapses to record the journey to Bellever Forest and then the return journey which was shot at night.
Author: matthewchappell
Leather Tor
Carrying on with my Dartmoor shoots, I travelled to Leather Tor, which is just north of Burrator Reservoir to shoot a sunset time-lapse and to find more locations to film my MEDI 268 Independent Practice film. Unfortunately, and almost quite predictably of British weather, the Sun failed to stay and was duly consumed by dense cloud cover which filled the sky. It was a useful location to observe and scout though.
Sheeps Tor At Sundown
Today, I went on another drive to Burrator Reservoir, in Dartmoor. However, as we’re moving deeper into Winter now; the sun sets earlier and the evenings get colder which limited our shooting and filming times but despite only having 2-3 hours to get any footage and photographs, we were offered some wonderful views featuring a hazy sky, set on a backdrop of rolling hills and the city of Plymouth on the horizon overshadowed by an auburn sunset. We climbed 369 metres above sea level to the summit of Sheepstor, one of the most prominent and largest tors in Dartmoor National Park. A location where the Steven Spielberg’s 2011 war film Warhorse was filmed, we were there taking-in the beautiful views that surrounded Sheeps Tor and Burrator Reservoir. I shot all these photos with my Sigma 70-300mm lens, on my Nikon D3200. Here are few of the photos I captured today during our ascent up Sheeps Tor:
Marine Animalia
Earlier this month I visited Plymouth Aquarium for the first time to just enjoy the fish and marine life but as I had my camera, it was an opportunistic moment to attempt to take macro photography on the various specimens. Even though I liked a selection of the photos that I took of, it was incredibly hard to shoot due to the ban on flash, despite the very dark atmosphere, meaning photos came out very grainy if I set the ISO too high. Also, the glass reflected the light in such a way that a lot of the photos had become quite distorted. This is only a small part of wildlife photography as it is within an enclosure, I really want to do a PADI diving course in the Summer as it will expand my opportunities when I break into the industry, but also allow me to shoot authentic and wild underwater photography.
Dartmoor Definition
Yesterday, I went to do a series of test shots in Dartmoor as I plan and prepare to shoot my final project for Independent Practice, which will be a short film showing the contrast of Plymouth city life and the landscapes of Dartmoor. Anyway, I captured some really lovely views of what can only be described as a beautiful, but very minuscule part of Dartmoor National Park. I’d love to go back soon to take more photographs and to start shooting my final project. We travelled just past Princetown to the village of Two Bridges to trek to Wistman’s Wood which took longer than expected to find but it may have actually been cut down; as that wasn’t an unfortunate circumstance we simply pulled over in lay-bys and took photography across the moors.
Here are some of the shots I captured!
‘Diversity’
This week I handed in my Photography strand work for MEDI268 Independent Practice which was a selection of photographs made through a range of formats, processes and techniques. For our work to be considered a ‘pass’, we had to provide a photo made by a pinhole camera, one photo from a Hasselblad camera, a scanned negative, a photo from a digital camera, i.e. Nikon D7100 and a photo by an inspirational photographer that we wanted to rework.
Hasselblad Dark Room
Rework of Matt Molloy
These are just two of six photos I submitted, if you want to check out the rest of the photos I produced for this piece and my personal thoughts of them. Feel free to add your own opinion, I welcome honest criticism! Please follow this link:
https://matthewchappell.wordpress.com/photography/photography-strand/
Bonfire Brilliance
Like most people on Bonfire Night, I went to Plymouth’s Hoe and Barbican area to see an array of fireworks be launched into the sky to then explode in a spectacle of colour and light which filled the night sky. Unlike most people, I also wanted to do photography with my Nikon D3200 and tripod to capture the vivid colours that sprayed out of each rocket but also long exposure photography to capture remnants of light art from the night’s fun fair rides that set the atmosphere. Long exposure photography is something that I’m really interested in due to the fluid movements that can appear in a stills photo with long exposure photography, it’s the idea of being able to show movement and character in something which is supposed to freeze life. After shooting these fireworks and rides, I really want to do look into doing a long exposure star trail in somewhere remote and away from light pollution.
Bovisand at Dusk
Recently, I went out to Bovisand Bay, just South East of Plymouth with two colleages to see if I could produce some light art using sparklers to create a vivid and energetic foreground which had a backdrop of the Plymouth Sound and Cornwall. We went there towards dusk as Light Art is easier to produce in the evening and after sunset due to the wide aperture and long exposures needed to create Light Art photography. I wanted to include some of my photography into my work strand for Independent Practice but as I couldn’t acquire the shots I wanted, I followed a different path using the lighting of a fun fair park on Bonfire Night. These are just a few select photos that I took from my evening in Bovisand Bay. I included a shot of a Royal Navy ship as it is a forefront of the seas of Plymouth; due to the nature of it being home to Europe’s biggest naval base.
Burrator Beauty
In these past few weeks, I travelled to Burrator Reservoir, which is just off Yelverton, and within the boundaries of Dartmoor National Park. I went there to film segments for a short film for my Digital Cinematics strand for an Independent Practice module in my university studies, and despite this area only being a mere part of Dartmoor, it still produced some beautiful views and being a keen photographer I had no option but to take a series of photos that en-capture the picturesque setting of Dartmoor. I have provided a very small series of photos that display the diversity of Dartmoor National Park. The waterfall photo is a long exposure shot and I hope to continue experimenting with long exposure and other elements of photography.
Devil’s Point
I journeyed to Devil’s Point, which is an area of land within Plymouth which is commonly used for dog walking and photography and as I hadn’t been there before, I took a small trip in the early evening of a week day to do some of my own photography there and test out my recent acquisition of a Sigma 70-300mm DG Zoom Macro lens which I think has helped me increased my potential and ability with my DSLR. I tried to look for objects I could focus my macro lens on such as wildlife and plant life but having never visited before, I just wanted to explore and get the best out of my vision to shoot landscapes; I have included a selection of some of the best photos I took on that day that I personally enjoy or that describe the area very well.
Matt Chappell 
