Alan Frost | alan frost photography

A walk over Apple Down

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It’s been a bright, dry and cold week and a couple of days ago I managed to find the time to take a stroll over Apple Down, which is north of the tiny hamlet of Up Marden in West Sussex. There are so many footpaths for me to explore and each one will hopefully yield some images to add to the portfolio for my latest project.

I realise that more and more I am drawn to simple subjects. Whether they be a gap in a line of trees, tracks in the field or farm equipment which has just been left on the ground by the farmer before he needs to use it again. They are not necessarily beautiful images but they are pictures which I believe capture the very essence of the landscape and for that reason alone are worth taking and recording.

This project is as much about documenting what I see in the area; it is not a search for ‘chocolate box’ pictures which have been taken countless times before.

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Other posts about this project can be found by clicking on the links below.

New Year, New Project

New Project – First shots and initial thoughts

New Project – It’s early days

‘Fallen’ in Wildhams Wood

New Project – It’s early days

It’s very early days as far as my new photographic project is concerned. For a variety of reasons I have only ventured out on a few occasions with my camera since the turn of the year, however this will change as the daylight hours start to get a little longer.

Each trip has been very worthwhile as I start to familiarise myself with the area I have chosen to photograph. Even if the conditions aren’t perfect, the shutter is always released. Sometimes the purpose is to simply record a place and a composition I would like to revisit when the light is more favourable.

For the time being I thought I would share with you a small selection of images which only make me want to get out and about even more!

Thinking outside the standard box!

There are of course many standard aspect ratios which photographers use on a regular basis to crop an image. The obvious ones that immediately spring to mind are 3 x 2, 5 x 4, 1 x 1 and 16 x 9. There are very good reasons why these are widely used but there are also images which require a ‘non standard’ approach. This picture is a perfect example.

The Shepherd’s Altar, Didling

Shepherd's Altar

The Church of St Andrew at Didling in West Sussex is tiny and wholly lit by candles. It is affectionately known as ‘The Shepherd’s Church’. Tucked away in a field beneath the South Downs at the end of a track off Bugshill Lane, it is well hidden by a large yew tree which must be many hundreds of years old. This simple country church is Norman in origin and dates back to the early 13th Century. In times gone by it would have served a much larger community until the village virtually disappeared after the ravages of the plague.

It’s been quite a while since I have made any ‘church images’ so when I visited Didling yesterday as part of my ‘new project’ I was pleased to find the church open. I was even more pleased to find that the light shining through one small south facing window was coming in at just the right angle. The sun illuminated the beautifully simple altar table and the cross in particular. Adorned with two vases of fresh tulips, thankfully this church is still very well cared for but completely unspoilt.

Delightful.

The Beech Avenue at Kingston Lacy

Beech Avenue

It’s been quite a while since the last entry on this blog. Regular readers will know that I had my first exhibition last month and I will be writing about the experience very soon. For now I thought I would share with you some images taken and made just before the exhibition took place back in the early part of November.