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The start of the Jubilee Trail and my pilgrimage … Walk number one.

*My trusted twisted hazel walking stick and stag horn handle*

It’s late summer in mid September 2024 and the start of my ‘pilgrimage’. To place one foot in front of another for the entire length of the Jubilee Trail in Dorset, a total distance of 90 miles. Not all in one go I hasten to add, but in separate walks which would cover the length of the trail. The trail starts in the north west of the county near Forde Abbey on the border with Somerset, and concludes on the border with Hampshire in the north east, close to the village of Martin. Some of the routes will be circular in nature, others will be out and back along the same path, whilst those closest to home will allow my wife to drop me off and then pick me up later in the day. I don’t intend walking each section in order but rather like a jigsaw puzzle each walk will in time complete the picture.

In preparation I have researched and created routes for all the walks – there are 32 in total – and they cover a distance of more than 180 miles. Some are quite short, less than 3 miles in one case, but none are more than 8 miles, as there will be detours along most of the routes. I have described this journey as something of a pilgrimage as it will give me time to contemplate, to explore, to get to know and truly appreciate the beauty of the Dorset landscape. I wish to visit all 34 churches which are either on the trail itself or are very close by, but just as importantly I want to take my time to immerse myself in the landscape, and to make photographs of each individual walk.

This is the first walk and I thought it appropriate if it was at one end of the trail, so I chose to start in the east. As well as imagery, I will include a map of the route and a description of the walk and my thoughts along the way.

So here we go!

Sillens Lane car park to Pentridge Hill and Pentridge Village

After a flat white coffee at home I put my camera bag, walking boots and hazel hiking stick in the car and drove the 28 miles to the small car park at Sillens Lane which lies close to the village of Martin; the most westerly village in Hampshire. Much to my surprise I arrived to find a crowded car park but there was one space available although the next visitor might not be quite so lucky. ‘RingGo’, a parking app, requested a voluntary car parking fee of £3 for the day to help maintain the area. It’s a small price to pay, even if I did key in the wrong registration number on the app! I must have had other things on my mind.

A couple of signs provided information about Martin Down Nature Reserve and alongside these boards was a wooden bench in memory of Ronald Bolt 1918 – 2003. I assumed this must have been his favourite spot to admire and walk in the landscape. I very much doubted he needed the signage to tell him why he should love an area which was so special to him.

I prepared to set off and there were a couple of pathways I could choose from. Despite having the ‘Outdoor Active App’ on my smartphone I still managed to pick the wrong track, but this was easily rectified when I reached Bokerley Dyke, a scheduled monument. The earthworks are about 3.6 miles long, and are thought to have originated in the Bronze Age or early Iron Age. In its time it was an important cultural and political boundary. It marks the actual starting point for the Jubilee Trail but to my surprise there was nothing else to signify the beginning of trail, nor its end if someone had walked its length from West to East. No signage no way-marks, nothing.

I headed in a south westerly direction alongside a coppice with a field of cattle on my right. After a short time I stopped briefly to tuck my trousers into my socks to discourage any ticks that might be lurking in the vegetation awaiting their next blood thirsty meal. I also put my down jacket in my rucksack as I was already warming up. The forecast was for dry weather with sunshine, but it actually turned out to be a beautiful day and much warmer than I had anticipated.

With the coppice now behind me an old and rusty farm gate lay ahead with a well trodden track leading off to the right. At the time it seemed obvious to me that this was the path and it wasn’t necessary to open the gate into the field. There were no signs to inform me otherwise so I my instinct took charge. Later on I would find out that my instinct was incorrect and I had made the wrong choice.

It wasn’t until I reached the track which lead from Whitey Top Farm that I realised my mistake, so I doubled back a short way until I found a wire and barbed fence which I could clamber through and rejoin the trail. After this minor navigational error the rest of the route was quite straightforward.

It was now midday and getting much warmer. I don’t much like the heat so I wouldn’t have wanted it to much hotter. I was only 1.4 miles into the walk but some liquid refreshment was needed. The first part of this walk had been a steady incline and the views of Cranborne Chase were starting to reveal their beauty. So too was some of the wildlife. Above me a kestrel hovered in the air sighting its prey on the ground below. I looked down and a few wasps emerged from a hole in the chalk track, a nest I assumed. Later and for a brief moment a hornet circled my ankles but no sooner had it arrived than it left, flying out of sight and not to be seen again. I was grateful as their bite is far from pleasant, although I am told they are not aggressive creatures, they just look that way.

I crossed a field of wheat that had recently been harvested with many a grain still lying on the ground providing plenty of food for rooks, pigeons and other birds.

*A recently harvested field with the promise of shade ahead*

A few trees lay ahead offering a little shade from the sun which continued to shine brightly, as I made my way through a gate and on to Pentridge Hill, which in turn would lead me Penbury Knoll and a place to rest for a simple packed lunch. For the first time on the walk I met another person; a horse and rider to be exact. We greeted each other, said it was a beautiful day and went our separate ways.

*Onwards through the gate and on to Pentridge Hill*

*Looking towards Penbury Knoll with Cranborne Chase in the distance*

I reached the trig point at Penbury Knoll, the highest point on the walk and a very fine place to stop for a while and admire the surrounding scenery. It wasn’t difficult to find a shady spot, sit down, lean my back against a tree trunk and rest my feet and legs. I hadn’t walked that far but I am not as young as I used to be. It was exactly 1 o’clock so definitely time for some lunch and to spend time taking in the far reaching views. As I munched on my marmite and cheese baguette I saw a red kite twisting, turning and gliding on the thermals above Pentridge Down. It was a great display. As I watched this bird of prey, a gentle wind blew and in the shady setting of old oaks and tall conifers I cooled down and slowed down.

A few minutes later and the kite re-appeared from below my feet, exploring the chalk downland, then wings started beating as it stopped to retain its position in the air. The wings halt their movement and the kite quickly dives out of view, maybe it was heading towards my next stopping point – the village of Pentridge and the church of St Rumbold.

Before I leave this lovely serene spot, I swallow a single tablet prescribed to help reduce my high blood pressure. I wonder which is more effective, a drug or taking exercise and being in the landscape?

It pays to slow down and to stop, to photograph and count my blessings.

*A fine place to stop and admire the landscape – Penbury Knoll*

I came out of the shade to rejoin the trail and the sun, but I was now refreshed and eagerly awaiting what lay before me. The path took me south and gently downhill towards Blackbush Plantation before turning sharp right and continuing the descent across grassland and cultivated fields. I had now left the Jubilee Trail and joined the Hardy Way, another long distance path across Dorset and Wiltshire which takes in places associated with the author and poet Thomas Hardy. At over 216 miles in length I will leave that trail for another day.

The farm track lined with dried grasses and wildflowers, almost skeletal in nature, soon led me to Pentridge, a tiny and pretty village made up of mainly detached houses with a mix of tiled roofs and thatch.

I made my way to the church, to find the churchyard like others rather untidy but that’s the way of things today. Churches are now encouraged to leave some areas left untended to encourage wildlife.

To my delight the door to the church opened and I stepped inside and was greeted by the sun working its magic through the leaded light windows. It was wonderful and I captured the light and the darkness with my camera. I always consider images of this nature to be very fortuitous as they only present themselves when the light is at a certain height and is cast in a particular direction. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Divine intervention possibly?

Having taken these two photographs I spotted a sign in one of the stone window reveals. Unfortunately it wasn’t dated but the notice confirmed the grant of £70 for an enlargement to the church on condition that 140 seats were reserved for the poorer inhabitants of the parish. How times have changed I thought to myself. Today a Communion service is only held once a month at St Rumbold’s and I doubt if the number of parishioners attending would break into double figures. I wondered how long ago it might have been when all the pews were packed with both the rich and the poor?

I left the church and departed the village, up a stony lane towards Whitey Top Farm and the last ascent of the day. As I approached the farm two seemingly rather aggressive dogs ran towards me, barking loudly as they did so. Fortunately there was a strong fence between them and me but nevertheless I was pleased when I had passed them by.

*Back on the Jubilee Trail before returning to the car*

I turned left and rejoined the Jubilee Trail and then descended back the way I had come earlier that day, through the shade of the coppice before entering open ground back to the car park. I checked my navigation app and I only had a third of a mile to walk before completing the first of thirty two walks exploring the Jubilee Trail. It had been a joyous walk of 6.2 miles and the weather could not have been better.

I only saw two other people, the lone horse rider and one other walker; a woman on her own at Penbury Knoll. By the time I noticed her, she had walked past me with her back now facing me. She hadn’t stopped to admire the view, nor say hello but I wasn’t offended, as I like it on my own. The solitary experience of just me in the countryside, alone with my thoughts, whilst enjoying nature and the beautiful landscape appeals to me.

It wasn’t long before I saw my car parked in the near distance, the number of cars had diminished considerably.

I drove home excited at the prospect of my next encounter with the Jubilee Trail.

From Leica to Fujifilm and now back to Leica …. Why?

A couple of years ago I published a post titled ‘Switching from Leica to Fujifilm….well not exactly’. In summary I explained how I had decided to move away from a Leica camera body in favour of Fujifilm, albeit that I retained three Leica M lenses, so that I could continue to use them with a lens adapter on Fujifilm X series cameras. I won’t repeat the content of that post here, but do click on the link above if you would like to understand the background before reading the rest of this entry.

*Fujifilm XT3 with 10-24mm wide angle zoom lens*

Back to the current day. Why have I reverted back to Leica? What prompted me to do so and what equipment do I now use? I hope my answers to these questions will be of interest to you and may even assist you when you are choosing your own photographic gear.

When I invested in a Fujifilm XT3, I had anticipated that I would be able to enjoy the best of all worlds. I bought some zoom lenses to cover a wide range of focal lengths (10 – 24mm f4, 16 – 80mm f4 and 55 – 200mm f3.5 to f4.8). The Fuji has an APSC cropped sensor, so this gave me the equivalent range of 15mm to 300mm based on a 35mm full frame sensor. It would cover every eventually or so I thought. I still had my Leica M glass of course (35mm f1.4, 50mm f1.4 and 90mm f2.4) which on the XT3 gave me three fast prime lenses with focal lengths of approximately 52mm, 75mm and 135mm (in 35mm terms). What more could I want? Well for starters a very large camera bag and a strong back if I was to carry all of this gear around at the same time, however this was only the beginning of my deliberations.

Knowing I couldn’t practically or physically take everything on a photo outing I had to make certain decisions at home. Zoom lenses, or just the primes, or a combination and if so which ones? The answer would always come back to what I was hoping to see and potentially photograph. Sometimes I would have a good idea which made the selection process easier, but on other occasions the choice was less straightforward.

When I did choose the prime lenses I soon discovered the drawbacks. Firstly I didn’t own a wide angle M lens. I had traded in a Zeiss 18mm M lens in favour of the Fuji 10 – 24. Even if I had kept it the 18mm would only be the equivalent of a 27mm field of view with the crop sensor. Secondly none of the Fuji zoom lenses were that fast for low light conditions nor would they give me a shallow depth of field. Don’t get me wrong they are excellent lenses but like any zoom lens they have their limitations as to how they can used. Thirdly the shallow depth of field on a crop sensor does not behave in the the same way as it would on a full frame sensor. I had also grown accustomed to taking advantage of the depth of field scale on the M lenses. I have always enjoyed manual focusing, they give me a sense of complete control and if I wanted to resort to setting the aperture and lens to cover a certain focal range I could do so very easily and I would rely upon the result. This was no longer true when paired with the XT3 crop sensor. Some of the magic had gone from using the superlative M lenses.

*50mm lens showing the depth of field scale.*

By now you can probably begin to sense my growing frustration. The final nail in the coffin came when I began considering the true nature of my photography. What are my favoured genres and subjects. More importantly what images am I trying to make? Were these aspects of my photography hindered by my camera equipment and if so what changes were desirable?

The more I thought about this the natural conclusion soon became clear. The answer was of course a resounding yes, I was being held back. I was no longer able to make the images I really wanted. Take for example my church photography. To evoke the feelings I am after in a photograph I often use the lens wide open at say f1.4 to give me a shallow depth of field or soft background. The effect can be quite subtle as in the picture below, but it’s there and an important element of the image as far as I am concerned. Shooting wide open not only gives me the ‘look’ I want but it also allows me the freedom to work hand held without having to ramp up the ISO. I don’t have to rely on a tripod, which can be cumbersome and awkward in the confines of a small church.

My other love is the great outdoors whether that be a landscape, old farm buildings or a dramatic scene but I am not one to favour the type of picture captured by an extreme wide angle lens, nor a long telephoto lens for that matter.

The picture below was a spontaneous capture of an atmospheric scene which soon passed as the wind got up and the reflections in the water disappeared.

In summary then, if your camera equipment is hampering your style and you are no longer truly enjoying using the equipment you have, then it may be time to ask yourself a number of questions – What should I do about it? What can I change to improve both process and outcome? Above all what images do I want to make? Affordability will of course be a consideration and I recognise I am fortunate when it comes to setting a budget.

*Leica SL2-S with 50mm F1.4 Summilux lens*
*(I put black tape over the Leica badge – it’s more discreet)*

As I said earlier I have now reverted back to Leica as my main camera of choice but which model? Towards the end of last year I purchased a Leica SL2-S along with another Leica M Lens – the Super Elmar 21mm f3.4. I had previously owned the original SL Type 601, but the SL2-S is an altogether better camera not least because it now has in body image stabilisation. It is faster in use and whilst the sensor is still only 24mp (a sweet spot as far as am concerned), noise control at high ISOs is excellent. In some ways I regret parting with the first SL, but I have learnt from the experience. When compared to the Fuji XT3 I prefer the way the SL2-S handles. It fits my hands perfectly. The customisation of the function buttons gives me easy access to make quick changes when necessary and the menu in my opinion is less complicated to use than on the Fuji. Oh and I mustn’t forget to mention the superb EVF which makes manual focusing an absolute breeze. Combined with the Leica M glass the resultant DNG image files are excellent and are very good to post process. All in all it is a joy to use.

*From left to right 21mm, 35mm, 50mm and 90mm.*

In conclusion my ‘go to’ equipment is now the Leica SL2-S camera body paired with the 21mm, 35mm, 50mm and 90mm primes. I guess I am a purist at heart and trying to mix a Fuji camera body with Leica glass was never going to work, well not for me anyway. I truly love prime lenses and the artistic choices they give me, not to mention the joy I experience every time I use them. They suit my style of photography, they are like old friends. When I tried to change the relationship I had with them they reacted accordingly!

Not only has my passion returned for the equipment I possess, but I no longer have to use a large camera bag. The beauty of the M lenses is their compact size. Yes they are quite heavy (as is the camera itself) but I can easily carry the camera and a lens (normally the nifty fifty) with one or more of the other three lenses and a few accessories in a shoulder bag. On longer walks I will still use a camera back pack, but I now have more room for refreshments, extra clothing etc. It works well and most definitely suits my needs. I don’t have tricky decisions to make concerning which lenses to take out with me.

I accept that with this setup I don’t have access to an extreme wide angle or the reach of a long telephoto but as I have already explained my eye doesn’t see the world in that way. Changing lenses happens more frequently but that is no bad thing, it slows me down and makes me think more about compositional choices. Fortunately these four lenses all share the same filter thread – 46mm – which also makes my life easier when using filters etc.

The chances of me being able to make images that please me have improved and even if I don’t capture anything worthwhile then I will have enjoyed the process anyway.

In a nutshell isn’t that what being a photographer is all about?

*A misty rural scene* – *typical of the images I like to make in the countryside*

‘Fallen’ – photography without expectation

There are occasions when a spontaneous outing with minimal photographic equipment can prove to be a rewarding experience. This may also be true if you visit a location with no specific intention of what it is you are going to photograph. You begin with no expectations, so hopes of capturing that pre-visualised image cannot be dashed. You accept the weather and light for what it is. The search for subjects to photograph may be slow but with a little patience compositions may start to reveal themselves. One image can lead to another and then another. Before you know it a theme develops and a small body of work comes together.

This happened to me some weeks ago. I had a couple of hours to spare but the light was flat and I didn’t want to travel very far. I went to an area of forestry and heathland not far from home. I was not that familiar with the landscape and didn’t expect a particularly productive time but I would enjoy the exercise even if the camera didn’t get much use.

In the past few days I have been reading ‘Steeple Chasing – Around Britain by Church’ by Peter Ross. I am now about half way through the book and I am thoroughly enjoying both the content and the well written word. I can highly recommend it.

In the first chapter titled ‘Darkness’ two short passages spoke to me and in so many ways succinctly described my own feelings when visiting churches.

The first and I quote – “And so, as I grew older, I found myself drawn back – not to pray necessarily, but to sit for a bit, to poke around, to get in out of the rain. I began to appreciate the wisdom of John Betjeman’s words: ‘Church crawling is the richest of pleasures, it leads you to the remotest and quietest country, it introduces you to the history of England in stone and wood and glass which is always truer than what you read in books’”

In the second passage the author refers a visit to the Benedictine Abbey at Pluscarden in Scotland following the recent passing of his father. He writes – “…… it brought me a peace that I hadn’t felt for many weeks. I left far lighter than I had come. Was this a religious experience? I don’t know. Perhaps it was just being forced to spend long hours sitting in quiet. ‘It kind of gets inside you / The silence I mean,’ sings Linda Perhacs in her beautiful song ‘Chimacum Rain’, and old churches are like that. You are entering a building but really it is entering you.”

The six images shown here are a collection I have made over many years from visiting a variety of churches. I love to watch the light as it moves around, highlighting subjects which would otherwise be in virtual darkness. I endeavour to capture the feelings of stillness, of quiet and of solitude, prevalent in churches but not quite so easy to find elsewhere.

Perhaps it goes without saying that in the Bible the metaphorical meaning of light and darkness is often used to compare good and evil.

In John 1:5 “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

If anyone was to ask me to name my favourite Cathedral, it would be a choice between these three: Wells in Somerset, Chichester in West Sussex and St Davids in Pembrokeshire. Pushed to say which would come out on top and I would have to say Wells Cathedral. Why? It has a very special atmosphere born out of the quite majestic architecture and the extraordinary detail of its design. The history and its setting in what is a small city just adds to its appeal.

Last week my wife and I enjoyed a short holiday in Somerset. We were staying about 10 miles north of Wells so another visit had to be included in our itinerary of places we wanted to see. I have been fortunate to visit and photograph the cathedral previously, but this time round I decided to concentrate on some of the details, which to me tell a story about the building and sum up very nicely why it means so much to me.

I could spend hours and hours in the cathedral and never be bored finding other compositions so another visit is very much on the cards. Until then here are a selection captured last week and if you would like to read my other blog entries about Wells Cathedral here are the links are below.

A Monochrome Masterclass and a visit to Wells

A quote by St. Francis of Assisi reminded me of Wells Cathedral

The Chapter House – making amends for a missed opportunity