OUR regular Zoom meeting on Thursday last was truly one of a kind! It featured Gary Holpin, (Met Man turned Professional Photographer) presenting a wonderful set of images taken in England’s spectacular southwest, predominantly during his exploration of the SW Coastal Path and Dartmoor, writes Jenny Short of the Norton Radstock Photographic Society (NRPS).

Since moving to Devon, Gary has developed as a landscape photographer obsessed with the opportunities afforded him by the iconic SW Coastal path. Hailed as the nation’s longest and favourite trail, the walk from Minehead along coastal paths round Somerset, Cornwall, Devon and Dorset to Poole is a mere 630 miles. It can be completed in 10 days by walking the equivalent of three marathons and climbing half way up Everest daily- no mean feat, and one that Gary as a photographer has taken in a more leisurely, explorative way.

We were visually escorted up hill and down dale via Porlock, Bideford, Plymouth and Dartmouth, to name but a few, with the odd excursion inland to capture the fog and mist over the Exeter Canal, the snow-covered tors on Dartmoor, and the view across Chesil Beach towards Portland from high on the downs above Abbotsbury.

Gary’s photos are dramatic and hauntingly beautiful, featuring long exposures, composites and, at times, intentional camera movement. They include sunrises and sunsets captured with starbursts, as well as waterfalls and reflections created using slow shutter speeds, and cloud formations worthy of an ex-meteorologist.

The contrasts were striking, ranging from the moody, time-lapse tranquillity of mist over the canal to the sheer power of storm waves crashing over the Cobb at Lyme Regis, and the unusually bleak sight of snowdrifts on the cliffs above Seaton.

In the meantime we look forward to next week at the Masonic Hall where our ‘Pictures of the Year’ will be judged by Lee Spencer-Fleet.