A distant pony

During my walk last week to the Sittaford Stone Circle (about which more soon) I stood for some time on the slopes of the tor, looking down to the Grey Wethers circles, taking occasional photographs. The light at this point (around 6:45 am) was low but because of the cloud cover very changeable: sometimes very harsh, sometimes very soft. I turned eventually to continue up to the tor and my eyes made contact with this beautiful pony in the distance; it had obviously been watching me for a little while. I hadn’t seen a single other creature all morning until this point: person or animal (and I had been up and about for 4 hours by now), so I felt rather honoured to be sharing a moment with such an exquisite animal. I had almost no time at all to take this image with the longest part of my lens, hoping for the best under this wonderfully dramatic sky. My intention was to render the pony in sharp focus, hoping most of the rest would blur, with only a few blades of grass around its legs still crisp. In this way I hoped this rather dreamlike experience, which lasted all of perhaps 30 seconds, would render as closely as possible to the way I felt. I can’t wait to print it and study it for a while: it will help me re-live the moment.