If you are new round here, welcome to the photo blog. Maybe you had the Beautiful North Devon Calendar as a Christmas present and are scrolling? Well, you are in the right place if you are calendar curious, photography curious and/or North Devon curious. The is the Behind The Scenes blog about the story of the Beautiful North Devon Calendar 2024.
This calendar is the fifth edition of the Beautiful North Devon Calendar and is the muse of ex-professional surf photographer Ester Spears, who now works as a gardener in and around his home at Woolacombe. Each year there are 12 fresh new images taken the previous year, as he walks the coastal paths, hikes onto the moor and spends down-time bird-watching on Lundy Island. The print run is limited to 100 copies each year (although during covid they sold out early and an extra 25 were ordered to cash in on the government theme of ‘buy local to help out’).
The cover shot is a photo of Lundy’s east coast, mid June, with the foxgloves in full bloom. Your eyes are drawn along the cliff edge to the landing bay, Rat Island and the south lighthouse. There is no MSS Oldenberg tied up in dock (with 250 day trippers) and it is the ship’s exclusion that subliminally exudes a feeling of calm.
This massive wave at Putsborough, fanned by an offshore wind in late afternoon light, won the North Devon World Surfing Reserve photo competition 2023 (Landscape) and was published in their publicity book (along with several more of my images).
Exmoor in the snow, such a magical place.
This is typical.
The crunch of fresh snow, you can see your breath and then sun breaches through to bathe the scene in golden light.
It’s early April and the Puffins have arrived back on Lundy Island.
The Atlantic Puffin spends most of it’s life in open ocean far from away from land. Most of this time is a mystery to ornithologists as they are widely dispersed and their black upper bodies provide perfect camouflage from the air. They are well adapted to open ocean life having waterproof feathers as standard and the ability to drink seawater, as well as the ability to catch food by swimming underwater using their wings to propel them.
There was no bluebell pic in this years calendar breaking a five year tradition despite many scouting trips to find new spots. It takes 400 years to establish a bluebell wood so maybe it’s time to return to the ancient woodlands and search for a new angle for next years calendar.
June, July and August are the most difficult for me to be inspired by the light to take photos. There is sometimes gorgeous light, but at 4am in the morning and this can conflict with work. It’s also a bit of a lottery. Evening sunset are however an easier option, you can spot all the jigsaw pieces assembling for a nice 10pm sunset at about 8pm.
This is a rare fiery sky with a trained herring gull posing perfectly over Baggy Point.
Not much processing needed for this misty (Sahara cloud) sunset shot. Happy histogram.
Not every summer shot needs early morning or evening light. This photo of the south light and landing bay on Lundy was taken mid-afternoon in quite harsh light. The calm conditions and strong subject matter evoke feelings of wanderlust, the telephoto lens gives nice compression and a ‘drone like’ composition.
Whereas summer is a photographic struggle (for me) along with courgette fritters and carnage on the roads. Then Autumn is a time to harvest the improved light and reap the new moon harvest of autumn colors, blue banana squash, Exmoor foals and the magnificent beech trees turning gold.
One of my favourite haunts for autumn colours is the East Lyn river, where the trees seem to hang on to their leaves for a bit longer than other spots on Exmoor. This lovely Hornbeam is sitting majestically near Brendon on the upper East Lynn.
Finally a snowy Exmoor scene for next Christmas and below a bonus Christmas tree from the same day.
Some Beautiful North Devon Calendars are still available ->
https://estpixphotography.etsy.com
And you can buy me a coffee at ->
Thank you
esterspears 
Posted on December 15, 2023
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