Single Summer

This image was made at Wim Green in Dorset, on a day that alternated between bright sun and heavy rain. These majestic black clouds came overhead whilst the light remained powerful. For me this image visualises all of British summer weather in one beautiful moment.

I was there with Charlie Waite, the renowned landscape photographer, and we were working together—sharing ideas, refining technique, and focusing especially on composition and exposure. It was the 13th of July, 2023, mid-afternoon, and we’d already spent some time watching the sky shift and evolve. Charlie encouraged me to hold my ground, to wait for the right alignment. And so I did—waiting for the moment when the darkest cloud would stretch fully across the frame, drawing tension against the bright, late-summer colours below.

When that moment came, just before 3pm, the contrast was perfect. The grass glowed with midsummer warmth. The trees, lush and fully in leaf, caught the sun. And above it all, that ominous slab of weather formed a looming canopy—drama held in balance with light. I shot this at 85mm with my RF 24–105mm lens on a Canon EOS R, 1/180s at f/2.5, with -2EV at ISO 125—pulling the exposure back to preserve the mood of the sky.

This image wasn’t rushed. It was built on patience, timing, and an understanding shared in real time with a master of the craft. “Single Summer” is more than a title—it’s a distillation of everything contradictory and beautiful about the British summer: light and dark, promise and threat, all held together in one fleeting, perfect composition.