Can I get this IMPOSSIBLE PHOTO of the Moon?

I didn't think it could get any better. Yes. Big thanks to Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. So, I'm now in Kent and this is a 12th-century church I've come to photograph. Um There's some nice sort of little streams around it. Oh, there's a balloon two balloons over there. Maybe I'll just get those in the background. And um I've been sort of researching and I thought this looked pretty good. It's very flat around here. I've got this shot here which I quite like. There's a little bit of cloud above. If I just zoom out a little bit, you can just see there's a little bit of cloud there which I think adds to it. And I've just moved around so I can just got a little bit of the reflection of the church as well you can see. I'm shooting at like 35 mm. I feel like when you got blue sky like this, if you have a reflection, it sort of balances a little bit cuz the blue is so dominant. But I like this. This works quite nicely. — So, I've come around and I think I'm in the wrong spot here. Um I want to be photographing the face the wall face that's in the sun. Now, if this is winter, it'd be a lot better because the sun's setting over there at the moment. But obviously in winter it's going to set over there. But also when you're photographing a building, you always want it to have an angle so you can see two sides of the building. So, when I walk back, I just might walk see if I can get on the other side of this, but I'm just not sure how if it's possible. I might have to just walk down somewhere else. The sunrise is sort of over there. So, it could be quite good for sunrise from over in that direction. I think that's probably better. Unfortunately, I thought I was going to lie in tomorrow. Anyway, let's see what I can get still. Ah. So, the It has been challenging these last few days because I've had blue skies, just literal blue skies. But there's still things you can get. You've just got to like when I went to the lighthouse, you know, you've just got to think about different angles and just use it to your advantage of blue sky. So photographing like the red and white lighthouse or photographing um rapeseed fields where the yellow contrast really well with the blue or using the blue to just use reflective light from the blue into the shadow area of a woodland. There's loads of ways you can use blue sky and you've not got to have that sort of negative feeling of I just don't think this is going to work for me. Which I have a lot. But anyway, we're going to get through here and see what we can find on the other side. — Right, I've got a sort fairly interesting angle here. You can see through here. And I've got these sheep that have just walked down here. Now, they've just walked in a really nice line. So, I want them to do that again. Um walking away now. That's not good. Come closer. Um I think I might have got a shot, but it's quite nice angle this. No, they're going. Never mind. Don't work with animals, children and animals. So, I've just been waiting around a little bit. Um it's such a lovely evening. The sun's about to go. The sun has gone off the grasses here. And I thought that was going to matter, but it actually I actually don't think it does. What I really like about this is I've got this bit here that sort of leads around to the church. And also, I've just got a little bit of cloud up here which just sort of balances the image a little bit. So, I did manage to get these two shots with my drone the following morning, and then I set off towards the coastline of Kent. Right. So, I am struggling with um Kent. I did get that church, so that was good. I was pleased with that. I was want I was trying to get two different locations, two different shots in a county. So, I've come to the coast to this um sort of old medieval ruin. I just didn't like it. There's no like foreground, so forget that. Um so, I'm going to try some bluebells again. I know I've got loads of bluebells so far in this last few episodes um well, last episode there was a lot of bluebells. But

But, um you just never know. And if nothing else, I enjoy doing it, and that's what I should do. And if I only get that one shot from the church in Kent, then that's not the end of the world. I can't have two shots from every county. Um well, I suppose I can, but I want to probably have three shots from some counties. So, Kent, I'm sorry. You're a beautiful county. Onward. So, I'd managed to go so far without going to any campsite. I didn't need any power. The solar power and the alternator were good enough, but I did need some water. So, a quick trip to a campsite to get some water, and then to Kingswood. Ah, — [sighs] — well, look at the mist in the field behind. It looks amazing. All right. Good morning. And um yeah, going see if I can I went up to that hill that lady said and I couldn't find anything, so going to try these bluebell woods again. Um I met somebody else who said that it'd be pretty good in a sort of low-lying area, so I'm going to try that this morning. Very tired. Oh, this is such a nice path that sort of leads through all the way into the distance. If the sun came up here now, it'd look great. I don't think we're going to get a sunrise cuz there's cloud on the horizon, though. Oh, the birds just sound amazing. Look at this amazing path here. It's just sort of perfect wandering through the bluebells, going down and back up. We got some nice ferns growing. Bit of a broken silver birch here. This is such a beautiful scene. The sun should come from over there. Um but there's quite a lot of cloud around. So, we've got to do a little rain dance. — I don't know what that was. So, well, I had to do it, didn't I? I had to get the classic shot, and this is perfect place to do it. The sun's sort of rising, and I've got this really nice sort of foreground around. I've just sort of tried to separate the trees. Got these really nice shadows coming towards me. It doesn't get better than this, does it? I think I've ticked all the boxes now in my bluebell shots. Um promise, no more after this. — Oh, this is so good. The light's coming through now, and the mist has got a lot denser in this woodland, so it's creating these amazing light rays. I didn't think it could get any better. Yeah. Right, I promise that's it. Over now for the bluebells. We're now off to Essex and there's some really cool landscapes that I think I'm going to be able to get there, completely different than this. Ooh, it's warm. So warm. So, um it's I say it's warm, it's 20° C. Doesn't help I've got walking trousers on, but anyway, um ah, was parking was tricky here, I have to say. Found somewhere, been a bit cheeky, it says cars only, I parked my van there. Shouldn't have done that, I know, but there was nobody parked there. Think it'll be fine. Um so, I'm walking to these salt marshes now. I'll just show you. I'm going to fly my drone. I just wanted to get away from everybody. It looks quite nice, actually. So, it'd be nice at sunset, I think. So, it's a bit like that, lot- lots of like little estuaries and stuff. From here, doesn't look too good, but I'm hoping get my drone up in the air, it's going to look pretty cool. Right, so my drone's up in the air now and I'm basically just trying to sort of find top-down shots, really, and just sort of scout the area. I'm probably going to stay here for a day, so I'm going to just spend a bit of time with a few batteries in my drone, just fly around a little bit. Um but it looks pretty good. Think I'm quite excited about it. This really was an amazing place to fly around with my drone. There was so many opportunities to get different abstract top-down shots and use all these sort of winding estuaries. I got some good shots, I'm really pleased with them. Thanks to Rhiannon for recommending this and I think these abstracts are just something a little bit different and show you what you can get in places that you may not have thought of shooting things like this. —

— So, I've just parked down there and I'm just going to explore around here. I want to try and get some old boats and maybe just shoot some of these boats like this here. It's quite interesting really. I think boats always make good subjects, don't they? So, yeah, should be quite interested. I don't think I can get anywhere down here. So, I think I'm going to go back the other way. Um I also think it's probably going to be better in the morning than in the evening. But, you never know. So, I think the reality is that I'm not going to be able to get a great shot of this. I could probably get a good shot of the bow. I've just taken one. In fact, I'll show you in a second, but it's just not it's not the landscapes. I'm shooting landscapes of England. But, I'll show you it a little bit. So, I don't know what it was made as it could it can't be just a lighthouse. But, it's really hard to get a good shot of it. I'm hoping to just sort of go down here and see if I can I want to try and shoot the estuary somehow without using my drone. I mean, there's some really nice cracked mud. But, I don't think I can use that and there's quite a few boats that look quite nice. But, I'm struggling. I think this is one of these places that if you came a lot of times, you'd really start to find things, but it's a bit like going to woodland when you've never done woodland photography before. It's tricky. But, it's good to see me struggle, everyone says. So, I decided to stay overnight here, so I was really close to where I wanted to photograph, but I then spotted a road sign that said this Tump sign is flooded. I thought it was going to be okay and it was, but if it would have been a little bit higher the tide, I'd have been a goner. Right, well, I got up this morning at sunrise and unfortunately it was just blanket cloud. No light, so there was no point. I knew it's good to know when to get out and when not to. The great thing about having a camper van is you can just decide that. So, I am now going to go to a different location down the coast a little bit further where there's some beach huts and it looks quite interesting. Um more mud flat salt flats like this. It didn't quite work out there, so I probably didn't quite get the shot I wanted. I'll show you some drone footage now that I got last night and some photos, but it wasn't ideal. But, I've had a pretty good time so far, so shouldn't get so downbeat. I'm also in the middle through this process of writing the book, um Counties of England, um working title. So, again, just remind you that if you are interested in this, it's going to be super limited, more limited than my other books. And there'll be more about the book at the end of the video and there's a link in the description if you're interested. Right, bye Little Harbor. That has been pretty nice spot. Okay, so I've come to a place called Brightlingsea, Brightlingsea. And common with the coastline all along here actually is these beach huts. And I'm going to photograph them from the other side. Now, it's pretty much midday, so that's not great. But, I think if I stay here for sunset, then I'm going to miss sunrise at a different location I want to be at, otherwise it's an hour drive. So, my plan is I'm going to use I'm going to try some long exposure. I'm going to see what I get. If I don't get a good shot, I'll stay here longer. But yeah, I'm going to get a shot here and it's blue sky as well, so it's going to be it's going to be tough. Right, I found a composition here, and I'm doing a 30-second exposure. So, I'm just going to time it. I can set my camera up to do that, but um I'm just going to do it this way. And there we go. So, that should be pretty good. This is my composition here. Um I've got like these posts, and then the things in the background and they look good. — This is quite nice, actually. I've got um there's a little bit of cloud in the sky. I've got like this nice seaweed going out with this nice um I presume it was like um they used to light these, um which is pretty cool. And then the house in the distance there, I think it's a long exposure again. And I think it will be pretty good. I'm actually quite excited about this one. Just for fun, really. I've just been photographing these with the seagulls going over the top. I'll share the photos. I don't think I'm going to use them, but it was quite a good fun. Doing something a little bit different. I'm still not 100% sure about this. Um I think I'm just going to experiment a little bit with long exposures and just see what I can get. But, I think I'm going to get a shot that's good enough here. — [snorts] — I say good enough. I don't want it just to be good enough, but I'm actually quite excited about um not quite got it yet, but a long exposure, quite minimalist, is what I've got in my head. And I think just experiment a little bit around this coastline.

I actually really enjoyed this location, and I think if I had more time to spend there, definitely could get some interesting photos. I think the weather was a little bit unideal for what I wanted, though, so I moved on. So, I'm here in Suffolk, and it's perfect blue sky again. Anyway, I'm going to explore this for sunset and sunrise. I think there's a river running through here, so we're going to have a look. So, one of the great things about England is that there's so many beautiful little towns, and they're quite often on a river or in a beautiful area just like this. So, there's a town just there, you know, loads of um houses, but this is a beautiful little setting with a river meandering through it, and I think there's [snorts] always compositions to be found even on days like this. So, I'm going to explore, and some of it might be a little bit more intimate, close up, or some of it might be as the sun goes completely down just in dusk. Pigeon. And the moon's nearly full. Maybe I Maybe I'll try to get a moon shot. — So, I've just spotted this tree here. Just walked past it, and it's really nice. It I think it's a horse chestnut tree, um and just the way that the branches are going down over the water here, I think a close-up of those branches would look really nice. So, I'm going to give that a go. I didn't expect taking that a shot like that, but I think I actually think it would work really well. I've just got to think carefully about the composition. Probably just have it as sort of abstract here as possible. — [music and singing] [singing] — Sudbury is such a beautiful little town. Um it's just so beautiful. I just would never expect it something like this. Anyway, I'm going to I've gone as far that this way as I want to go. I want to get over the river really. So, I'm going to head over the river and then in that direction, I think. I'll just have a quick look over here. So, this weir is really cool, isn't it? Um Yeah, I don't I can't really see a photo. Oh, it's so hard with blue skies cuz you've just nothing at the top of the image. So, I could do something here with these trees and use that, you know, to create some sort of interest at the top of the image. Or I could wait until either early in the morning or late at night where it's just dusk so that I've got some more interesting colors in the sky. Um or I could just sort of do a bit more abstract stuff. But, it is tricky. It is very tricky. I'm making a lot of complaints and excuses, aren't I? Right, photograph it, Nigel. Stop moaning. There's a nice church over there as well. So many nice things here. Things can be beautiful and not make amazing photographs. I think this is a great example. I was at the wrong time of day here and there was a lot of shadows on there. So, again, I just enjoyed the day and moved on. So, just spotted something here. Just walking this way. It's a bit obvious. It's not the prettiest fence in the world, but I think actually, when it's backlit like this and all these um dandelion flowers are they? They just backlit and it just looks good. And the shadows, I think it looks quite good, this. It's a little bit more abstract again, but you never know. Can't get enough of this. Thought of you has me smiling. — Right, I'm still in Suffolk and I'm quite excited about this spot. This is I'm still by the coast. It's super windy as you can probably hear and a park really close to the beach here but there's another side where there's a lighthouse as well and to get there it's 20 minutes away but the park I can literally see where I park because there's no bridge over the sort of estuary. So I'm going to have a look on this side first, scout it, see what there is and then decide where I'm going to park for sunset and sunrise.

It's going to be better at sunrise because the sunset's over there and that's east. — [singing] — This is pretty cool. This dead structure here. Problem is that there's another thing over there that sort of would be so nice if it just went out to sea. So I think I'd have to shoot in sort of this direction which makes it a little bit trickier. Um actually might work quite well at sunset this. Mm no, it's probably better at sunrise. Probably better at dusk really. Definitely going to fly my drone and see what's over the other side. I mean this is okay if there's nothing else but I don't know. It's not 100% sure about it. I could definitely get something in the sand dunes. Right, I'm going to have a look in the sand dunes I think. I do quite like this. This here. But yeah, I'm definitely going to look in the sand dunes, see what I can find over there. And then fly my drone to the side I think. It's so windy. There's a power station over there, a power station. Quite cool. — So, it's quite a wild evening. — But, this is going to be interesting. Right. I think I've got everything. Let's go. — [singing] — So, hopefully you can hear me. Um There's a light a lighthouse just up there um in the distance, and I'm trying to find some grasses that I can shoot through to that lighthouse. I think that'll be the best shot. There's also some really nice patterns in the sand. It's so windy. Um and also there's some waves as well. There's a guy kite surfing over there, um which is pretty cool. Sun in my eye, that's not good. Um Right, so this is where the Luskentyre meets um the counties project. So, what I'm trying to do here is I've got to focus on the lighthouse, and I'm trying to find some interesting foreground in this bottom bit. This doesn't quite work. I'm going to keep going until I find some nice patterns that I can have in the foreground. I think it'll be good, but it's going to be very out of focus. So, yeah. I'll get it eventually. — [singing] — Right. I found a bit of um a really nice bit of sort of sand that's not been trampled on. It's caught the the um wind really nicely. And in the distance there's just the end of the pier. I think that works okay. The waves are coming in. I'm experimenting with shutter speeds a little bit. But, it's hard with this wind. I think it's good. I quite like this. I think I've got a good shot. — [singing and music] [singing] — That might be it for Suffolk. I think I've got a pretty decent shot um of these. I'll show it to you in a second. Um And also, the moon is almost full moon, so it's going to coincide with the sunrise and sunset. So, I think I should be able to use that for a windmill when I'm in Norfolk, which is the next county. Right. — [sighs] — I think that's it for tonight. I'm going to chill out. Well, actually going to warm up cuz I'm freezing. Oh, that was fun. — [snorts] — Right. Today, I'm going to Norfolk. And I'm trying to plan where to go. Basically, before I go to every county, I sort of look at a map, which I'm doing at the moment on my laptop um and just sort of I pinned all the places that I've sort of planned in advance. And then I just sort of work out where the sun's going to be, where can I park, um you know, where do I want to be a certain place for sunrise, sunset, etc. Interestingly here, there's lots of windmills, and there's also a lighthouse that I want to photograph. The lighthouse, I think, should have rape seed oil in front of it and it's a red or white lighthouse. So, with the

blue sky, the red and white lighthouse, the rapeseed or the rapeseed plants that are yellow, I think it should look pretty good. So, that should work well with the blue sky. And also, there's a full moon at the moment. So, I'm trying to work out using Photo Pills alignment of the moon to try and get a shot and I've found two possibilities. One is a windmill um that I can do at moonrise sunset. And the other one is the lighthouse but with my drone out at sea that I can do at sunrise moonset. — [singing] — Right. So, I've stopped at Happisburgh lighthouse which luckily for me, they planted this amazing yellow flower, this rapeseed in front of it. And it This is the only time that blue skies are just absolutely perfect. So, I'm going to go further down that way so I can just get sort of the side light on the lighthouse, shoot it at like midday which it is now and then probably shoot it a little bit later. I'm going to stay here for the day, I think. There's also a beach here so it's pretty cool spot. Yes. So, this is so good. So, um I'm probably going to go vertical on the shot but I I'm just doing a horizontal shot here. Um I probably clone that out just a little bit there. Um I think it's just like a little building or a rock or something. Cuz it's very tiny, I don't feel too bad about doing that. Usually don't remove things, but I think in this case that's just like a tiny, tiny thing. And then um I'm going to go further to further up there so I can get more side light on the lighthouse. Just want a little bit more side light, I think. And also, I think one of these trees will just be on its own a little bit better. So, then it's just a case of making sure that I've got fast enough shutter speed cuz the I want everything super sharp on this, I think. It's a hard [singing and music] thing to know that your soul will — [singing] — stay hollow. Even if I know [singing] that nothing lasts forever, it's not easy to let go. I've got it vertical now, and I've just found a spot where I feel like the flowers are quite sort of uniform at the bottom here. I've got a polarizer on the moment, but you can see it makes a huge difference. I don't know whether it's good or bad, but I'm going to polarize it and unpolarize it. And then at least I've got the option to I'll probably do something in between as well, so I've got different options. This is just so I mean, it's perfect for blue sky, isn't it? The thing I've tried to think about is in is here, I've just got the um chimneys so they're separated. This rock's down here. I've got this tree that's looking pretty good. The only thing is on the lighthouse is that it's not quite symmetrical, the top lighthouse bit. But I don't think that matters too much. I'll probably walk further down as well cuz I might just get a different view of it. It's good to try different angles, I think. This is really good. I'm really pleased with this. Yes, it finally yes. Oh my word. Oh, it's so cool out there as well. Look at this. Boom. — [singing] — This was such an awesome location and a brilliant place to end this amazing trip with some drone photos and this amazing shot of the shadow of the lighthouse, but it all wasn't quite over yet. It's evening now and I think there's a little bit of cloud on the horizon where the moon's going to rise. I think it's going to be better in the morning where I use my drone, go out to sea so I can be further away and shoot back towards the um lighthouse. But I thought I'd try it tonight. Um I've got photo pills. And basically, I mean it should just be with the sun aligning in a direct line between me and the So

you can just look at your shadow really and your shadow should line up. When the sun goes down, the shadow should line up, but I can't quite see the moon at the moment. And this is what I've got, this sort of shot here. I'll show you quickly on here, but it's I mean it's nothing special at the moment. But if the moon comes up it'll be good. I don't do this that often, so it might all fail. Fingers crossed. Here it is. You can just see it down there. Um I think I hit the jackpot there. I mean I just need to be so much further away. Um I don't I could fly my drone, but I'd have go over the houses and you have to be quite low. So, I just don't think there's anywhere further back I could go. I could have a quick look on the map, but I just don't think there is. Um, no. It just goes through like loads of housing estates and I can show you here quickly. But, basically I'm here. I'd have to go like back over over all these, so there's just nowhere I can get it. Whereas over the sea will be way better. I'm [snorts] still going to have to get a shot. It's just not going to be I'm just not far enough away, basically. This is going to be cool though. And I don't often shoot moon. Right, basically what I'm trying to do is the moon's up now and I'm trying to get it in between the chimneys. So, I'm just going to keep moving this way, get a little bit ahead of it like that, and then just waiting for it to come. And I'll probably just zoom out a little bit to probably about there. I think that looks pretty good. — [snorts] — So, I've now just got to wait for it to come into view, and then I can take the shot in between the chimneys. — [singing] — I've done it. I finished this project. Well, I say I finished it, almost finished it. 3 years ago, I decided to photograph one beach for 30 days. And stupidly, I think, um, about a year ago I thought, "What is the opposite of that? " And that is just going to many places and photographing all those places. So, I've been around all the counties in England and I've photographed them to my best ability with the limited time that I've had there, which is just what you have usually as an amateur landscape photographer. And, um, yeah, I mean, it's been pretty impressive. I've had 12 weeks on the road, uh, over 17,000 images, over 4 terabytes of video footage, and I've covered 6 and 1/2 thousand miles. And it's quite literally changed my outlook on photography and how I look at places differently. It's just been absolutely incredible. But, the most important thing to me, more than anything else, is the incredible people that I met. I can't thank enough all the photography landscape photography community, wildlife photography community, who've responded to my pleads for ideas for where to go, um, and sent me, uh, locations to go and try out. And it's just been an incredible. I've met loads of people, um, and I I'll tell you more about those people and how you can find out who they were in a minute. The one thing I would say is that their photos are inevitably of their location going to be way better than mine. They've had lots of time to spend photographing that location, and it's just so incredible seeing their photos. And you can have this sort of fear of missing out when you're going to photograph this place, thinking, "Well, I'm probably never going to get the conditions they had. " So, you've got to try and improvise. But then, as I've gone on in this project, I've found out that always results in something fairly decent happening. And the thing is that what we think is that we're never going to get something as good, or we just don't go out because maybe the light's not good. But, in this project, I had to go out. And, yeah, this was the first contact sheet that I produced. I produced many of these. I always like to do this when I do a book, go through all my shots and um you know, I've just produced all these photos here. You know, some of them aren't going to go in the book, some of them will. And I say the book because I am going to make a book. I've been writing this book as I've been doing the project. And obviously, I did Lost in Time book. It would be dumb not to do a book of this, which is going to be entitled Discovering England. And that's what it was about really. It was about the journey of seeing all these counties. Seeing the beauty of England

which is just phenomenally beautiful. I just can't believe how beautiful it is. I saw it in autumn, I saw a little bit of it in winter, and I saw it in spring as well. And I feel like I've captured some of the best conditions from a season point of view. Now, that book, if you're interested, is going to go on pre-order now. And it's going to be limited. So, there's going to be a limited number, just like I did with Lost in Time. There actually going to be a few less than I did with Lost in Time. And Lost in Time sold out in 2 months. So, if you're interested in one, cuz I have so many people coming to me and saying, "Do you have any Lost in Times left? " This is my copy. So, I'm keeping hold of this. But if you do want one, there's a link in the description to pre-order it. I'm going to be sending out the books, completing the book. I'm still finishing it off. I've still got a few photos to decide whether going to go in the book. But I'm going to be sending out those copies in a few months' time. So, probably it's probably going to be around August time, I would think. Um so, so well in time for Christmas if you're getting it for somebody as a Christmas present. And all pre-orders will come with a map of all the locations that I went to. Just in case there might be some that are omitted in case somebody's said to me a particular location and they said they didn't want me to share it with anybody. But the majority of people said that was fine. I I've asked people. So, there will be a map of all the locations I've been to. Um and that will only be for people that bought the book. I won't be sharing that online anywhere else. And um they'll all will signed, and there'll will collector's edition, and a signature edition as well. Um, the collector's edition will have a print in it as well. And there will be 100 of each of those. So, if you're interested, there's a link in the description below. I have done this. I've put it all up um with Squarespace, who are this week's sponsor. So, if you're also looking for building your own website, and as I always say, I definitely recommend doing this as a photographer, because then your photos are in your control, then you can start selling your own book, your own calendar, maybe some workshops. You can do that really easily with Squarespace. Um, if you're interested in doing that, then it's super easy. You've got no technical skills required. You can go to squarespace. com/nigel and get 10% off. Well, what a project. I can't believe that I've come to an end of it. Now, there's a few videos still to share on it. Um, there's a like Cheshire. I've not shared the video of me taking the photo there. And there's a few other counties that I've not showed. I'm going to put that into a different type of video that will be coming probably in about a month's time, I should think. It's just been amazing. Thanks for watching everybody. I hope you've enjoyed it. Um, yeah. Thanks a lot. Bye.