CHASING THE LIGHT: A Wessex Photo Essay

Editor’s Note: This photo essay originally appeared in Issue #4 of the Anglotopia Magazine in 2016. Support great long-form writing about Britain along with beautiful photography by subscribing to the Anglotopia Magazine, a quarterly love letter to England.

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I’ve followed a photographer based in England’s West Country for many years. David Hansford has taken some of the most beautiful pictures that I’ve ever seen of the Dorset and Wiltshire area. He’s well known locally for putting out a calendar every year featuring his best pictures, something that is always on the wall in the Anglotopia office. I’m a keen photographer myself, many of the pictures in this magazine were taken by me. A few years ago we started corresponding and I eventually worked up the courage to ask him if he would take me around Dorset and Wiltshire and show me some of his favorite spots so that I could hopefully capture some of his magic in my own photos. Much to my delight, he agreed. So, on a cold but sunny day in between Christmas and New Year’s in 2013, David and I spent the day chasing the light as it traveled across Dorset. It was one of the best days of my life. Here are some of the pictures that I took.