Spring in the Vale of the White Horse
As we stand on the cusp of Spring, it feels as though we are emerging from a particularly long winter. For me at least, last November seems a long way behind us. But one of the joys of being a landscape photographer is that it forces me to observe the changing seasons carefully, noting the sudden bursts of blossom that announce the end of winter’s hibernation.
Blossom bursts forth on the floor of the Vale of the White Horse, Oxfordshire. March 2023
One of the things I always love about Spring is the manner in which the weather can be so unpredictable: one minute the sun is shining, the next the rain is crashing down in torrents. Accompanying this meteorological uncertainty is the drama of light and shadow.
To me, the Vale of the White Horse in Oxfordshire always sounds a little more exciting than it actually is. Although home to the astonishing prehistoric chalk horse at Uffington and some equally impressive Iron Age remains along the high escarpment of the Ridgeway, the floor of the Vale is a scene of quiet and orderly agriculture where we humans have more than stamped our signature.
However, for a brief moment in this image, the fleeting light of Spring combined with a burst of May blossom to offer me the sense of optimism and cheerfulness that I think we should all be feeling as we stand once more on the cusp of the summer to come.
I like the image for a number of reasons. Partly, it is the realisation of a fleeting moment amidst the rhythms of nature - two days later and the blossom had disappeared. Secondly, I enjoy the way in which a brief shaft of sunshine has created the strong Z-shape that gives substance and structure to the image’s composition. Finally, I find the picture satisfying because I hope it captures the elegiac quality of the English landscape in Spring.
For me it is a reminder that even in this sometimes suffocatingly crowded corner of south-east England - one of the most densely populated in Europe - we continue to rely on our agriculture and the seasonal elements can come together to show that ours is still a natural world.
