Harvesting at Sunset

Some beautiful, atmospheric photos of harvesting have been captured by Sarah Stanton Longdon, who lives at the top of Sunny Hill.

She recounts one glorious late August evening walking out with her camera… and dogs.

‘Every evening I walk the dogs on the Chevin.

If it looks like a good sunset or interesting light for pictures, my camera comes along, too.

I often photograph these fields throughout the seasons, as there’s an interesting perspective over the valley towards Hazelwood.

The field I captured with the camera is on the very edge of the Milford / Hazelwood boundary – the actual farm house is in Hazelwood.

I’d been planning to capture these particular images for a while.  I had long see them in my minds eye. However, there were a few circumstances that needed to coincide:

Corn fields ready for harvesting; an amazing low sunset; the farmer out on the combine; and me and my camera up there when it all happened!

Patience and luck paid off on this beautiful August evening.

Starting off up the Chevin I could hear the combine harvester at work in the distance and there was an amazing sunset.  And, yes, I had my camera!

Rushing up in fear of missing the best, there it was: the perfect coincidence of every thing I needed.

I started taking pictures, excited that these were the pictures I’d been waiting for.

It was at this point that the farmer spotted me.  Jumping down from her baler, she rushed over towards me, closely followed by her husband from the combine.

Worry set in… I was expecting a telling off about taking photographs of them.  Not so… “Were you the photographer who sent a picture of our field to Farmers Weekly?“ she shouted.  I was relieved to see that she had a smile on her face!

Yes, I was that photographer.  She then proceeded to tell me that my photo had come second in the Landscape category of the photography competition!

It turns out they’ve been wondering who the photographer was since last year!

Sarah’s prize-winning image in Farmers Weekly

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