Sun setting over Selsley Common with spiders' webs

Today the weather was gorgeous. High pressure produced a clear blue cloudless sky, with not even a breeze and relatively warm temperature for a mid-January day. A few days ago I arranged to have my dentist check my teeth, as I was developing a slight toothache, and I hadn’t had a check-up for more than eighteen months. I drove to Dursley, about eight miles from home and took the long country route over the hilltops, scouting for possible places and scenes to photograph on the return journey.

My dentist K. was her usual sensitive, gentle and exhaustive self, and assured me there were no serious issues. I was impressed with how their dental surgery was coping with public compliance of Covid’s restrictions.

I was back on the road up the hill by 3-30pm and stopped in several places looking for a blip. Although the largely agricultural landscape on the hilltops of the cotswold was beautiful in its rather bare winter state, I was hoping for a distinctive location. I drove through Avening to Minchinhampton, where I skirted the village’s centre and headed on to the centre of the old common near Tom Long’s Post, the marker for the old crossroads.

By now the sun was nearly setting over the distant horizon, which is actually elevated at that point, so the light was still intense despite its imminent disappearance. There were many walkers, some with dogs. Two motorcyclists parked near to me on a recent Triumph Bonneville 1200 and a smaller single cylinder Royal Enfield, whose engine notes sounded very good.

As I looked towards the setting sun I noticed the massive network of spiders webs a few inches above the ground level. I tried to catch the light on the webs but found the intensity of the sun made it rather tricky. I looked up and saw a walker had stopped to watch the sun set behind the distant hilltop called Selsley Common, behind which the Cotswold escarpment drops down into the Severn Vale.

I wondered what  might happen if I tried to get a silhouette of the woman and tried a few different settings. I’m not sure what they were but I’m rather pleased with how this version turned out. You can even see the mesh of the spiders’ webs which seemed to be everywhere. The colour of the sky is pretty close to what I saw and I’ve tried not to alter it. I’m not sure what the sharply defined haloes in the sky were caused by.