A walk across the Quantock Hills at the height of the heather season.

For a few short weeks each summer, the hills change. Purple spreads across the landscape, the light catches the colour, and familiar places feel slightly different.

This is a walk through the heather on the Quantocks — looking for photographs, following the paths, and trying to capture a little of what makes this brief moment of the year feel so special.

Landscape, photography, colour and a little bit of wandering.

Behind the Film

Some landscapes seem to change almost overnight.

For a few weeks each year, the Quantock Hills are transformed by heather. Millions of tiny flowers combine to create these great washes of colour across the hills — and suddenly familiar places look completely different.

But I wasn't simply trying to photograph the purple.

I was looking for the way the heather could become part of the picture. Sometimes it was the foreground, leading the eye into the landscape. Sometimes it was a splash of colour beneath a dramatic sky. And sometimes it was simply waiting for the right light to bring everything together.

I don't tend to just point the camera at a view. I like to build a picture.

Here, I wanted the heather in the foreground to be the beginning of the story, with the layers of the landscape creating a series of stages beyond it. Then I waited for the light in the distance to pull your eye through the image.

There were other moments too — the unexpected things you find when you're out with a camera. A foal against the heather. Light breaking through the mist. The landscape slowly waking up.

That's the thing about photographing a place like this.

You can go out looking for one photograph and come home with something completely different.

Maybe that's part of the magic.