Running Free

– – – Exploring The Countryside and Lanes of Dorset – – –

So, we are continuing to look at Dorset from a different viewpoint by introducing blur and movement into the pictures and in some ways, this is another one that comes under the heading of Deliberate Camera Movement, although this is movement in a slightly different way to yesterday’s post.

This shot was taken on one of Dorset’s trailways, disused railway tracks that have been converted to footpaths. These are used by walkers, cyclists and runners too so I thought it would provide a good opportunity to be creative. In this case, I wanted to add quite a lot of blur to create an impression of ‘Running Free’, again without detail, and also so that any people wouldn’t be recognisable. However, to give some sharpness to the runner, I used a panning action, following the runner whilst exposing the shot.

The idea was to illustrate the freedom of walking, cycling or running in the open countryside and this final picture seemed to do that reasonably well, as well as giving a different view of our network of footpaths which are such a valuable resource.

On a wider issue, although these trailways  provide longer distance footpaths for all to use, there are still some issues. A lot of these routes emanated from the activities of Lord Beeching back in the 1960’s when many railway lines were closed down. Unfortunately, the emphasis on providing public open space was a bit late in coming, resulting in much of the old track beds being lost to development or private purchase before they could be converted to public rights of way. So although the ones we have are valuable, there could have been many more.

For instance, if the powers that be had been quicker off the mark, it would today be possible to walk or cycle from Bournemouth to Bath, some 60 miles, along the old Somerset and Dorset Railway track. Add in the branch lines, and there could have been a whole network of trails running across our county. All is not lost however because there are now active groups around that are still campaigning for the old track beds that still exist to be turned into footpaths, and in some cases even to be restored as railways. I really hope that these campaigns will gather support!

In the meantime, lets celebrate the freedom we have to walk, cycle and run in the lovely Dorset countryside!

Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time,
Your friend The Dorset Rambler

If you would like to contact me, my email address is terry.yarrow@gmail.com – comments and feedback are always welcomed.

All photographs, poems and words in this blog are the copyright of The Dorset Rambler and must not be reproduced without permission.