SEPTEMBER

Capturing Top Withens at dawn is an experience that merges the beauty of the landscape with the rich tapestry of literary history woven by Emily Brontë. As a photographer, I find these moments before the sun fully reveals itself to be filled with a unique potential; the world is half-lit, half-shadow, creating a dramatic interplay of light that can transform a familiar scene into something ethereal.

Arriving at Top Withens in the crisp, early hours, around 7 am, the solitude of the place was palpable. The iconic abandoned farmhouse and the solitary tree that stands guard beside it are more than just subjects; they are symbols of endurance and the passage of time. With my camera in hand, the challenge was to do justice to the overwhelming sense of isolation and the raw beauty that this location embodies.

As the sun began to rise, casting the first light of day, the landscape transformed. The rolling hills of the moors took on a golden hue, and the contours of the land were thrown into relief, highlighting the rugged terrain that is so characteristic of West Yorkshire. The rising sun behind the tree created a backlight that illuminated the scene with an almost divine glow, accentuating the silhouette of the tree against the fiery sky.

The technical aspects of capturing this scene involved balancing the light and dark to preserve the details in both the shadows and highlights. I opted for a narrow aperture to ensure that both the foreground and the vast landscape behind were in focus, capturing the texture of the grass and the stones of the farmhouse. The composition was deliberate, positioning the tree and the building on intersecting thirds of the frame to draw the viewer’s eye naturally across the scene, from the man-made ruins to the natural resilience of the lone tree.

At that moment, taking the photograph felt like capturing a piece of history, a frozen narrative of solitude and survival on the moors that inspired one of the most tumultuous and passionate stories in English literature. It was a reminder of how landscapes can shape stories. As the sun fully emerged, the scene was bathed in light, and the early morning venture into the cold seemed a small price to pay for the chance to see the beauty of Top Withens so early in the morning.