Poppies – Ledbury
Title: Slow Filmmaking Among the Poppies: Landscape Filming in Northumberland with a Young Filmmaker
I’ve just come back from filming a poppy field near Lesbury in Northumberland. It’s 2016, and today was one of those days where the light and weather were just right for slow filmmaking.
This week, I’ve been working with a young person from Duchess High School in Alnwick, who joined me on a work experience placement. I wanted to show him that filmmaking isn’t always fast-paced or about constant action. Sometimes it’s about patience, observation, and simply spending time in a place. So I took him to the poppy field to introduce him to slow filmmaking.
We filmed with the Panasonic GH4, which has become my main camera for most projects. It’s compact and lightweight, which makes it ideal for getting out into landscapes without carrying too much kit. One of the things I like most about the GH4 is its ability to shoot in 4K, which gives me flexibility in post-production to crop or stabilise shots while still delivering high-resolution footage. The micro four-thirds sensor is smaller than a full-frame sensor, but it helps keep my kit lightweight and gives me a good balance between depth of field and portability.
The poppies were moving gently in the breeze, creating constant shifts in the frame. I talked with him about how natural elements like wind and changing light are both a challenge and an opportunity in landscape filmmaking. He helped carry gear, set up shots, and learned how even simple scenes can require time and patience.
We filmed close-ups of poppies and wider shots of the field. I used a 50mm prime lens at f/1.8 to separate the flowers from the background, creating a softer look that draws attention to the colours and textures.
He seemed surprised at how much time we spent waiting—for clouds to move, for the wind to settle, or for a moment when everything in the frame looked balanced. That’s a big part of slow filmmaking: recognising that sometimes the best shots happen when you’re prepared to wait.
By the end of the day, I felt glad to have shared this experience. It reminded me why I love filming Northumberland’s landscapes. There’s so much to see if you’re willing to slow down and look carefully. And it was good for him to see that filmmaking can be as much about patience and observation as it is about cameras and editing.
My Landscape Films
Making landscape films has become a central part of my work. Slow filmmaking fits these projects perfectly because it allows me to spend time in each place, noticing how things change with the light, weather, and time of day. Northumberland is a brilliant area for this, with its dramatic skies, coastlines, and fields.
When I’m filming landscapes, I try to capture not just how a place looks but how it feels to stand there. Sometimes that means waiting for hours for the right light or returning to the same spot on different days. Even familiar places reveal new colours and details if you keep looking.
I’ve filmed along the Northumberland coast, in forests, and across open fields and moorland. Each environment brings different technical and creative challenges. Coastal filming means dealing with wind, shifting tides, and fast-changing light, while inland filming is quieter but full of subtle movements like grasses swaying or wildlife passing through.
My landscape films often become short standalone pieces or part of bigger documentary projects. They can set a mood or simply exist as visual observations.
Sharing these landscapes through film is important to me. It’s a way of recording places and moments that might otherwise be overlooked. It’s also an invitation for viewers to slow down and look a little closer—which is what slow filmmaking is all about. Whether I’m filming alone or working with someone new to filmmaking, these projects remind me why I picked up a camera in the first place.
You can see more of my landscape films here on my website.