Winter Sun on Shapwick Heath

Winter Sunshine on Shapwick Heath, 22nd January 2012

I've been trying to photograph the landscape of Somerset for a number of years now, without much success. I've come to the conclusion that this is because, at some fundamental level, I don't understand this countryside.

I should say that Somerset is very different to the landscape that I grew up with and the ideas that I received about what constitutes natural beauty.

I come from Liverpool and spent my childhood and youth living in an urban environment. Family holidays were spent in North Wales, Scotland and the Lake District. Grandeur - at least the British version of it - was the aesthetic that I was taught.

Those landscapes still speak to me. I hadn't been in any of those environments for a number of years until I visited Cumbria late last year whilst working and I was surprised at the strength of my emotional reaction. This was underlined when I found old holiday snaps in my Dad's house, recently.

Back to Somerset and a walk in the Shapwick nature reserve on a sunny day in January, during which I captured the photograph above. Perhaps it was just a fluke or maybe I'm beginning to get the place, but I think that this image is different to my previous efforts and signposts the way forwards when I come to point a camera at the flat, open spaces around here.