Field Sports -- 3 years ago
CAUGHT ON CAMERA: The magic of the moor
Words: Patrick Tillard
Tarquin Millington-Drake has spent 7 years photographing life on and around two revered grouse moors, documenting the wildlife, scenery, changing seasons, shooting and work that goes into them.
Estimating that he has taken upwards of 20,000 images every year during that time, mainly from East Allenheads and Muggleswick, he set out to portray life on the moor through the seasons: the harshness of winter, the constant battle against disease and vermin, the burning of heather and the build up to the Glorious Twelfth – all of which unfolds in the most wild and beautiful regions.
After sieving through the images and spending hours and hours behind the wheel visiting these desolate areas, the end result is A Year On The Moor, a stunning book that captures the magic of the moor like no other has before. His passion for grouse is as patent as his skill with a camera.
To photograph grouse in flight is a feat that few have accomplished – they are widely revered as one of the fastest flying birds, and the way in which they hug the contours of the hill make them extremely hard to follow with a naked eye, let alone a lens. With this in mind, the photos showcased within these pages are even more impressive and represent a huge amount of research and ground-breaking camera work.
This book is as beautiful as it is important. There is a huge amount of ignorance surrounding grouse shooting, and there are many who wish to relegate it to the archives. But what these people do not realise is that there are people who depend on the moor for their livelihoods, and in turn the grouse and the moor depend on them. These men and women are the mountain’s gardeners and without them we would soon lose an icon from our uplands – the king of gamebirds. To flick through the pages of A Year On The Moor is to get a glimpse into this magical world.
See more of Tarquin’s work here.
Don’t miss the next issue of The Gentleman’s Journal – our shooting special – with our Top Shoots list, the beauty of gunmaking, game recipes and the mecca of dove shooting… Subscribe here.
