Dersingham Bog Portrait Photo Shoot

Dersingham bog is a part of the Sandringham Royal Estate. It's now one of my favourite places for portrait or family photo shoot due to the extreme beauty that this nature reserve holds! It's great at most times of the year, but it really flourishes in the summer when the sweeping heather flowers are in bloom. For more information about this location, scroll to the bottom of this page for a feature about Dersingham Bog.

Nataliya got in touch with me in the summer of 2021 to discuss shooting a socially distanced portrait photo shoot at the stunning nature reserve of Dersingham Bog, a part of the Sandringham Royal Estate in Norfolk. By the time she had finished telling me how beautiful this location was, I had already opened it in google and I had started looking through the photos for good spots for us to take photos at! I instantly saw that this National Nature Reserve was one of the more unusual spots that I'd been asked to do a photo shoot at and that the large swarms of heather plants made this an instantly lovable location! I was sold and the date was booked!

After extensive research and chatting about creative ideas, the day of the photo shoot came and thankfully the weather was perfect. I packed my car and I left my house to head for Kings Lynn. I arrived at the Wolferton car park and I just sat there for a moment, looking around! I slipped out of my car amazed at the beauty around this hidden gem. I spent a moment just taking it all in before Nataliya arrived.

I started getting my camera out of the protective case it's kept in and I heard a voice calling my name - she had arrived! We instantly hit it off and were chatting about the nature reserve when she told me that she was a local and that this was practically in her back yard - how amazing! I was instantly excited as I knew that she would be able to show me all the great spots around the reserve and that we'd find some real gems here to feature as our backdrop during our portrait photo shoot. Despite scouting out the location and seeing all the beautiful spots, I knew that nothing trumps local knowledge and that she'd know where all the good spots where that I may have missed on my first scouting of Dersingham Bog.

Nataliya was a little nervous when I first turned my camera on, she told me how she'd never done this before and that she didn't feel too confident on camera. After a few minutes warming her up with some "test" shots, she was posing like a pro and her face had relaxed to a point where she was giving me her raw authentic self. Before long, we were laughing and having fun. She told me that she was surprised that she felt so comfortable around me and that she was having way more fun than she had expected. She really thought that she would hate the photo shoot and that she'd have a horrible time - the poor girl! I was so happy to prove her wrong and I was delighted that she had changed her mind about having her photo taken! I can't take all the credit for this - she was such a lovely and fun person that of course we were having fun, it was all too easy with her!

She told me that she was so happy with how it was going and I smiled from ear to ear - this is exactly how I want my clients to feel as this is how I consistently produce such great results during my photo shoot sessions. Being relaxed and having fun makes pure gold within the camera.

Before long, Nataliya was so confident around the camera that she needed very little prompting or directions from myself which was a stark contrast to when we started the photo shoot. At the start, she was stiff and nervous and she needed constant directions on how to pose, how to hold her hands, where to look, how to hold her head etcetera, but now, she was relaxed, laughing and enjoying herself - and it really showed in the images! I showed her a few of the gems on the back of my DSLR screen and she was stunned. She told me that she never looks that good when taking her own pictures and I laughed, knowing the struggle only too well!

Although I am always happy to offer complete guidance on posing and I've spent the last seven years doing it for nervous clients, when you get truly confident around your portrait photographer, the constant directions aren't always needed unless the photographer is trying to capture a certain creative moment. This way, you get a much more natural look and feel to the images as the subject is relaxed and open to you and your camera.

Almost all of my past or regular clients have got to this point, some faster than others. Nataliya thought she would never get to this point in front of a camera but within ten minutes of our shoot, she was confident and glowing on camera with very little direction!

It's easy to get great photos when you click with your clients and you're genuinely enjoying yourselves!

Shooting: To shoot this session I used a mirrored DSLR with a professional grade full Nikon system

Lens: For this location, I used a 24-120mm Nikon Pro Lens without switching during the photo shoot

Editing: To edit this session, I used a combination of professionally licensed software including Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop and ON1 Photo Raw

Editing Style: The style of the editing for this session is natural warm with a mild matte look in the blacks

Colour Correction: The images have been corrected to reduce yellows, to subdue greens to a more natural tone and to ensure that the image remains colourful without looking overly saturated. Blues were left slightly higher than normal to highlight the jeans and red was turned down a little to ensure that the beautiful red tones of Nataliya's hair didn't end up looking unnatural. This process was repeated for every image within the album so that they all match regardless of where the shot was taken within the nature reserve

Beauty Retouching: Gentle and natural looking beauty retouching was performed where needed to enhance skin and hair, and to whiten teeth and brighten eyes

Sharpening: The images were sharpened using the monthly subscription service software Adobe Lightroom and spot sharpened by hand by using brush adjustments

Processing: The images were processed into super resolution and exported using Adobe Lightroom which currently sits at around £20 per month for the basic cheaper package

Quality: A full 300dpi print quality album was delivered to the client with average file sizes of 15,000k but the images uploaded here are reduced to 1500k to ensure fast loading times with minimal quality reduction

Clothing: For this photo shoot and the subsequent walk around the forest, I wore comfy trainers and trousers that covered my legs to allow me to get into bushes and scrub to get the best angles without getting stung, which was a good idea as I ended up shooting from within shrubbery a good few times! Some of the shots taken from down low were with me fully in a bush to the extent that people walking past couldn't even see me until I got up!

Time: We were at this location for a total of 90 minutes, allowing us plenty of time to walk around the beauty spots and to find all the hidden gems.

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About Dersingham Bog:
This hidden gem is a National Nature Reserve (NNR) in the heart of the Norfolk countryside near Kings Lynn and the royal estate of Sandringham. It currently sits at Number 2 on things to do in Dersingham on Trust Pilot. It compromises of a circular walk around the nature reserve and Dersingham is part of the Sandringham Royal Estate.

Although I am no wildlife or nature reserve expert, here is some information that I gathered from the signage at the bog itself during my visit and some fascinating facts that I found online - if you're looking for a Norfolk beauty spot for your photo shoot, hopefully this information will tell you a little more about this potential location and help you decide if this is the right destination for you.

Address: Dersingham Bog, Dersingham, King's Lynn, PE31 6HF, Norfolk

Size: 165 Hectares or 407 Acres

Trees: The woodland is fairly recent and contains Oak, Scotts Pine, Sweet Chestnut, Sycamore and Birch.

Wildlife & Cattle: The mire's make up of wet acid peat makes it ideal for meeting the habitat conditions of some very rare and diverse species of animals and even plants! 148 species of bird have been recorded at Dersingham Bog NNR and of these, at least 56 species regularly breed within the site. Dersingham bog is one of the few locations where you can find the incredibly rare and beautiful exotic golden pheasant. This woodland area attracts birds such as redbill, long eared owl, crossbill, golden pheasants and sparrowhawks. You can find a beautiful array of rare insects which thrive in this habitat including dragonflies including the rgb(0, 0, 0) darter and rare moths, including the light knot grass. At dusk, hen harrier and merlin have been spotted within the nature reserve. Glow worms have been spotted around the area in the dark. There is a large herd of free roaming cattle which are not contained within fencing on the grounds, these cattle are Black Galloway cows and are a sight to behold as you walk around the nature reserve. In 2004, 28 churring males were recorded - the highest number ever recorded on the site. Recently, the population has appeared to stabilised at 18 to 22 pairs on the reserve. Other notable breeding populations include woodlark, grasshopper warbler, tree pipit and stonechat.

Plants: Thanks to the mire's unique make up of a wet acid peat, you can find such rare plants here as the bog asphodel, sundews, bog plants, round leaved sundew, cranberry, sphagnum moss and white beaked sedge. As seen in this blog post, heather blooms all over the heath in the warmer months and showers the area with dusky purple flowers.

Habitat: Dersingham bog is made up of three different types of habitats - heath, mire and woodland. The mire marks the edge of an ancient coastline on shallow peat and is bordered on one of the sides with a steep escarpment containing larger areas of dry heath and woodland areas overlooking Dersingham Bog. Midway through the walk, you will come to a boardwalk which takes you over an acid bog and allows stunning views of the bog from an elevated point. The greensand escarpment acts as an incredibly important landline for migrating birds, during the autumn and to a lesser extent, the spring.

History: The site is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and it is managed by Natural England and they've been working on restoring the habitats within the reserve so that important species that inhabit the area can depend on the site once more and can once again flourish within the wild. The nature reserve includes the largest and most intact example of an acid valley mire within East Anglia. It is also one of the last remaining fragments of lowland heathland in south East Anglia. Dersingham Bog is notable for a rock dating from the lower cretaceous period known as the "Dersingham Formation" that has been very important in helping to understand the geology of the region. For many years in the not too distant past, Dersingham Bog was an important local resource to the local village and community around Wolferton and Sandringham as they used it to provide grazing for their livestock. Peat was collected to provide fuel for their homes and the bracken provided important bedding for their livestock. Up until the 18th century, Dersingham bog was also important for production of meat and pelts to create warm clothing, which gave it the name of Sandringham Warren, of which Dersingham Bog National Nature Reserve (NNR) is a part of to this day. This level of grazing and the continued replenishing and management of the site meant that most of the scrub which regenerated was controlled and it favoured the survival of the other heathland plant species such as ling and bell heather which the bog is so well known for. Any scrub that did survive was either used for fuel or for pea or bean sticks for crops. In the 1800's, the local communities need for the grazing area reduced and the scrub was allowed to grow back onto the reserve. The bog was periodically set on fire by the railwaymen casting hot ashes from the passing steam trains and this kept the mire open by reducing the encroachment from the scrub bushes. The railway eventually closed and the site quickly became dominated by scrub - the result was that by the 1900s, only a very small fragment of open heath and mire remained intact and the remainder was hidden beneath a vast canopy of scrub which was mostly pine, birch and rhododendron. In the 1970s, management of the site begun and the back breaking task of clearing the scrub begun in order to allow the heathland habitats. This restoration work was undertaken by local volunteers using basic hand tools. In 1990, Natural England entered into a lease with the Royal Sandringham Estate and took over full time management of the reserve. Throughout the 1990s work continued to clear the scrub to restore important heath and mire habitats. To this day, the site is still maintained by Natural England and ongoing work continues to keep the scrub clipped back to allow the rarer and more beautiful plant species to flourish, thus providing a lush habitat for wildlife and insects.

Time Of Year To Visit: The best time of the year to visit Dersingham Bog is between April-September. In spring, woodlarks, tree pits and stonechats can be heard and seen within the grounds of the nature reserve as they slowly start proclaiming their territory. From May onwards, the nightjars will return from their African wintering grounds to nest on the reserve. June and July provide a short window to see the amazing glow worms on the reserve in the darker hours. Towards the end of July and in the beginning of August, the heather breaks into flower which covers the higher ground on the reserve in purple. This heather provides a diverse range of insects with the vital pollen and nectar resources that they need to survive. Through autumn and winter, the heath changes colour with more earthy browns and neutral tones visible. Keep your eyes out for large flocks of pink footed geese moving between the wash and the fields more inland looking for food. Also keep an eye out for smaller birds in flocks such as cross bills, siskins and redpolls. In the colder months, you can also find a wide variety of fungi like fly agaric, birch boletus and distinctive common stinkhorn!

Toilets & Refreshments: There are local toilet and refreshment facilities in the local town and villages. More toilet and shop facilities can be found at the stunning Sandringham Estate visitor centre which is a short drive or walk. Dersingham Bog sits within the village of Wolferton, but is also very close to Sandringham. To the north of Dersingham bog, there's Dersingham Village where you can enjoy an after-walk refreshment at the Coash & Horses pub. They serve good quality local food and they have a beautiful garden area to relax in on the warmer days.

The Walk: Dersingham Forest features a circular walk which take you between the two available car parks. There is no cycle access on the nature reserve but Sandringham is on Sustrans National Cycle Route 1 and there is a cycle rack at the Wolferton car park.

Dogs: As this is a nature reserve, there are a few restrictions on bringing your pet dog along - to prevent disturbance to rare ground nesting birds that this nature reserve protects, dogs must be kept on a lead to ensure that the nesting birds and the free roaming herd of Black Galloway cattle are not disturbed. According to the signage at the site, dogs must be kept on leads which are shorter than 2 metres in length at all times.

Parking: There is ample free parking at either of the car parks which is currently free with no restrictions at the time of writing this. There is a cycle rack available at the Wolferton car park as Dersingham Bog is on the Sustrans National Cycle Route 1. The car parks are both unsurfaced but are regularly maintained. The car parks can be found along the minor road to Wolferton Village to the west of the A149. The cliff top car park is located at TF6626 2840. The scissors cross car park is located at TF6682 2804

Travel: There is two car parks with ample free parking and the nature reserve has a cycle rack on the Wolferton car park and the bog is on the Sustrans National Cycle Path 1 route. The nearest train station is at Kings Lynn which is 10 kilometres south west of the nature reserve. Currently, the Lynx Bus service serves the area and details of the services offered can be found on their website.

Disabled Access: Accessibility for disabled visitors is good with an easy access path being installed which leads from the Wolferton car park to a viewpoint within the forest.

Things To Note: A small yet beautiful herd of Black Galloway cattle including an adult bull with horns graze on the grass around the nature reserve all year around. The cattle are docile and are well accustomed to seeing visitors. However, visitors are advised to treat the cattle with respect and caution. For the cattle's sake and the migrating and nesting birds, dogs must be kept on a lead shorter than 2m. From February to September, various ground nesting birds including nightjars, stonechats and tree pipits nest on parts of the reserve and are vulnerable to any disturbance. For this reason, it is requested that visitors keep to the waymarked paths during these nesting months.

Fun Facts: In the dark you can see glow worms!