Sometimes, if you blink, you might miss it. I am referring to the almost mythical British summer of course. Not the period of time from late June to late September, but those hot, glorious days, when the sun bakes down and, aside from a few moans about “the heat”, everyone seems to have a happier disposition.

I had been searching for an image that fitted that feeling. And having driven past a hayfield full of these rounded bales, I circled round in the car, approaching from another direction, looking for a route in.

Alvin was with me, carrying his tripod and camera bag, and I was similarly laden down in the sweltering heat.

This bale, and it’s two siblings in the near distance, seemed a perfect grouping. I went for low down, not extending my tripod legs and kneeling down in the course stubs of hay still in the ground, and I shot wide. I am pretty certain this was the only shot I took.

Alvin wandered round, trying different angles and perspectives, and I waited until he was satisfied, before we headed back.

The shape of hay bales is a curious thing. When I was young, their were invariably rectangular, the shape of two cubes stuck together. At some point, modern farming has introduced the circular bales, there is surely some logical reason for that.

This image is available as a print, canvas and in various other formats here.