Gwynedd

A (very) slightly different shot from an earlier posting but i'll probably never take one as good as this again so apologies for the repeat!

Into September now and I still haven't been back to the Lake District since C19 kicked off, I guess I'm just builing up a appetite for it... I decided on the spare of the moment without even bothering to check the weather to book a few days in Snowdonia, I fiugred that even if the weather went dreary I could just head to Dinorwic Quarry and embrace the gloom as it often looks great in wet and dramatic weather....

I'd never really got anything I liked from this location before and hadn't planned to shoot it on this trip, but the B&B was only 5 minutes away, the conditions looked good the night before, and I'd also get my breakfast before a day in the hills so I talked myself into it...

As it happens I'm glad I did as this is to date the best image I've got from here, definitely worth crouching down in the water and getting a soaked backside for anyway!

The eruption of light over the tops of Dinorwic was great but quite brief, the hardest part of getting this shot was getting the tree as still as possible during the exposure as you can see by the water movement it was (annoyingly) fairly windy, a couple of grads on for the sky was giving me around a second and then just had to stare at the tree to wish it to keep still.

For anyone like minded who is wondering, the Breakfast was great :-) even with a wet backside.

Portfolio of images on my own website here

Llyn Gwynant

The walk up Cadair Idris is a killer :-) whoever told me it was easier than Snowdon is a liar! On a more serious the note the last two times I've been landscape togging in Wales (both Mondays) the USAF have blitzed the Mach Loop with F15s so as I'm off work this coming Monday do I go for landscape or sit on the side of a hill and hope?

Three rock stacks at Trefor North Wales

Watkin Path, Snowdonia

Sunrise over Snowdon

A truly memorable morning on the Snowdon Horseshoe. This was the four shot panoramic view from near the top of the climb up to the start of the Crib Goch ridge, looking straight down to the Bwlch y Moch where you can make out the Pyg track crossing the ridge line. Down to the left is the Pass of Llanberis, and you can just make out a white coach making its way up to the top of the pass - Pen y Pass. Rising above the pass to the left is Glyder Fawr with it's head in the clouds, and a little to the right is Gyder Fach. In the right centre of the image in the distance you can see part of Moel Siabod, it's summit obscured by the near cloud. In the lower centre right is crags of Carreg Gwalch rising above the Llyn Teryn (the smaller lake) and finally part of Llyn Llydaw can be seen bottom right. When I set off that morning the sky was cloudless, but as I climbed up the clouds moved in quite spectacularly, and wreathed the hills in turbulent mist. Unfortunately I could not get the shot I came for - the view along the Crib Goch to the summit of Yr Wyddfa - as heavy cloud settled over the summit for the whole day. Although the cloud lifted from most of the mountain in the afternoon, I got the best of the conditions early on, and the it made for a really special day.

Another from the trek round the Glyders

Harlech beach, North Wales, a first time for me here and what a stunning place it is, the weather had been really poor this particular morning and I was basically looking at shooting black and white long expsoures on the coast as there was virttually no light at all and grey skies.

On the way to Barmouth the sun started breaking through some of the heavy cloud cover giving really intense light in shafts down onto the ocean below, knowing it wouldn't last I had to find somewhere to park up and try somewhere to get a shot....

With absolutely nowhere to park up I had to resort to dumping the car half on some grass nearby with the hazards on, not something I'd normally do but needs must...

This was the scene nearby with the shafts of sunlight breaking through the storms clouds and illinating sections of the beach and also the surf washing onto the beach, I just had to frame up wait for the couple walking on the beach to be illuminated by sunlight as it moved along the beach quickly with the aid of some strong winds, I don't normally like to shoot big sweeping scenes in this way but the weather here was just perfect to show this landscape off including the curvature of the beach, the couple walking amongst it couldn't have timed it better for my shot and for their stroll, and I didn't get a parking ticket.

Visit my Website

A quick trip to the beach

Happy New Year to everyone, and the first post of 2021, an archive image from a couple of years ago that I haven't shared on here.

Barmouth Railway Bridge in Snowdownia which spans over 800 meters across the Afon Mawddach Estuary.

Some seriously dramatic weather this day in the midst of a storm one moment, then broken sunlight, then a bit more storm and repeat. I had to wait for the bridge to be lit up while it wasn't raining, which eventually happened, and thankfully the sky was suitably dramatic at the same time. I'd always wanted to walk over this bridge since I first went over it by rail in 1988, I finally got to do it this day.

I couldn't decide about including the yacht in the compostion at the time but the more I look at it I like it in there.

Portfolio of images on my own website here

My website: Deep Mono Photography

A row of beach huts on a sunny, but overcast, day in Abersoch, Wales.

Snowdonia

By a way of a change from all that grey and green, here's a blue one! This one of my favourite places in Wales, Cregennen Lake, near Dolgellau in North Wales on a beautiful day. I had just come down from Cadair Idris, the hill on the right with it's head in the clouds. I decided to stop off by the lake just to sit and look for a while, before heading a mile or so downhill to my cousin's farm. Whilst sitting there some lovely Cirrus cloud developed in the centre of the view, and I managed to catch them before they disappeared again. I hope I have managed to convey the peace and beauty of this place, it is very special - even more so when you have it all to yourself!

...Well part of them anyway. This beautiful cascade seems to get overlooked by the many visitors to the Ogwen Valley, possibly due to being a bit tucked out of sight. Due to recent wet weather and thaw from the mountains it was in full song when we visited.

Thanks very much to everyone who visited, especially to those who have 'Faved' and 'commented' it really is greatly appreciated.

The boathouse and hills at Llynnau Ctegennen in Snowdonia before the sunrises.

Here's a rework of an image from a few years ago - the view from the top of Snowdon, looking down to the ridge of Lliwedd on the right, the black lake of Llyn Llydaw in the centre, and the sharp ridge of Crib Goch to the left. Moel Siabod is the peak in the centre distance. You never know, we may get another day like this during this winter, which would make a pleasant change from all the rain we have been having. Hope you and yours have a good one!

Another from a fantastic day out with Mark, Geoff, Brad and Barb in Dinorwic and Anglesey. These are the Anglesey Barracks at Dinorwic quarry, looking up toward Llanberis Pass. Dinorwic Quarry employed over 3000 men at its peak and many of these workers lived locally or caught the quarry train on the Padarn Railway to work each day. However men from Anglesey, in particular, required to lodge or barrack at the quarry each week. They left home early on a monday morning and returned on saturday afternoon. Provisions for the week were carried on their journey. One of their homes for the week was the Anglesey Barracks high up in the quarry. Anglesey Barracks consists of two identical blocks of 11 units facing each other across an unmade street. Each unit has a living room with a fireplace and a bedroom with space for four men. Amenities were few - no electricity, soft mattresses, toilets or running water, just basic furniture and little else. Windows were provided only onto the street. This way of life survived until 1948 when an unannounced visit by the local Public Health Inspector saw the barracks condemned as unfit for human habitation. After that the quarrymen from Anglesey travelled daily by bus. (Info courtesy of Penmorfa.com).

Early morning on the famous Snowdon Horseshoe. This was taken on the climb up to the Crib Goch, looking across Cwm Dyli and Llyn Llydaw to the twin peaks and cliffs of Y Lliwedd. The early morning was the best of the day, the clouds rolled in and covered the top of Snowdon in a thick cold blanket - but it was good to be up there again!

The view from somewhere in-between Glyder Fawr and Glyder Fach I think.....might be a Half Man Half Biscuit lyric in there.......

Here's a re-working of one from almost a year ago, that I spent a bit of time looking at with a certain Mr Waidson. We started the process of the re-work over a convivial couple of beers in his Man-cave, and it spurred me on to finish the job. Hope you like it. These are the top of the Ogwen falls in North Wales just by the A5, just after the outflow from Llyn Ogwen, with Tryfan in the background.

Following on from last week's shot of the Crib Goch, this is the interesting conclusion to the ridge. The knife edge arete culminates in a very sporting clamber up and down over three pinnacles. This image shows the last of the three, and conveniently for me, three young chaps were climbing ahead of me and showed the three main stances on the ledges of the pinnacle. The lowest (guy in the black shorts) is the most precarious, the middle is easiest, and the top (guy in the red top) is a real don't look down moment if you are not keen on heights! There is a way of bypassing the second and third pinnacle by descending a fair way to the left - but why would you? Once over the third pinnacle you descend to the col before the clamber up the Garnedd Ugain ridge which is the second section of the great Snowdon Horseshoe - there is even more fun to come!

Isolated farm house nestled in the Afon Glaslyn Valley, Snowdonia

A few days away in Wales proved really rewarding, this was a great days photography, starting off with a killer light sunrise coupled with a double rainbow on the opposite coast of North Wales, and some great great sheltered locations working inland along the route to Portmadog and Criccieth where I shot this sunset overlooking Criccieth Castle on the hill.

The sun seemed to drop extremely quickly here and I managed just 2 compositions along the shore, the light here was crazy after the sun had dropped behind the houses with the buildings really appearing to be on fire, this had caught me out as I'd just finished shoting one location and was moving in closer to get the caste with what I hoped would be a decent afterglow, for about 30 seconds there was this massive burst of gold just shooting up and outwards, I quickly set up again and got this image of it, this was pretty much just the tail end of it, coupled with a suitably dramatic sky it still captures the moment to remember so I was lucky it lasted that long. Shortly after this as if often the way, the entire scene faded into nothing and dull lifeless light, very much the same as the mornings sunrise.

Time for Fish and Chips, and a beer or 2..

Visit my Website

Snowdonia, I'm going to miss you for a while......

Forecast said minimal cloud.........Still myself and the loon that got me into this lark had made the journey so I was taking a shot of something, taken from the bridge in Brynrefail with the night lights of Llanberis in the background and a touch of snow on Snowdon. By the way H, I’ve nicked your torch.....

A shot from a particularly fine morning on the Aran hills of mid Wales. This is taken from the Drws Bach looking to the memorial cairn for SAC Mike Aspain who was killed by lightning up here whilst on duty with the RAF St Athan Mountain Rescue Team in 1960. The hill with the cliffs to left of centre is Gwaun y Llwyni, in the centre is Glasgwm, and in the distance is Cader Idris.

About time for a waterfall. This is the Pistyll y Cain - the Falls of the King - hidden away in the depths of the Coed y Brenin forest, North Wales.

Seeing as I've not put much black and white stuff up for a while I'll follow the last one up with this, another one from Wales at the immense and extremely expansive Dinorwic Quarry.

I'd set this day out to visit the few parts of this huge quarry that I hadn't been to before, there's no maps of this place as such but I had a written guide from Mike Innes which I'd been saving for this walk when I got the time.

I reckoned it would take me about 3 hours or so for what I wanted to do, needless to say that wasn't 'quite' accurate as it ended up taking me 6 and a half hours... so only slightly out !! worryingly I was running out of water by the time I reached the highest point of the walk but upon turning a corner there were 3 big banks of snow at the base of a cliff that hadn't seen sunlight for months and hadn't melted, once the top layer got scraped away I was able to refill my bottles with slushy snow which made for a refreshing blast of re hydration.

The weather wasn't ideal for photography this day, this place really suits wet moody and overcast days, today was warm and there was a large amount of haze hanging around, until I'd got to this point I hadn't been able to see the Snowdon mountain range and had planned to isolate this building against the backdrop of the mountain tightly, however the light changed up a gear and the haze cleared enough to fully see the tops of the mountains which made for a great contrast against the shadowy foreground and lone quarry building giving a much better sense of scale.

More images from Dinorwic can be found on my website - updated with new images and blog section

A small tree perched on a ledge catches a beam of light from the rising sun, below some derelict buildings high on a cliff in the enormous disused quarry at Dinorwic, in Snowdonia.

As you can see it's a touch burnt......A few days earlier someone did a (ahem) controlled burn but forgot to check the wind forecast.......Doh!

The beautiful cascade of Ogwen Falls, in full song following wet weather and snow melt from the mountains.

I thought long and hard about which image I would use to mark the end of 2019, and I came up with this. The country has been in turmoil for years, but now definite decisions have been made - for good or ill. In my own life there were real ups and downs. You can make your own mind up about turning 60, but I'm sure everyone would agree that becoming a Grandad for the first time is pretty momentous! Little Robyn is already wrapping me round her tiny fingers, she is such a sweetie. So, water under the bridge seems the right choice this year, lets hope 2020 brings us better fortune. By the way, this particular ancient bridge is the remains of the Pont Pen y Benglog and carried the old coach road that was the forerunner of the A5. Thomas Telford's road bridge which passes over the top of the old bridge and built in the 19th century transformed travel in these parts.

Happy New Year to you all!

There are probably worse ways to start the day.......

well one of them........

Another from a cold and gloomy, but very rewarding, day in Snowdonia. On a fine summer's day this place is swarming with people so it was a real treat to have it all to myself. I found a handy boulder that gave a fine viewpoint across Llyn Idwal and it's little island to the rock climbers playground the Idwal Slabs. I've been to this place more times than I can remember, but it still takes my breath away.

It would have been good if there was a bit of snow, but the view from Y Garn is always one to savour. Looking down from this high perch into the deep trench of the Ogwen valley, with the Carneddau group on the left, and Tryfan and the Glyders on the right.

My website: Deep Mono Photography

A row of beach huts sheltering under a bank of trees. There have been beach huts here for many, many years - originally they used tents but now there are 70 brightly painted wooden huts available for hire, maintained to high standard by the National Trust.

Another one from the archive. I posted a shot of beach huts a little while ago taken at Absersoch. This was taken on the same trip but this time at Llanbedrog.

One of the hardest places to photograph . But found a decent vantage point off Bangor Mountain

Reflections......that would make a change for me!