Isle of Anglesey

Never shot a sunrise here until the other, very pleasant way to spend a few hours

This bioluminescence and NLC hunting isn't going too well.....!!!

Ok I'll grab my coat.........

Anglesey

Llanddwyn Island - Tŵr Mawr Lighthouse

North Wales.

Well what a disaster Saturday night was. Lake District was on after work then the weather forecast changed so Anglesey it was. Got to within a couple of miles of South Stack and it changed from glorious clear skies to huge amounts of sea mist so much so that you couldn't see the lighthouse when we got there...back up plan quickly formulated....St Cwyfan's church.....covered in sea mist........ok Llanddwyn Island again....Only the Milky Way is in the wrong place and the tide is coming in so this is the best one from a bad bunch.... Oh and wake up to find I missed the Aurora....Happy days!!!

Non long exposure version!

A quick paddle over to Llanddwyn to catch Sunset

Menai Bridge bathed in the golden morning glow as the morning mist rises up the staits

Thought i'd try sunset from a different place, well different for me, not that I had much choice, it's getting like a cattle market up there.......

Trwyn Du Lighthouse, Penmon Point North Wales.

It's been what seems an absolute age since I've been here and it wasn't part of the plan for today, I'd planned to do a third day at the utterly amazing abandoned quaryy at Dinorwic (photos to follow) however a wrng turn, and a total inabilty to pass anything steam train related (Welsh Highland Railway) saw me well off the route and looking for another option, so Anglesey it was....

A quick check on tide times told me what I wanted to now with a low incoming tide here, good chance of some nice foreground.. A quick wander around and this composition just literally jumped out at me, S curved path directly to the lighthouse and some great deep seaweed encrusted rockpools left full by the last tide.

While I was taking this a guy came wandering down and was just about to walk right in front of my set up.. I asked him to hang on for a minute, he said "'oh are you taking pictures too" I'm not sure how much more obvious I could have been as a photographer without maybe a huge red arrow over my head and a neon sign saying 'Hi I'm a photographer', neverthless he seemed to see that I was also taking pictures... once I was done he walked right down to the water line took his snap, and then made his way back.... I said to him, "do you not think it is a better image from here"? to which he replied "no, you are far too far away here", so that was me told, I packed up and retreated to the car. Brilliant.

Conclusion from this trip: I need to visit North Wales so much more as it is absolutely beautiful, and an equal drive time to the Lakes or North Yorkshire. And maybe I should stand closer....

Visit my Website

Ynys Llanddwyn with Twr Mawr and Twr Bach

Waiting for the Milky Way.....we watched the sun go down and by the time we got home it was on its way back up. We were joined by some porpoises just after sunset...which was nice!

Explore #1 13/08/2020

A few weeks ago I'd indentified just one evening where I had some free time to get out and see Comet Neowise. Since it wasn't going to be around again for another 6,766 years I though I'd better make the effort... and the thought of it being visible to the naked eye was far too much of a temptation to pass by.

Thankfully (and unusually) the weather was absolutely perfect for the evening I'd picked with very little cloud lingering around and thus millions of stars were clearly visible to the naked eye, arrivng well after dark was the hard part as not only was I struggling to see the comet I couldn't really see where I was going either without shining a really bright torch around and potentially ruining anyone elses shots that may be around although I couldn't make anyone out..

My arrival time coincided with the tide going back out so that was a huge help knowing I wasn't going to get cut off on the rocks I was now scrambling across in the dark to find a foreground.. once I'd got settled my eyes had adjusted to the dark and the Comet could clearly be seen, absolutely awesome to witness I just stood on watched on for a while taking it all in, after all it was the only time I'd ever get to see it..

This was taken a 0115AM, I finally settled on a 15 second exposure at f/2.8 and a little bit of lighting for the foreground rocks, it's really not often I do shooting at night and Astro work but I really enjoyed it, something very surreal about being stood in the sea at 0130 AM in Wellies shooting and watching a subject that is 64 million miles away. Not something you get to do everyday. And amazingly, no mishaps !

Have a zoom around at all the stars, sent my eyes crazy looking up at them all, due to light pollution you never get to see anything like this where I live.

Portfolio of images on my own website here

South Stack lighthouse at sunset.

Well it's not New Brighton.......but by the time I'd got the camera out of the car, walked a few metres down the steps the sun has done one...........then the mist rolled in........so this is as good as it got......At least New Brighton is 1h 45mins nearer!

A much needed few days away to Anglesey with plenty of photography involved has really stoked my fires again, it's been so sporadic these past 18 months, stop, start, stop again.... due to you know what...

I hadn't shot this location for years and decided to revisit as I was only staying about 30 minutes away, to be honest it felt great getting out by the sea again, which without doubt is my favourite form of photography (coastal) the trip yeilded some great results and some of the locations I was able to use the drone at have really brought that into it's own as well.

No drones allowed here so this was an amble down to a cliff edge to find a spot that myself and my bag were unlikely to tumble off.. thankfully that didn't happen and it was a great spot to watch the sunset while taking pictures and observing all the loud screaming seabirds coming and going from the cliffs.

You can visit my website HERE - 1 to 1 Tuition and Workshops available again now restrictions have now been eased here the UK, message me for details

My website: Deep Mono Photography

Ynys Llanddwyn or Llanddwyn Island is a small tidal island off the west coast of Anglesey, North Wales. The island forms part of the National Nature Reserve of Newborough Warren which includes the extensive and floristically rich sand dune system. Llanddwyn Island is a tidal island; it remains attached to the mainland at all but the highest tides. It provides views of Snowdonia and the Llyn Peninsula. The Llanddwyn Island Lighthouse marks the western entrance to the Menai Strait. In 2004, Llanddwyn Island was used as a filming location in Demi Moore's romantic thriller Half Light. Tŵr Mawr was used as a lighthouse which plays a key role in the film. CGI was used to create the effect of a real light on top of the lighthouse. Wikipedia

Evening on Anglesey with Emma and H for the Milky Way which as you can see is stunning.....obviously it didn't turn cloudy an hour after this, not at all................

The gleaming white arch at Rhoscolyn is formed from quartzite, with Holyhead Mountain forming a backdrop in the distance.

I'm so looking forward to a walk out here again.......

with wintry Snowdonia on the horizon

Moody moonlight shot.

Legend says that Gwenfaen escaped from local druids, climbed the sea stack and was carried away by angels.

South Stack

Bwa Gwyn Rhoscolyn

last one from this trip you'll be pleased to know!

This one has been on the list for quite a while, quite a magical feel to the place, especially with its remote location. The promising sunset failed to appear as seems be de rigeur these days for me, as does the rain which started the day after and hasn't stopped as yet preventing another vist, I'll definitely come back here again to shoot this place though.

89 seconds @ f/16

St. Cwyfan's, (or the Church in the Sea) as it is known, is located in North Wales, perched on a tiny island called Cribinau, encircled by a sea wall, the church dates from the 12th century.

You can view my most interesting shots on Flickriver here: www.flickriver.com/photos/pete37038/popular-interesting/.

Not a cloud to be seen as I chased around Anglesey

The moon nicked the Milky Way

Sunset at Twr Mawr

Anglesey

The remains of the Point Lynas jetty.

Parys Mountain, they have been mining copper here for over 4000years and in the 19c, this was Europe's largest copper mine. The remains of the windmill built in 1878, was used for pumping minewater.