Wednesday 16 May 2018

Stwlan Dam Snowdonia April 9 th 2018

Today i have decided to go to Tanygrisiau, which is near Blaenau Festiniog to walk up into the mountains to Stwlan Dam . it looks a fabulous area to take aerial images with the drone.
The weather is looking very good this morning with blue sky and mixed cloud ,but clouding over in the early afternoon , So need to get up to the Dam early morning.
Arriving in Tanygrisiau and managing to find the small car parking area i had previously marked on the map  , i can see another parking area over near a set of waterfalls.  That would have been a little closer but never mind, its a nice day to go walking anyhow.

                                   Look at that view!    the dam is up there somewhere.



 Waterfalls near the other car parking area , Cwmorthin quarry is up there, a destination for later this afternoon.




 The tarmac road goes all the way up to the dam, and no traffic to worry about either , its a steady climb all the way up to the steeper zig zags by the look of it.




 I have stopped to take this image down through to Tanygrisiau reservoir , it looks like it would have had a track to bring rock /ore down to the railway track down by the reservoir from the old mine workings.




 At last i can see the Dam nestled in the mountainside , still a long hike up the zig zag road now.




 Having climbed up to near the top of the dam , i have set up the phantom 4 pro drone and taken off.
 Its a bit breezy but apart from that, the clouds and blue sky are going to look great in the images.





  First image ,single frame of a panorama set that didn't really look right , But this single looked good. 
                         I am shooting at 100 iso and f5.6 seems to be sharpest on this camera.



         A 9 image panorama , shot automatically with the drone.  The individual frames have been stitched in PTGui sticher program , after several tests i have noticed that Lightroom panorama stitcher loses significant of detail when comparing to the identical image merged in this program.


                     Looking down on part of the dam , strange how they have painted each end !





 Flying over to the far side of the mountain, its still easy to keep the drone in sight against the beautifull blue sky.

       This is a 180 degree 21 frame panorama merge.   This is my favourite image of the day.




                                                              Six frame vertorama.
                                             The light is starting to look a bit flat now!




 Thick cloud is building and approaching fairly quickly , i need to start walking back down now if i want to go up to Llyn Cwmorthin, which is a lake in the next valley over behind the waterfalls i passed earlier.




                                      Superb views down to Tanygrisiau over to the left.









                    Arrived at the waterfalls , this image looking back to where i have just been.
                                 This is the way up to the old quarry buildings i want to see.





 Look at all the slate !     One of the old ruined buildings is just in view , unfortunately the clouds have beaten me , this is no good for taking images.




 A few glimpses of blue sky but the sun is now covered by thick cloud that seems to have almost stopped moving!!!!!




 I have decided to sit and wait to see if i can get any sun breaking through before flying , but only have one battery left so will have the one chance.




      Yay!  sun     quickly into the air with the drone and manage to get this 3 frame hdr image with the sun lighting up the mountainside....




           That didn't last long!  couple of minutes and its gone, replaced with yet more clouds.
                                                                   9 frame panorama.



                                                  Topdown over the old mine buildings.




 Looking down the lake , with the fingers of rock leading out into the reservoir , that will look good looking straight down over them.




 6 frames taken topdown, moving the drone sideways to cover the entire area, each image is overlapped by about 25-30% to allow the stitcher to merge properly.




 That's it for today , no more drone batteries left and it now decides to brighten up!!!!!  





                       Passing some interesting slate structures on the way back down to the car.





                                                 Almost back at the car ,  one last image.




                        The end of a great morning in the stunning Snowdonia mountains.

Wednesday 2 May 2018

Barcelona last day



The last day in Barcelona, our flight is late tonight so we have most of the day free ,  just around the corner from our hotel is a large park, zoo gardens called Ciutadella Park which we are going to walk around.
Its a warm sunny day , AGAIN !     while its raining back home , Shame.

Walking into the park and around to these open air greenhouses, which are closed.   but in the large tree are loads of those green parrots, all building nests and making alot of noise!










After trying for ages i have managed a half decent image, they are in the shade under the tree canopy making it very difficult to get a decent shot.  even with my 100-400 its still not enough .



The Barcelona Arc de Triomf  is not too far away  , so we are heading that direction.    love these chameleon designs on the pool edge.




Across the main road and  is Passeig de Lluis Companys , a long palm tree lined avenue with the large Arch at the far end,  it is extremely busy being a Sunday.

                                                   The street lamps are very ornate.







                          Almost at the end and there is a large crowd watching a street performer.




                                Fabulous display of acrobatics with a large circular frame.







                                                                      Phone panorama




                                       A very strange modern art sculpture in Ciutadella  park .




                                           Fabulous fountains and a stunning monument.

                                                                Cascada Monumental



There are so many fabulous areas in Barcelona , plenty to see and not enough time to do everything we had intended.


 

                                                                     Great staircase.



 Love the gold detail



After an icecreme and a rest we have come across this...........     Jan waited her turn to stand next to it.

                                                   Jan and an Wooley Mammoth   lol




                           The pollarded trees line this avenue , the shadows are really interesting.
                               I waited ages to get this image without any people in view , almost!





                                                              Cant take her anywhere!    
                                                          at least she cant reach this time!




On our way out of the park now, heading to the marina for a look around.




















                                                                 The Marina of Port Vell

                                                 loads of street traders selling shoes and rugs



                                  Multi million pound boats moored here, side by side.




               Back on our way to meet up with Ellie , passing another great showpiece
                                                            modern art sculpture.




                                                                            The Lobster




                  The Olympic flame we saw earlier this week.  we are meeting Ellie and Pato here.




                                               One of the many side streets with small cafes



 Inside El Born Centre de Cultura i Memoria ,      a museum covering the excavated ruins of a  city from 1700s




                                                      Looking for a quiet street cafe









The end of our short stay in Barcelona ,  we will return as so much we havnt been able to see.