Sumatran Tiger Cubs at Chester Zoo jan/feb 2012

In between climbing mountains i have been visiting Chester zoo to shoot the tiger cubs.Pete has been spending a lot of time their shooting them, way more than i have!  im too impatient to wait for them to wake up and come out to play!  lol   it is so difficult with either glass or wire mesh to shoot though!     the enclosure is quite dark with all the big trees blocking light so have to shoot at high iso to get fast enough shutterspeed!

the cubs were 14 weeks old when i first saw them.They were born on 21st October     First are two pictures of their mother "Kirana" , i managed to lie on the floor in front of the glass viewing screen to get a good low angle to shoot from.  think they came out really well!

                 Now the cub pics, these first few are shot through wire mesh with 70-300is lens

                               They do sleep alot, but then they come out to play with mom :)

                                                                     Mom Having a rest!!!!

Here are two of Petes cub shots :)    a superb low composition, they are so cute at the moment!!!!!

and a more recent shot from last week of the pair! 

Here is my favourite shot, a big crop at high iso unfortunately, but its a special moment with mother and cub :D

                      All images taken with canon 5d2, 70-300 is  & 550d 100-400mm L (Pete)

Cym Idwal and Llyn Bochlywd Waterfalls 12 feb 2012

Another trip into the mountains of Snowdonia, and quite an eventful day it turned out to be!!!!!!!!

The weather forecast was for mixed conditions, so i did expect all that was thrown at me!  lol
The starting point today was the bottom of Ogwen valley to firstly climb the Cym Idwal waterfalls up to the lake , then cross over and go up to Llyn Bochlywd which is below the Glyders range of peaks.

                                          But first a shot looking down a misty Lyn Ogwen

And a shot from the road looking up to the waterfalls where i will eventually climb past over in the top left hand corner in this  image!

The first view is about 5 minutes from the car park, taken from a wooden bridge that spans the stream. as you can see the fog was getting quite thick at this point .

and from a little higher up :)

Climbing a bit further i eventually get a great view looking down to Lyn Ogwen. the light is still awful though!!!!!!!

The waterfalls lead all the way up to Cym Idwal which is surrounded by the Devils Kitchen!  there is still plenty of ice around and the fog has closed in over the Kitchen now!

Turning around to view Pen-yr-ole-wen

and back up to the Devils Kitchen in the fog!!!!!

Climbing up to the lake i get my first glimpse of the day of the Devils Kitchen, still misty :)

But just a few minutes later the mist started clearing and i could see blue sky appearing from my right!   looking  good now.

Turning around to view Pen-yr-ole-wen, amazing how fast the weather turns around up here:)

It was now time to cross over the other waterfall section, a much smaller series of falls that i haven't really photographed much before.  here is a view looking back towards the devils Kitchen over to the left hand side. with the Nant Francon valley over to the right of image.

After negotiating a really boggy area i eventually reached the falls section, here are a few of the shots .

and looking down to Pen-yr-ole-wen

Looking up to the bigger falls , and shots of the valley below now!

looking down the Nant Francon valley

climbing up the steep section towards the top where there is a large boulder field that has to be crossed to get to the lake  Llyn Bochlywd, which is at about 2000ft .

The boulder field and bochlywd

Here is the lake, already getting fogged in!!

after a steep climb i was looking down on the lake, but as you can see the fog was getting thicker and very soon i would not be able to see much! , i was going to start going up Tryfan but the weather started closing in fast!

So i decided to make my way back down , as the light was now very poor !

Back down at the lake

just after i shot this, while traversing the boulder field, my foot slipped between 2 large boulders and my leg slid between them, grazed all way up to knee , and then took a few minites to actually prise it out again !!!!!!!!!!!  Blood,pain and swollen, i limped all way back down the mountain!!!!!!!!!!  Argggg

Boulder field!!!!!!!!!! 

On the way down it was really getting darker!

Eventually i made my way back down to where the easy Cym Idwal path turns to go towards idwal, it is a really good path!  lol

The end of a eventful day!

All shots taken with canon 5d2,17-40L

Loughrigg Terrace,Rydal,Grasmere and Launchy Gill jan 29th

A Last minute trip up to the lakes to meet up with Oliver , the weather was not as the forecast sunny spells!  Nothing  new there then!  lol     i met  Oli & his dog Eersil at Rydal water carpark.  we decided to walk around Rydal water on the higher path and then climb up to the trig point on the top of Loughrigg terrace.
Taking a look at Rydal first, it was flat calm, so reflection shots were the order of the day, even in poor overcast conditions the reflections were amazing.but first a view down the lake! note the ice , but it didn't feel that cold!

and a view across to the islands shot with 70-300 is

Now for the reflection shot , taken again with 70-300 is , always good to have a long lens in the bag! 

Walking up to the top path , a couple of quick shots across the lake!

A little bit of frost on the fields!

 

Walking up the high path now taking in views across the lake and down towards Grasmere.

And  Rydal water from Loughrigg Terrace.

Looking down on Grasmere as we climbed higher the weather was not looking like it was going to get any better!!  Bummer!!!!!!!!!

                                                                   A lone fisherman !

Up a little higher!

Here we are !   lol

As you can see in this image of the Langdales , the weather was just no good!!!!!!!!!!!

So we decided to turn around and try to shoot Launchy Gill waterfall at thirlmere, one of my favourite falls :)      But first we went down to Grasmere weir !

Along came a swan!  and a young signet from last year !

Here is another weir shot lol

We made our way back to the carpark, total walk time was 5 hours 40 minutes !

Now off to Thirlmere for a look at the falls :)

The first thing i noticed was the water level has dramatically gone up since i was last at this waterfall, about 10 ft higher in fact,  the best spot to shoot the falls from is now underwater!!!!! but i got the 70-300 out and managed this close up of the top falls shooting under the bridge!  lol

My best image of the day!

 

                                                        A Great image to finish off the day :)  

                                       all images shot with canon 5d2,17-40 L & 70-300 is