Corwen Floods march 17 th

We have had torrential rain over the last few days and the rivers all around the region are flooding. The river Dee in North Wales has broken its banks around the Corwen area so I will be  heading in that direction early morning, the weather forecast is not looking good with yet more rain forecast, but I think I have until 1 pm.
Driving across the river at Corwen, the fields are completely flooded, after driving around upstream I have eventually found a good parking spot where I can get down to the flood plane.   Now time to get the drone up.

Taking off and going straight up this is the view directly in front of me.

                          A couple of images looking slightly upstream from my position.

                       Upstream I have just spotted this fallen tree,  it makes a great subject ……..

                                                               "The Mighty have Fallen"

                                                                            "Topdown"

                                                                A multi frame Vertorama

                                    Looking straight down on this tree illuminated by the sun .

                                                       

                                                                        Closer view.

I have just changed the battery and headed down stream towards Corwen direction, the cloud is building in front of me and its heading this way quite fast.
There are four "Sentinel" trees, that look great surrounded by the flood water, and the light is producing lovely colours reflecting in the water around them.   3 frames merged together.

                                           A Topdown shot over the top of the trees.

It is now raining over me , while the drone was down stream in the sun I hadn't noticed how fast the rain had approached me ,  time to bring the drone back fast so it doesn't get wet!

That's it , its raining hard now so time to pack up and head home.

Miners Tack Snowdon 4 th Feb 2019

Its early on a Monday morning,   I have driven down to Snowdonia again to take a walk along the Snowdon Miners track.  Driving up towards Pen-y-pass the light is looking very good with blue sky and thick cloud over the top of Snowdons peak, so a quick drive down to the view point carpark for a short drone flight.
It seems quite windy even this low , so I make this a very short 8 minute flight to get a couple of panorama images.

                                                  Looking into the Snowdon Horseshoe.

                                                                            a phone shot

                                                                  9 frame drone panorama

                Now to drive up to the Pen-y-pass car park, and pay the extortionate £10 to park!
Taking the Miners track out of the car park ,which is a nice easy walk along to the Llyn Lydaw lakes which is the location I want to fly today, there is a nice ruined building which should look good from the air, But  as I walk along this path the wind is increasing substantially and could well ruin my plan!

                                           There is not much snow left unfortunately.

                                   I have reached the lake ,   it is blowing a gale up here now.

The edge of the right hand lake is frozen over with some snow cover , so I shoot this image with the canon 5dsr

As I walk around the lake there is a large waterfall coming down from below Crib Goch, and more importantly it is sheltered from the worst of the wind so I can get the drone up for a few images.

                                                                            Llyn Lydaw

Now for the waterfall, I have put a nd16 filter on to block light entering the camera to slow the shutter speed down, so I can experiment with longer exposures to blur the water


                        This is a 5 frame Vertorama  shot at f8  and 1/6 th second exposure.

                                                            crop from above image

The wind is too strong to fly out over the lake to get shots of the ruins today unfortunately, so I will carry on walking a bit further to see what its like round the corner heading towards Glaslyn.

                                         This rock face is covered in a thick layer of ice!

 Much more snow on the path as I get higher,  the cloud is closing in over the summit so I wont carry on any further today.

                             Back down at the lake, a shot of the ruins , best I can do  today.

Walking back round the lake and crossing the causeway between the lakes I have stopped to look back up at Crib Goch, the sun has broken through the clouds and illuminating the ground in front of me.    so a couple of quick handheld dslr images.

Time to head back to the car , The cloud base has lowered considerably over the summit and is heading this way.

But ahead of me, the sun is lighting up the landscape and as I have come around the corner the wind is not so bad, so I will risk a short flight to get an image or two.

                                           
                                                            This is a four image merge.

And as I walk back to the car park the sun is illuminating Capel Curig in the distance ,   using the 100-400mm L lens I managed this image.

Ogwen Valley Waterfalls January 14 th 2019

Today I am heading to the Ogwen Valley in Snowdonia to shoot a couple of the waterfalls,  It has been quite a while since I have been here.
Parking on the corner lay by I have crossed over the road and taken the path that follows the base of Pen-y-ole- wen around towards the weir.  The weather is very overcast and drizzling a bit, but I will get a few images.

Having reached the weir I have set up the tripod to do some long exposure images with the canon 5dsr and 17-40L lens. using a combination of 0.6 soft nd grad filter to prevent the sky blowing out and either a Lee 10 stop Big or 6 stop Little stopper to give the long exposure.  I will experiment with both, but think the little stopper will give best results with a slightly shorter exposure compared to the 10 stop and therefor I will get a bit of movement detail in the water instead of just a white blur with a very long exposure.


                                                                   10 seconds  f14

                                                                        13 seconds f14

                                                    Full wide view   15 seconds f14

Its raining a bit now so I will head back over the road and go up to the Ogwen falls next to the wooden footbridge which is at the start of the Cym Idwal path.   I stop to take a phone shot of the old bridge under the main road with Y-Garn in the background.

                              Looking down the Nant Ffrancon Valley towards Anglesey.

                                                      Tryfan and the gateway to Idwal.

I have set up the tripod just right of the bridge, clambering around the side of the waterfall for a slightly different perspective than is normally shot here. low cloud is moving quite quickly across the top of Tryfan over to the left.

                                                        13 seconds with  little stopper

                                                    15 seconds with little stopper

Now its time to go back to the car and drive to the opposite end of the Lake below Tryfan to go up the water fall path opposite.  This is a very boggy wet area and the paths are not very clear after the first section.  its a case of picking a dryish route following the Afon y fron river upwards to get enough height to view the valley.

I have climbed up to the first main waterfall section which gives a lovely view across to Tryfan and the Glyders over Llyn Ogwen.  The cloud is changing fast with the stiff breeze, I have managed to get this image with the light raking across the Glyders ridge , The Devils Kitchen and across to Y-Garn.

                          A short 1/4 second exposure was enough with the very fast flowing water.

After moving a bit higher up to the next set of falls ,  I have been waiting ages for a bit of light when the sun breaks through the thick cloud and illuminates the foreground just long enough for me to get this image.   I was going to wait around for sunset but after half an hour the cloud is just getting thicker so I will head back down now.

                                                                  1/4 second  f14

                            On the way down I got photobombed by a sheep in front of Tryfan .

                                                 The end of a good day in North Wales .

Autumn in Snowdonia Nov 18 th

This morning I am heading into Snowdonia in search of Autumn colour, starting  in the forests near to Trefriw.  Having driven down to Llanwrst and turned over the bridge towards Trefriw and then the road through the forest .     I have stopped at the Hafna mine , the old building ruins might make for a good image or two from above.

                                                                  8 frame Vertorama

                                                            2 frames merge Topdown

                                                                     Single frame f5.6

Time to move on , this road eventually comes out by the "Ugly house"   but half way along there is a turn off towards Cors Bodgynydd nature reserve , a location I have previously been shooting Dragonflies and Damselflies.  Further on are a couple of large mountain lakes, I will try one of those I think.    Eventually I have come to Llyn Geirionydd , this will be a great location to shoot from high up .

I have set up near the car park on the edge of the lake, and will fly the drone down to the far end to have a look around at the maximum height allowed of 400ft

                                                A simple 2 frame image to start with .

                                                                    9 frame Vertorama

                 This one is a cropped 21 frame 180 dgree panorama, with the left hand end cut off.

The battery is almost down to the warning , so a quick topdown image of the trees on the opposite side of the lake from where I am standing.

Time to head off again , I think a drive down into Betws-y-Coed and have a look around see what I can find.     I have stopped of over the road from Fairy Glen, just by the river. since I only have half a battery left it will be a quick 10 minute flight.

             Looking down the valley, Betws -y is just around the corner to the left out of sight.

           Lovely colours still being lit up by the sun directly in front of me high up on the hill side.

                       I have shot a couple of closer images , love the light on the trees in these.

The end of another great day shooting.

            all images shot with Dji Phantom 4 pro drone .