Fairys and Waterfalls oct 13 2014

A trip into Snowdonia today,   I think a shoot at Fairy Glen first while its bright and sunny , thick cloud forecast for later this afternoon.

I love this location , the colour of the wet moss on the gorge wall is amazing , so fresh and vibrant!
clambering down onto the rocks , i set up tripod and experiment with loads of different shutter speeds which gives smooth silky water and trails.


                                            25 seconds f14  iso 100 using 17-40L lens.

                                                                      6 seconds f16

                                                                       4 seconds f14

                            Moving further back and using a long lens to shoot into the gorge
                                                         
                                                          13 second f11  using 100-400 L

                                                             122 seconds f9  No sun!

Time to go now , i am going to drive up the Ogwen valley to shoot the waterfalls , its gone quite dull now  , but that will be ok for waterfall shots.

Parking at the Ogwen cottages , i cross the bridge and over the Pen-yr-ole -wen side of the river to shot across with Tryfan in the background.


                                                                        5 seconds f14

                                                                 3.2 seconds  f14

     Walking further up to the Llyn Ogwen weir ,  a good subject for black/white conversion.

                                                                       5 seconds f18

                                                           And a wide view  0.8 second

                                                                     1/25 th second.

        a quick shot of the waterfall by the Idwal bridge, i have photographed it hundreds of times
                                                         
                                                                        0.4 second  f11

 

the end of a good day out , almost time for autumn colours now, may go to Aberglaslyn gorge next week to see how the colours are.

A Stunning Autumn in Snowdonia national park 2nd Nov

After all the recent trips up to the Cumbria i thought a change of scenery was in order, i haven't been to Snowdonia that much this year so with the autumn colours looking good and a bit of snow on the mountain tops it was a perfect time to have a look around my favourite spots :)

I have just come through the village of Llanrwst  and having taken the road over the bridge heading to Trefriw ,i have turned off to go through the forest towards Hafna where the old mine workings are.  the colours are looking really good this year.

                                    here are some of the mine buildings all overgrown now

            looking across in the opposite direction looking towards the snow capped mountains

it looks stunning with the coloured trees around the mine workings and snow on the top of Moel Siabod in the distance  ( i think   lol )

i have now driven down to Cors Bodgynydd nature reserve to have a look around,this is where i photograph Dragonflies and Damselflies in the summer HERE , i have come across three long horns grazing, the back lighting looks really nice in this image :)

                                  a couple of images looking across Llyn Bogynydd

i am now heading for a quick look at Llyn Geirionydd now, the road runs along its shore line so easy to see if any good photo opportunities.  its looking good and zooming in with long lens the colours look great!

leaving this lake i have now moved on to visit the viewpoint looking over the valley near to swallow falls , i stop to take this image first before walking through the forest.

getting to the viewpoint , the view is stunning today, beautiful colours and snow capped mountains!  don't think we see this very often in uk!

i have now driven up the main road along the Ogwen valley past Llyn Ogwen and have parked near to the white cottages to begin my walk up the cym idwal waterfalls up to Llyn Idwal beneath the Devils Kitchen.     here is the view from the path at the start of the walk looking at Tryfan covered in snow :)

The classic view taken from next to the wooden bridge looking up the waterfall and the "lone tree" with

 Y Garn in the background , must climb up there soon me thinks :D

the path weaves its way all way up to the lake from here , also the path divides and goes up to another set of waterfalls on its way up to Llyn Bochlywd and then up to TRYFAN

As i walk/clamber up the waterfalls path i shoot the different views as i go , the light is constantly changing and the blue sky keeps getting clouded out!   Arghhhhh

                     The view down the path looking towards Llyn Ogwen,lovely blue sky now!

i have made it up to the lake, but the light is awful now , bloody typical as it was really nice 10 mins ago while on way up!     makes for an atmospheric image with the Devils Kitchen behind :)

a huge hail storm has just come over the Glyders range but luckily it has just missed me and is heading down the Nant Ffrancon valley.  looks a bad one !

walking down the main path now it is starting to sleet and snow  , but still great views , think i will head down to visit another final waterfall before heading home .

nearing the bottom of the path the sky has turned blue again, amazing how quickly it changes up here!

i will now drive down the Nant Ffrancon valley towards Bethesda and stop off at waterfalls at the bottom end of the valley , there is a great view just next to the car park looking back up towards the mountains :D

                                                     the falls in their autumn glory

that was a great day travelling around all my favourite spots , just need more snow now :)

April Snow in Snowdonia Good Friday 6th April 2012

Well, i just could not miss the opportunity to shoot the mountains in April with snow!   are rare occurrence now with global warming  lol
I arrived at Ogwen cottage at about 9 am , there was plenty of snow , and the paths were very ice with compacted snow from Thursdays visitors!
I Had originally decided to climb the waterfalls at the other end of the Ogwen valley , but as i had been informed that not much water was coming down the streams i thought the Idwal area would be better option!

                                                  Up the main path, very slippery!

And a little further up!

What a wonderful place , always looks different every time i visit!

i went off path which was safer, but the 6-8 inch snow depth was slow to walk in, i took the left side to get a view over Lyn Ogwen!

I made it across to the lower falls , which was easier than normal because i could not see the boggy parts and just walked over the snow! 

They are only small falls, but very little water coming down as we have had such a dry winter !

Climbing a bit higher , taking great care as the snow had drifted into deep banks either side of the streams, and therefore could not see the steep edges and did not want to end up in the water! lol

you can see how deep the snow is in this image.

 

I eventually came to the middle falls which has this wonderful single tree, which manages to survive somehow!

Turning around to look back down the Nant-francon valley, the low cloud building all the time.  a light snow shower passed quickly so no problem with the weather today :)

Looking up towards Tryfan, heavy cloud covering all the tops of the Glyders today, another trip to do soon before the butterfly season really starts!

A really great view looking down the valley with Pen-y-ole-wen on the right hand side half covered in cloud!  this is my favourite shot of the day :)

 

and this one taken from the top of the middle falls.

As you can see the snow was banked high either side of the stream and with all the big boulders it was quite difficult moving around, could have been quite dangerous if i had slipped !!!!!

I decided not to go any further, didn't want to put any more strain on my injured foot , after the fall up above this point the other month!!!!!!    the snow was getting much deeper in drifts so was a sensible idea.

Lyn Ogwen  which is just below Pen-y-ole-wen, still covered in low cloud!

I made my way across to the main path leading up to Llyn Bochlywd , but found the snow was very deep, in fact i sunk almost up to my knees on a few occasions but found this pristine area of snow which looked really surreal!

I was up to my knees while shooting this shot!   no other footprints  lol

and finally

Back to the car now, a great half day in the mountains :)  pity no sun!

all images taken with canon 5d2 & 17-40L