Trearddur Bay and South stack August 12 th 2018

This weekend Jan is taking the new van to Anglesey on Friday  morning to another temporary caravan and camping club site at Trearddur Bay, I will follow down in my car after work on Saturday evening with the terrible twosome.

So a couple of Jans images from a beautiful sunny Saturday...…….

       The small sheltered bay with all the boats,  which I had never seen before.  more of them later.

Jan has sent these pics while I'm in work , and the forecast for Sunday/Monday is not looking like this !

                                  Awww  the Terrible Twosome are not going to like this.

                                        Jan has crocheted these two mascot's for the van .

It is Saturday evening, and I have driven out to Anglesey ,  passing the bay I spot all the boats moored up, this will be a superb subject to get some images from the drone, if I get a break in the rain as its chucking it down now and not looking good for tomorrow unfortunately.

Sunday morning, and after pancakes in the van we have had to wait until after 4pm for the rain to stop ,  typical after yesterdays blue sunny day!      Anyhow we are walking down to the bay and hopefully I can get a couple of drone shots of the boats.

There they are, but  not looking as lovely as yesterday in the sun, but at least I can get airborne and without sun there is less chance of all the white boats blowing out in the images.

                                              Chester just doesn't like to sit still for a photo .

                                                        Jan has snapped me while flying

       Topdown over the boats,  amazing how they all line up facing the same direction with the tide.

                                                                     Vertorama , 7 frames

                                                               Landing ……………..

Time to walk back now, the forecast has changed and is looking very good tonight for sunset at South Stack lighthouse.   so we need to get back , eat and then drive down to the lighthouse before 8 oclock.

                    Back at the campsite ,  we have about an hour and half to get to South Stack.
                               We will take my car as its easier to get down the lanes quickly

Time to head out,  as we get nearer to Holyhead mountain we can see cloud sitting over the top, I hope it is above the cliffs at the lighthouse also, that would make for great images.
Having parked at the top car park , the weather conditions are looking fabulous, a bit windy but not a problem.   The sea mist is rising up the cliff side in front of us and going right up over the top, this should look great from the drone.   The bird nesting season has finished so its ok to fly here now.


I cant believe this, I have only two batteries left fully charged for the drone and I think I need double that number   Arghhhh    Guess I need to get an inverter for the van so I can charge them up.

After waiting about 15 minutes I have decided to use the first battery, just to get the nice light we have now, then save the last one for the actual sunset.   Straight up and out over the sea, the sea mist is swirling all around the mountain tops.  Fabulous light at the moment .

                                                             Up through the mist

                                                                 A 9 frame panorama .

Now I have flown out past the lighthouse to look back , looks like this will be the last light hitting the rocks as the sun is getting quite low now, its 8.15 now and  the cloud base above Holyhead mountain is turning colour slightly also.

Time to land now as battery is getting low, wish I had shot some video, it would have looked fabulous with the mist rising up over the cliffs... think I will wait to see what develops over the next half hour.

It is now almost 9 pm,   and I have taken off again as a bit of colour is appearing as the sun gets near the horizon. flying out past the lighthouse again, looking back towards the cliffs the cloud has increased and is sitting like a hat on the mountain top,   Amazing to see .

                                          A slightly different view from a 9 frame panorama .

Now as the colour has developed enough I have moved out to get the sunset colour and the lighthouse into a panorama.    this is my favourite image of the evening .  Unfortunately the cloud above has not coloured up tonight.

After landing and waiting a bit longer the colour has not increased , so one last short flight out past Ellins tower ,which is the white building on the cliff top  to catch this last image after sundown.

                                                 What a fabulous end to the weekend .

Church Bay on Anglesey 25/27 th May 2014

I am on my way to Church Bay on Anglesey on a Saturday evening, the rain is hammering down most of the way  , Jan has been there in the caravan all week and i am joining her for the next 3 days.  as i arrive it is torrential rain and i actually have trouble driving over the slight incline in the campsite field which is a few minutes walk from the beach.  as i arrive Chester goes mad in anticipation :)

Sunday morning is bright blue sky , thank goodness for that   lol    a quick run on the beach with the dogs first

Now we are going to walk the coastal path around the headland , almost straight away i find this Bloody nose beetle :)

                                                 Next to be shot , an escaping lizard  :)

I have been chasing a Wall brown butterfly for ages up and down the narrow muddy path, much to Jan's amusement   lol     i eventually manage to get on the ground close enough for a half decent image   haha

We have come to the next bay around the headland , loads of wild flowers are on the hill side , so Mollster goes and poses in them , good girl .......

         and down into the water for a play and Chester and Mollster get very wet .  bless them

                Having walked back to the caravan in the afternoon, i spend time shooting the birds

                                                                    Great Perch.........

                                      I would Love to know whats on Chester's mind  lol

 After dinner we walk down to see if there is a good sunset this evening ,  its not a good one but got this image using my 10 stop nd filter :)

The next morning it is looking another good day , so we have decided to go to South Stack lighthouse , Jan has never been there.        after a nice drive around the coast road we find both the car parks chock a block, some idiot in a huge camper van is blocking the steep road up to the top car park and some one is trying to direct traffic!      we manage to squeeze into the top main area any how  , and now are walking up the road to the top overlooking the Lighthouse.

                                                i have just spotted a green Tiger beetle :)

                                                                   Mollster posing :)

               and Chester but no idea what he is looking at, the ice creme van is that way Mol says :D

After a walk up over the Headland we head back to take a look at the Birds nesting on the cliffs below Ellins tower.   its a superb view from here :)

                                          and then walking along the cliff path .............

    
                                                                           Big skies :)

              Time to drive back now , later i hope to get better sunset images across Church Bay.
 a few hours later i am walking down to the bay , leaving Jan and the dogs in the van, they will come down a bit later to join me .

all below images i used a 10 stop nd filter to slow the shutter speed down to smooth out the waters surface.


                                                         69 seconds at iso100  f18
    as the tide comes in around me while i am standing on small rocks Ooops  , but the low setting suns is lighting up the cliff face wonderfully :)

                                                             217 seconds iso100 f18

                                                    4 frames combined  40 - 184 seconds
                                          Love how the sun illuminates the foreground rock

                                                                        "Afterglow"

                                                             184 seconds at f18 iso 200

                                The end of a great few days :)     back home tomorrow.

South Stack Beetle Hunt July 5 2012

After leaving the mountain lake above Betws-y- coed i drove across to the isle of Anglesey and towards Hollyhead to the rspb South Stack reserve.   i didn't think it was warm or sunny enough to be able to shoot the huge number of wasp species that are usually present  on the cliff tops , but i should find something to photograph :)

this is South stack lighthouse which i visited in a previous blog  Here

Walking down the path towards the cliff edge , i almost immediately spotted a Rose Chafer beetle feeding on what appeared to be angelica florets. i shot this with natural light.

they really are a stunning colour, shooting anything on a pale or white flower is extremely difficult to get a good exposure , using flash makes it even harder which i found out later in the afternoon.
walking along the main path along the cliff top a huge beetle flew past me, very close! the sound they make is quite loud and i managed to follow it until it landed, it was a Cockchafer about 1.1/4 inch in length , which are often called May bugs :)     late this year with it being such a cold summer presumably.   it landed on a rock that was covered in pale lichen which made it easy to shoot as it was about 2 ft above the path.  these are the images i shot at different magnifications.

            it soon flew off into  heather but i managed one more head on shot .

along the cliff top there is virtually nothing to be seen , very unusual but a few of these tiny green flower beetles, approx 5 mm in length.

and a Digger wasp that didn't want its face photographed   lol

On way back to the car park i found another Rose Chafer , so tried shooting with mpe-65 and flash!  found it very difficult to get good exposure on both beetle and flower. in fact this is the only half decent image i got, you can see the difference in colour to a natural light shot of the beetle

                                                                       mpe-65 full flash

                                                   natural light 100mm macro , much more natural

Then just below the car park i heard a loud buzzing , after a few minutes looking i spotted a Hummingbird Hawkmoth egg laying , i watched in amazement for ages trying to shoot a very fast moving moth lol     here is the best image

i found an egg she had layed and took it home, here is the Caterpillar that hatched and is now in a pupae almost ready to emerge into a beautiful moth.

        That was the end of a long day , not the best for photography but enjoyable all the same :)

                                  tomorrow i will be in the lake district butterfly hunting :)