Scotland Holiday Oct 2020 pt 4 Dornie

Early morning I have gone out to get a couple of long exposure images along the river Garry behind the car park before we leave.  It is extremely slippery and difficult to get close to the water , but I am happy with this multi frame image .  one frame for the water , one for the foreground light on the grass and a further exposure for the background trees and sky.

We have now left Glengarry and are heading to one of our favorite locations , Dornie  which is near Eilean Donan Castle . We are going to stay at the Ardelve campsite for a couple of days as the forecast is mainly rain for the next few days almost everywhere.

Driving down the A87 from Loch Cluanie towards Dornie has to be one of the finest roads for views in the area.

We have stopped in a valley to get a few images from the drone of the waterfall up on the fellside , pity the light is rubbish!

I flew up to the waterfall to get this three frame merge 

Next stop is Dornie , as we pass Eilean Donan castle the car park is filled with campervans!   But when we get to Ardelve campsite a mile away it is almost empty!  

Wine time !

The weather is not great , but the sun keeps poking through the clouds giving some very atmospheric conditions ,  and the Terrible Twosome do need a walk.  So a short walk over to see the castle.

This is what I have to put up with !  Arghhhhh

It is really cold and miserable, Jan doesn't look happy !

We are on a piece of land opposite Eilean Donan castle just waiting for the light to break though and light up something.

There is goes ,  great to see the light painting across the mountains.

I have been trying unsuccessfully to shoot these pools and watching the light painting across the hills to the right, But hadn't noticed the torrential rain storm approaching us from over the Loch !

The sun is lighting up the rain , it looks very atmospheric as it approaches.  There is a lone tree on the island to the left in the below image , if the sun illuminates that it will look fabulous. So as the rain moves towards us and keeping an eye on that tree and eventually I get my chance , shooting handheld at 400mm on my long lens  f9  iso 320  1/620th 

I have shot about 14 frames , all bracketed at +- 1 stop , and a 6 vertical frame panorama.

This is my favorite

One Bird

And the rain was obviously moving much faster than anticipated  , it has come right over us and we are getting soaked!  but worth it for those images. 

   The Final full 6 frame panorama 

A couple hours later the sky cleared and I have managed to get the drone up quickly for a couple images of the castle , another  rain storm is still in the background which adds to the image.

That's it for today , hopefully will get some more atmospheric conditions tomorrow.

Llanberis and Caernarfon Oct 14 - 15

This weekend we have decided to visit Snowdonia ,  We can park the van in the middle car park at Llyn Padarn  near Llanberis.  It just happens to be very close to the famous "Lone Tree" so if I can get up in time, a sunrise photo shoot is planned.

Arriving midday and parked up we have taken a walk to see the lone tree,  unfortunately with all the heavy rain recently it is completely flooded and I cannot get near to it,   But the drone can...…..


                                                    The famous Llanberis lone tree.

                                 A multi image Vertorama really shows off the sun lit tree.

I have flown over to the opposite side of the lake to quickly take a couple of images of the country park area.

                                                                                 Topdown

                                         A multi image Vertorama  , Padarn country park.

                                           A 9 frame panorama looking towards Nant Peris.

Time to take the dogs for a walk now before it gets dark, and plan tomorrow. the weather forecast is looking great with light winds and blue sky, so may get a nice sunrise.

Monday morning and I am up early at 7 am , well for me it is!    Sunrise is in 20 minutes so a quick walk around to find the water levels have receded overnight and I can just about get to the tree, and finding a couple of other photographers already there.    Setting up my canon 5dsr , 17- 40L lens with a Lee little stopper and a 0.6 soft nd grad , we await to see if the cloud will light up.   Unfortunately the cloud is a bit too thick for the sun to break though at the critical time , but we eventually got a small amount of colour and mist forming across the lakes surface.  Perfect , almost .


                                                                    30 seconds  f14

       Time to get the drone up before the mist burns off, the sky is clearing fast so it wont be long.

                                                               A low level drone image.

                                                           Topdown over the Lone Tree.

The mist has actually increased , its looking really atmospheric now.  time to get the camera out again
                                                               a quick phone shot first...…..

                      I managed to get the Swan with water dripping from its beak in this image.

The warm sun is now lighting up the mist and its disappearing fast, this will be the last image for this morning,  back to the van for breakfast now.

Its a beautiful sunny morning now , and we are going to try to find Ceunant Mawr waterfall which is somewhere behind the Snowdon mountain railway station.
Walking under the railway bridge just as a train goes past, just caught it  lol

Found it!   but I wanted to be on the path along the river, we have climbed all the way up here for nothing!  Arghhhhhh

                                                           No train coming...………

Back down the hill and along the path we missed  under the bridge, which nicely frames an autumn coloured tree.

This path follows the river all the way to the main waterfall,  Chester is on lead as he might jump in and the water if very fast moving after all the recent rain.

The light is really nice, the waterfall is quite a distance ahead but at this spot I can frame it between the trees and the fern that is lit up with the sun coming through the trees.
Using 100-400mm lens to foreshorten the composition, the waterfall appears much closer than it actually is.   I have shot a long exposure frame for the water and merged together four frames to handle all the highlights and shadows with different focal points.

Time to walk back now, I haven't been able to shoot the actual waterfall as the spray is constantly hitting the lens, so its back down to the lake and then to Caernarfon for the late afternoon and hopefully a decent sunset , but with no cloud at the moment that is doubtful.

           
We have parked along the Aber foreshore rd and walked back to the castle at Caernarfon, taking a good look around the harbour and a few possible sunset locations.
Leaving Jan in the van ,I have walked back to shoot the sunset, its a bit windy now but will get the drone up to see what I can shoot. Standing on the gravel beach just on the corner opposite the castle and the low setting sun is starting to illuminate the walls in lovely warm light , pity there is no cloud in the sky tonight.

                                      5 frame Vertorama, with the sun just catching the trees.

                       
                                     9 frame panorama, the walls lit up with the low sun.

I have flown around the corner up to see if I can shoot the van at sunset, and there is actually good colour in the distance.    and the van is clearly visible .

After that short flight the sun has now set and I have shot a 2 frame panorama on the 5dsr, only a slight pink colour to the sky.

                                   The harbour after sundown, some nice colour now.

The end of another weekend away...…………..