Scotland Holiday day 7/8

Its a dreary misty morning in Dornie,  rain forecast all day so its a day of doing nothing .
A quick couple of images this morning and afternoon in between rain showers.

                           Low cloud/mist is hanging over the peaks , swirling around constantly.

                                                                      The village of Dornie .

                       Looking down Loch Duich over Eilean Donan castle in the mist .

                                                                a 5 frame Vertorama

A short walk while there is a break in the rain, there is a bakery in the lane beside the camp site.   love this tiny house.

Later in the afternoon ,  the rain has stopped so another quick drone flight
                            Out in the middle of the Loch is a small island,  interesting shape.

The next morning we are making our way back towards home ,   Passing Loch Cluanie the reflections look fabulous,  but I just could not get an image to show them properly.
Its another dull misty morning unfortunately , but nice for long distance driving.

                  A few minutes down the road we pullover as I wanted to get a image of this loch.
                                               Loch Loyne over a small plantation.

Time to carry on driving, we are heading down past Castle Stalker were we will still off for a rest and lunch before carrying on towards Kilchurn

Arriving at the small car park viewpoint overlooking castle Stalker, we walk down the path to get a good view,  conditions are not very good. dull and misty.

                    Up with the drone,  quite breezy so staying low down out of the worst gusts.

Its windy, Dull and not really good conditions for photography, the light is just dull , flat and lifeless.

That's all for this part of the journey home,  next stop Kilchurn Castle …………..

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...…………..

Berlin january 2016 pt1

We are on our way to Berlin to visit Jan's daughter and grandson in Charlottenburg.   I have never wanted to visit Berlin but Jan has persuaded me to come, and the weather forecast is looking awful :(
Anyhow we are nearly there now, and there is a great sunset looking out of the plane window.

After a taxi ride we have arrived and settled into their apartment , the forecast for Monday is low cloud and foggy drizzle :(    not a lot we can do about that , i have worked out roughly where and how to get around tomorrow.

Its Monday morning and we are going to take a short walk to the nearest train station which is "Theodor-Heuss-Platz"  after getting tickets out of the machine we take the first train heading towards the City centre , we will be getting off  at "Zoologischer Garten"    the zoo in English  lol .
We are now walking past the zoo entrance to walk through the park to the  "Victory Column"


                                                               Misty on the canal

                                                        Passing the zoo i take this shot :)

 The paths in the park are treacherous!  all the recent snow has turned to ice and its really difficult trying to walk without slipping over.  Arghhhh      through the trees we can now see the monument.

                                                                          Stunning!

This in in the centre of a large roundabout , one of the main roads goes straight to the Brandenburg Gate, our next destination.

      After a nice 1 mile walk we are at the Gate ,  its a bit small and dull was my initial thought   lol
                                      Hopefully it will look better all lit up this evening!
 

 Going through to the other side, i take a long exposure image so that all the people will Ghost out and not be seen in the final image .

                            Just around the corner outside the gate is the "Reichstag" building.

       Now for a walk to the Holocaust Memorial which is the opposite side of the gate from here.
                                          A Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe.
    its basically square blocks of concrete arranged in rows over 4.7 acres , 2,711 blocks in total.

          In this image i have converted the foreground to b&w as a stark contrast to the coloured buildings behind. on the sloping ground its almost impossible to walk down the rows from this side.

               Next stop is for something to eat ,  in my case a Curryworst sausage and chips :)

 Now its time to walk down the main shopping road towards "Museum island" and the Berliner dom, the Cathedral in the square :) .
                             Look what Jan has found!   and as usual she just has to touch it    lol

                                                                      Cathedral in the fog

                         The Cathedral in the fog and ice  ,   its a bit grim here now unfortunately.
                                                              and its slippery as hell!!!!!!!!

 Just round the back there are bronze statues...............

                                       and we all know what Jan is going to do dont we!!!!!!

 We are walking around the different museums in the rain now , then head back to Brandenburg Gate to photograph it with the lights on :)

                                                            Jan is pushing me now :D

                                       After a drink and some wonderful German Pastries :)

     The lights are on and its the "blue hour" just after sunset , as i set up my gear Jan shoots me  lol

 I have only managed this one "Blue hour" image , i was too slow setting up and this is a long exposure to Ghost out all the people that are milling around taking pictures . 65 seconds  f8

Eventually i have managed to get this image !   Its really busy with people taking photos and walking through my view constantly!!!!!  Arghhhh    
To combat this i have shot long exposures to Ghost out all the people , even doing this i have had to use multiple exposure frames combined in photoshop.


                6 , 212 and 307 second frames  with Lee Little Stopper :)     = No people :D

                                               Tomorrow we are going to see the "Wall"