Wirral Sunsets April/may 2015

                      A Few random images taken over a couple of weeks in April and May

A quick stop at Caldy shore to shoot the "sticks" ,  the sun set behind thick cloud so this was the only decent image, hand held.

                an Artistic long exposure at West Kirby marine lake   109 seconds with Lee Big stopper.

                 Next we have a glorious evening sunset at Perch rock , lovely light on the rocks  ,
                                   186 seconds f14 iso 100    with Big stopper and 0.6 nd grad .

                                     A few nights later , no colour but a nice calm sunset image 
                                                   169 seconds  f14  iso200 big stopper.

                                   The end of April and a glorious mellow sunset again at perch rock
                                      120 seconds f11 iso 250  with big stopper on 100-400mm lens

                                      243 seconds f13 iso 400  big stopper on 100-400 mm lens

                             Meols beach boats at sunset. 61 seconds Big stopper and 0.6 nd grad

                                                     After sundown    306 seconds Big stopper

                  Now for a couple of consecutive evenings at Meols shooting the famous boats.


                                                    "Maggie R"            150 seconds f14

                                                        "Maggie R"         191 seconds f10

                                                           120 seconds  f14   " Blue boat "

                                                     179 seconds  f14  after sundown

Snowdonia april 5th 2015

A Easter walk up to Cym Idwal seemed a good idea , the weather forecast for the mountains was for sun and blue sky, whereas everywhere else seemed to be under a thick blanket of low cloud.  driving down we where under this thick cloud and i did not think it would be clear in the Ogwen valley, but as we drove out of Bethesda we came through into beautiful blue sky :)   Yay

                    A nice walk in the sunshine up to Cym Idwal with the devils kitchen behind.

                                                     Calm waters , don't see this very often :)

                                             The Terrible Twosome are enjoying paddling .

Just after i take this shot, while crossing the stream on the rock bridge , Mollster decided to pull me off ! i went flying through the air,camera in hand and landed in the stream and fell onto the bank after a few running steps through the water!  Arghhhhhhhh   soaked legs and feet   :(

Having walked up and around the top end of the lake, i stop to shoot Pen-yr s reflection in the mirror calm lake :)

                                   On the path around the lake to head back down now.

                                                            A bit of posing for Mollster

                                                        and a rare pose from Chester :)

                                                                     One more shot :)

Idwal Reflections and Sunset over Snowdon dec 28th 2014

After a light fall of snow that i noticed on the Ogwen web cam, i have driven down to Ogwen valley in Snowdonia with Mollster to walk up to Llyn  Idwal.
The sun is shining down the Nant Ffrancon valley as we walk up the main Idwal path from Llyn Ogwen.

                                                                     Mol is posing already :)

                                                                             and Again!!!

          We have quickly made it up to the Llyn Idwal , the sun is illuminating the Y-Garn ridge :)

                                                             Stunning reflections today :)

                                             Amazing :)    dont see it this flat calm very often!

                Cant make mind up which composition i like best.   so here is a second image.

     Using long lens i zoom in on the snowy mountains in the distance behind Llyn Ogwen.............

                                       And now Y-Garn , loads of climbers up in the snow :)

     Time to head back down now, its quite cold and i don't want to miss Sunset over the twin lakes.                                                                 Mollster is posing yet again!

                                          Looking down from the Llyn Bochlwyd path.

                                                       Llyn Ogwen and Pen-yr-ole-wen.

                The sun is still lighting up the valley looking down to Anglesey in the distance.

             Down at road level now and a quick shot looking down Ogwen valley over the lake.

                       Time to drive down to Llynnau Mymbyr to shoot sunset over Snowdon.
I have driven right down to Pen-y-pass  and now as the sun starts to descend i have gone back and parked half way between the lakes.   the sky is looking very interesting and i need to shoot fast while the light is good.    I have just shot a 2 frame panorama with 100-400 lens :)



                              Stunning light over Snowdon right now :)    view large HERE

Now down at the waters edge, i am struggling to get any decent compositions ,  this one at least has good cloud colour.

  Light has gone now,this last image of the Snowdon range  shows the difference a few minutes can make.   still stunning!     But lovely warm colour on the side of mountain tops :)
                                                                      100 - 400mm lens

                                                           The end of a great day out :)

Crosby Sunset at Antony Gormleys "Another Place" 23 march 2015 pt2

  Next stop is Crosby beach , to hopefully shoot sunset around the Antony Gormleys "Another Place" beach sculptures.   After seemingly driving around in circles  we have arrived on the promenade , time for a walk on the beach to see which will be the best statues to photograph when the sun starts to set.
       The Terrible Twosome are a bit confused!    Mol went up to this one wagging her tail !  lol

                                Haha   Chester thinks this one is a real person with a shirt on :)

After walking along the beach to the end of this section of promenade, we walk back to the car. its almost time to get my tripod out and find a good location to shoot from . I want to get reflections in water around a statue but it is fairly breezy and the pools left around the statues are quite rippled :(

            The low sun has illuminated the Edge of the channel with two statues in the background.

                                  I am crouching down low to get the sun behind the statue .

I thought this winding stream would make a good lead in to the composition when i spotted it from high up on the promenade.   and with the low setting sun it looks really good . 

                        While i moved closer in to shoot Jan has shot me along with a statue :)

                                                                             "Find Phil"

 This is the image i have just shot , as the sun was setting to the right, using my long 100-400  lens to fill the frame with colour around the Windfarm and statue :)

                    Now a wide angle with normal shutter speed showing the ripples on the water .

 And now with the Lee big stopper and 0.6 nd grad filters to give a long shutter speed to smooth out the water a bit.

                         My last image , the sun has set but no further colour has developed  :(