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You know how it is when an idea starts nagging at you.
Ive been thinking that I needed some new challenges and one that I have been looking at for a while is combining astro-photography with landscape.
One place that had impressed me with its dark skies in the past was Anglesey with a shoot at Penmon Point sticking in my mind particularly.
So with a new camera to hand but not much free time I set out having researched a few fresh locations for a 24 hour shoot starting with dawn at Treath Dulas.
There are the hulls of couple of old fishing boats stranded on the mud of the estuary here and though I had hoped to photograph both of them, on the morning I could only gain access to the one closest to the shore.
Dawn broke slowly but with not much colour but my day started well enough with this shot.
Parys Mountain is an abandoned copper mine which did much for the prosperity of the island in the past but fell into disuse due to the falling price of metals on the World market.
I had seen footage of the place on a TV documentary and had noted it as being worth a visit on my next trip into the area.
There are a few promising ruins there but it was the extraordinary colours of the rock and spoil that caught my eye on this occasion.
Normally Im quite clear about the format of my compositions but this shot has me stumped. I really cannot decide which I prefer, the vertical or the horizontal shot.
It seems to be a shot that divides opinions too. I have tested the image amongst friends and colleagues and a poll on here too and the split seems pretty even.
The other thing that seems about even is the number of people that see an animal head in the rock face and those that dont.
An interesting location that I think I will most likely visit again.
Cutting across the island my next stop was Cribnau in Porth Cwyfan, best known as eglwys bach y mor (the little church in the sea).
The small 13th-century church of St Cwyfan used to stand on the mainland but was slowly cut off by land erosion resulting in the building of the protective wall around it in the nineteenth century.
There is a causeway leading to it at mid to low tide but I wanted to show its isolation by the rising waters which seems so central to its story.
I used to struggle to find local tidal information for locations but these days computer programs and apps have made such information, along with astronomical and meteorological data, so much more straight forward to find. It really does make the life of a landscape photographer so much easier.
I met a local lass on the beach that was diligently picking litter from the shoreline. Much of it comes in on the waves, the product of unthinking disposal at sea at its like is the blight of many of out beaches. Some of it is sadly left by visitors who really have no excuse for not taking it home with them.
I have to say that this was one of the tidiest beaches I have seen in a very long time and I suspect mostly due to the hard work of this unsung hero.
Ive been thinking that I needed some new challenges and one that I have been looking at for a while is combining astro-photography with landscape.
One place that had impressed me with its dark skies in the past was Anglesey with a shoot at Penmon Point sticking in my mind particularly.
So with a new camera to hand but not much free time I set out having researched a few fresh locations for a 24 hour shoot starting with dawn at Treath Dulas.
There are the hulls of couple of old fishing boats stranded on the mud of the estuary here and though I had hoped to photograph both of them, on the morning I could only gain access to the one closest to the shore.
Dawn broke slowly but with not much colour but my day started well enough with this shot.
Parys Mountain is an abandoned copper mine which did much for the prosperity of the island in the past but fell into disuse due to the falling price of metals on the World market.
I had seen footage of the place on a TV documentary and had noted it as being worth a visit on my next trip into the area.
There are a few promising ruins there but it was the extraordinary colours of the rock and spoil that caught my eye on this occasion.
Normally Im quite clear about the format of my compositions but this shot has me stumped. I really cannot decide which I prefer, the vertical or the horizontal shot.
It seems to be a shot that divides opinions too. I have tested the image amongst friends and colleagues and a poll on here too and the split seems pretty even.
The other thing that seems about even is the number of people that see an animal head in the rock face and those that dont.
An interesting location that I think I will most likely visit again.
Cutting across the island my next stop was Cribnau in Porth Cwyfan, best known as eglwys bach y mor (the little church in the sea).
The small 13th-century church of St Cwyfan used to stand on the mainland but was slowly cut off by land erosion resulting in the building of the protective wall around it in the nineteenth century.
There is a causeway leading to it at mid to low tide but I wanted to show its isolation by the rising waters which seems so central to its story.
I used to struggle to find local tidal information for locations but these days computer programs and apps have made such information, along with astronomical and meteorological data, so much more straight forward to find. It really does make the life of a landscape photographer so much easier.
I met a local lass on the beach that was diligently picking litter from the shoreline. Much of it comes in on the waves, the product of unthinking disposal at sea at its like is the blight of many of out beaches. Some of it is sadly left by visitors who really have no excuse for not taking it home with them.
I have to say that this was one of the tidiest beaches I have seen in a very long time and I suspect mostly due to the hard work of this unsung hero.
