About Me

My photo
Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales, United Kingdom
Bit of a long tooth IT Manager - been and had a few hobbies, as for the title, I make glass beads, its Called Lampwork, I brew my own Beer, its called fun and I take photos, thats the oldest hobby, since I was 16 or so. My first camera was a Zenith E - then a Pentax KR to go digital after a long stint with a Pentax Super A. Now a Nikon D5200 and a D7100 with a Sigma 150 f2.8 macro lens to play with amongst others. Please note all photos used are my own and I retain full copyright to all of them. Thank you for respecting digital ownership

Sunday 11 October 2015

Pen y Fan, in the fog

Went up Pen y Fan, its good for the mind and soul, the shots were not great as the mist and low cloud refused to move off while we were up there.

It was harder to climb this time compared to last time, but the last time was 10 years ago so I can accept that  all things considered.

The top was deep in mist and showed no sign of clearing, so after a while we decided to go back down and see what we could see at the bottom,

One from the top to show we got there



This helps to show what the path and the top was really like - note the edge is not protected in any way and its a drop from 2960 ft to 2000ft in a very steep almost vertical slope, not a good idea to get down fast that way !






The way up and down - the main path is well worn and easy to follow, the route is interesting if there is no mist to cloud the view, in our case visibility up was about 40-50yds, on the way down it was far better


This river flows along the base of the hill and has some interesting small falls





By this time the weather had changed and the top was in sun with blue skies, not going to climb back up again though !

Along the route home, the A470, the reservoirs are of note, but only lightly as the sides are very plain and populated with fishermen, this shot was at the top end of Cantref reservoir looking towards Pen Y Fan along the Gwaun Nant-Ddu ridge - Pen y Fan etc out of sight behind the oak tree


The last three shots were for me a new experinece, I merged multiple exposures together to get the fuller dynamic range of the exposure - so they may look a bit 'bright', from my memory the day did end up sunny and bright but there is always the risk that merging and creating a HDR image that looks over contrasty and bright, I hope that these are controlled enough to be acceptable to the eye.


Sunday 4 October 2015

if you go down to the waterfalls today ......


Had a good walk with a couple of like-minded friends from the photo club, 4 Waterfalls walk at Ystradfellte. All the usual suspects Dippers, Woodpeckers and assorted woodland birds. Getting to the falls I spotted a Kingfisher on the other side of the river, for once it landed on a branch in view, normally all I get is a flash of blue as it goes past at max miles an hr. So, it landed and was in view, my 70-300mm lens is in Cornwall, I am in Wales - enjoy the view and move on !

The day proved interesting with a fair turn out of the public and what seem to be a never ending stream of groups of river ‘nutters’ not exactly sure what it is called really but they find areas of the river with waterfalls and then, best I can describe, drop dive the plunge pools from the top of the fall.

They are led by what is obviously an experienced guide and are fully kitted to do it, as safely as it can be, but, it plays merry heck with trying to get photos! 

No sooner do you get Jo public out the frame and look to take the shot than all these helmeted nutters turn up in the frame, its then a case of waiting while they drop off the edge and haul out of the plunge pool. It has to be said they all seemed to enjoy themselves and seemed to have lots of fun. On a nice day why not !

Anyway, a few shots, not too many as when you have seen one waterfall shot, well they can get a bit repetitive cant they. Truth to tell we saw the first couple of falls but decided to not bother with the last one, all the photos here are the White Meadows falls, you get two / three for the price of one there.

Starting at the top fall, moving down and then a 'riverlet 'waterfall.

The top fall as you see it when you finally clamber to the top area, and it is a clamber !




The top line on the left is where the nutters appear then clamber down and go behind the fall, the instructor took a group shot - so I thought it worth capturing that moment 




This then cascades down a lower level before the narrow plunge over to the lower river cascades




After that it forms a normal river again and gets to a place where it takes a sharp left over the next  falls and immediately after the drop it takes a sharp right and flows on down the valley




The river was pretty low, this is the lower falls from under the overhanging rock - the rock platform I am standing on to take this is normally part of the falls 




Looking back upstream you can see the gullies the river has carved along the rock fault lines at this time all of them have their own little version of the big falls 


I will finish with a bug ( its me after all ) and a flower

There were a few  Hovers, but only a few, this one I managed to get a reasonable shot of - Melanostoma, probably scalare but difficult to be certain.




And finally a flower, Herb Robert, it was growing in moss on a boulder under the low Hazel grove in dappled shade, this one had a shaft of low sunlight on it - ignore camera settings and play, camera says 1/60th at f3 @100 iso. final take 1/1000th at f4.5 @100 iso - thats now looking like I 'saw' it.




In all a nice day topped off by a fab view of a Red Kite floating above the car park when we got back, cant ask for more.