Padarn Lake Kids Hoodies

After a deluge of heavy rains a very early morning's drive up into Snowdonia reveals millpond like conditons. Catching the light just perfectly, the balance of sun, shade and shadow. Timing is paramount! From Padarn to Dolbadarn...

I took a handful of images of these paddlers both coming towards me and turning back on the lake - just two images - I liked the look of for the balance of the image and their combined movements in the water. Working in full frame with a full frame lens and shooting manually - I set up beforehand to capture this stunning vista - so well known in the Snowdonia mountains here in Wales... In post allowed me to better adjust the fine tuning of light and shadow and for the first time ever - I stumbled upon the magnifier key on my keyboard to check the focus detail of the background and foreground with the two paddlers! Sony A7

Working with tone and grain - I wanted to capture the essence of a beautiful summer morning across the Llanberis lake "Llyn Padarn" towards Dolbadarn Castle and the Snowdonia Mountains.

This shows the lone tree in the lake, Llyn Padarn, in North Wales, with a vivid orange, red, pink and blue predawn sky.

Llyn Padarn Lake - Llanberis, Snowdonia Wales

Shooting with vintage glass on full frame Sony, using vintage grad filters, I composed this image of one of the most frequently shot to death locations in Snowdonia. Having said that, the conditions and lighting was just perfect, and magically, the swans did their 'seven swans are swimming' dance for me this morning ~ composed just beautifully... but I think I can count 8

This illustrated Llanberis print features original artwork of Llyn Padarn in Snowdonia, Wales. Illustrated by Welsh artist Natalie Thomas.

My first proper attempt at landscape photography as a much different ~ slower paced genré of photography to that of wildlife photography which in itself quite slow and methodical, which suits me just fine... A friend mentioned that this had some merit and so I tidied it up a little and its gotten into portfolio. The 'Sleeping Swan Lake' of Snowdonia I have allocated just metal print format for this piece as I think that it will better exemplify the work.

Looking across Llyn Padarn to Anglesey from Glyder Fawr at dusk in the Snowdonia National Park, Wales

Thinking about the works and looking back at techniques of old masters ~ those that excelled in Black and White and wanting to replicate using modern full frame 35mm DSLR technology - I created this 'olde worldy' piece... of Dolbadarn Castle from across the lake. The almost completely obsolete technique of photo format single lens reflex camera work conducted by the masters is very seldom implemented now ~ due to the advent of the much simpler and quicker digital single lens reflex cameras... Yet, it is often nice to reflect and try to emulate some of the techniques which were so diligently adhered to by those masters of the past... Taken with 35mm format full frame A7 SONY ~ modern camera.

Again working in post I wanted to retain the grain, tone and also 'texture' that was that - of working 'classically as a photographer' of the past...

As the clouds slowly gathered across the mountains... I decided to head towards the iconic and frequently photographed area of Llanberis lake to look for something landscapey to photograph. The lake seemed so calm and tranquil with such light winds that I dipped behind into the river to take this image with my new tripod..!