Llanberis Snowdonia Tapestries

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

Llyn Padarn Lake - Llanberis, Snowdonia Wales

Blade of the Giants, Llanberis, Wales This is for fans of legend especially that of King Arthur and the sword in the stone story, as this is the Sword Of The Giants located in Llanberis in the shadow of Mount Snowden, Wales. Llafn y Cewri (which means Blade of the Giants) is the name of the new sword sculpture that's been placed on the shore of Llyn Padarn in Llanberis. The iconic 20 foot steel sword sculpture aims to raise awareness of the history of the Princes of Gwynedd and their contribution to the area’s Welsh heritage. King Arthur's legendary sword in the stone, Excalibur, a sculpture in Snowden, Llanberis in the Snowdonia National Park, sword sculpture, King Arthur sword. By Paul Thompson Photography

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..!

Views of Snowdonia from the Llanberis path to the summit of Snowdon

Looking along the ridge of Crib Goch. Snowdonia, Wales. This image is a detailed panoramic, comprising of three separate photographs that have been stitched together in photoshop.

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.

This is an image, originally taken on film in 1980, of a train nearing the summit of the Snowdon Mountain Railway. The railway started operations in 1896 with a service from Llanberis to the top of Mount Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales. As an aside, there was a fatal accident on the first day of operations following a derailment as the train was too heavily laden. Extraordinarily, four of the original eight steam locomotives are still in operation (with another undergoing an overhaul), although diesel locomotives—much cheaper to run—are now making their way up the mountain, but none of the diesel locomotives were yet in service when this image was captured. For railway enthusiasts, the steam locomotives are of a 0-4-2RT config...

After a failed first attempt, I just had to go back and nail this shot! With all the shenanigans of set up for landscape photography... tripod, bag, lenses, grad filters, filters, filter holder, etc, etc... etc! I'd gone and forgotten to prefocus, so when I'd got back home and thought all my exposures, at least, were perfect, I opened my images on the lappy to find that they were correctly exposed (by my thinking) but incorrectly focussed - as in all blurred! :-/ So I came back had some lunch and went back to accomplish todays shots - and so finally for today - here they are!!! Finally, in focus, and as I expected... "Watercolour Waterfall" Hope you like it..! Further details to follow in another shot...

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.

Using 35mm full frame format Sony A7 with wide angle modern pentax glass - I waited for first light to occur... If anyone does go at such absurd time of the morning ~ take some mozzie repellant because the midges over the lake are intense! Other than that it was a pleasant morning of landscape photography.

With so much rain the grassy lands of snowdonia looked so lush and green ~ that I wanted to capture a colour setting of Dolbadarn Castle and the spirit of Dolbadarn in summer. I stacked neutral density filters to achieve a wispy cloud like movement across the mountains and a lengthy exposure to develop the light over time and exposure... The wispiness of the cloud emanating from the castle, which I actually liked, to me added to the capture - as 'the spirit of Dolbadarn'.