A Return to Snowdonia
Snowdonia is great as it has 'real' mountains! 'Real' because they are rugged, craggy, weather beaten peaks quite different from their rolling, greener English cousins. Like all mountains they influence their local weather and so despite visiting a few times since the late winter of 2019 I've not been too lucky with the weather. Some trips have had blue skies and zero cloud others total cloud cover. This time tho I was more lucky :-)
My problem with Snowdonia is there are just too many big mountains packed into a small area separated by deep valleys. This inevitably seems to mean that gaining altitude is necessary to catch the best morning or evening light and to reach a location where a subject can be framed, placing it in context. What I've learnt is mountain photography is much harder than it looks! I'm convinced there is huge potential but I'll admit to finding it challenging, in part, because of an unfamiliarity with the area that comes from living a couple of hundred miles away.
One of the most important things I've realised is that you don't need to be on the top of a mountain. I guess, I knew that anyway but it's especially pertinent when getting to the top may mean a further hours of hiking and several hundred metres of ascent with heavy camera gear. Locations at about half height seem to work well as there is terrain below and above to fill a frame. Another thing I've realised is that it helps to be some distance away from your subject as mountains are big things! So, locations around the periphery looking-in towards the mountains work well. That was the rationale I applied on my recent visit and it seemed to work.
It is said that success breeds success and whilst I'm pleased with the results - as they are nice photographs - they do underscore potential given the right conditions and further exploration. So, I've now got compositions in mind for my next visit which given good conditions should deliver even better results. :-) Unfortunately, that trip may be a little way off.
The four images in this post have a common component - Tryfan. It's shape, it's long serrated back, make it one of the iconic profiles of Snowdonia.
If you like the images or this post please share. Thank you.
Andy
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