Nigel Waters

We all have them, yes the dreaded “Bad Days” and it can seem like it happens more often than not when it comes to being on location trying to capture that perfect landscape photograph.  The early starts, the late nights, the hundreds of miles covered, the hours of endless planning for the weather to decide its not going to play ball.  It can leave you deflated, question your sanity and if you are new to landscape photography can make you throw in the towel when you have only just started.  Landscape photography is hard work but it really is what you make of it!

Seriously I don’t believe we ever have a bad day unless you drop your camera off the edge of a cliff.  I know it doesn’t feel like it at the time but we can all take something from our “Bad Day” adventures.

I have been waiting to get a certain shot for over 8 months and when I looked at the weather forecast during the week with snow due over the mountains I quickly shuffled my diary around to keep Thursday 27th April free so I could head off to Snowdonia in hope of getting that illusive photograph.  All week everything was on plan, if anything more snow was forecast until the night before when I finally checked before bed, the snow had turned to rain.  I was gutted but my bag was packed and I decided to go anyway.

It was a very miserable day when I arrived at the foot of Snowdon, thick low cloud which meant I would be spending all day roaming round in nothing more than what can be described as pea soup.  Now this brings me back to what I said at the beginning of this post that I very rarely have bad days even though it doesn’t seem like it at the time.  Here I was to photography the mountains that you couldn’t even see due to thick cloud and driving rain but yet I felt really upbeat and optimistic.  I spend a lot of my time in Snowdonia as I totally adore the place and I have had my fair share of “Bad Days” but those days have allowed me to get familiar with the area and understand how the weather can behave.  Straight away I had images in my head of moody photographs and of summits peaking through the clouds to create drama.  I sat in the car poured myself a coffee and thought about my options of which there were many!  I drove around contemplating on climbing up some of the quieter routes to the summit of Snowdon where I knew there was an image to be had but I decided against it.  I knew where the sun was going to be and felt that Cwn Idwal would be the better option where if I was lucky and there was a break in the cloud the sun would fall on Pen yr Ole Wen which was covered in cloud.

I hiked up to Devil’s Kitchen in the driving rain where I perched myself on a ledge got out the rain cover setup and waited.  It took over an hour but finally I was rewarded with this image as the sun broke through the cloud and within in a minute it was gone again.  If I hadn’t had my so called bad days I would never of come here and got this image so always take the positives from shoots that don’t quite work out.  Keep the faith and you will be rewarded.

As the summer months approach and the days get longer for most it’s a welcome change in the seasons but for me as a landscape photographer it means getting up at 3:30am so I can get to a location before sunrise which at times can be a real shock to my body clock.  Today I decided to stay relatively local and shoot Broadway Tower in the Cotswolds a spot I had planned to visit for quite sometime but just never got round to it.  The weather forecast was looking good for a little colour in the sky and I was hoping for a nice warm glow on the tower as the sun rose over the horizon.

Sunrise was at 6:00am so I left at 4:30am to arrive just in time but there was more cloud on the horizon than I would of liked.  Due to the direction of the sun I struggled to find a composition and ended up setting up with a very simple shot hoping for the light to illuminate the tower.

Time to cross my fingers and hope for a break in the cloud behind me.  If you do Sunrise and Sunset shoots you will know it’s a lottery as everything can look perfect but sometimes Mother Nature just doesn’t play ball.  As I stood and waited the clouds passed through my frame to reveal a clear blue sky and my optimism started to sink.  Now for the dilemma that we all face a lot of the time as landscape photographers, do I move to try and find another composition and get the beautiful light show to my left?  Frustrating as it can be and very tempting a quick look over my shoulder I could see the possibility of a slight clearing in the cloud.

 

Patience is key, it’s a waiting game

If there is one thing experience has taught me it is that patience is key, it’s a waiting game.  You have to keep focused and remember why you came to a spot in the first place. I know there are some photographers that can jump from one composition to the next and always get the shot but unfortunately I am with the majority and that just doesn’t work for me.  I know I would spend an hour running round like a headless chicken and at best end up going home with an ok shot but something I wouldn’t be happy with.

I always at this point ask myself the same question, why am I here and what am I trying to capture.  The answer was simple to capture Broadway Tower and for that to be a good shot I need light! Light….Light…Light is the key to a good image and the one ingredient a photograph needs to be successful.  If you want to capture a moody photo you can’t do that on a sunny day either so you need to remind yourself that the next time you are tempted to start hunting round to capture an image that just isn’t there.  After 30 minutes of waiting, the sun finally broke through for less than a minute and illuminated the tower, which was exactly what I was after.  This is where experience comes in because believe me I have done it, moved thinking it isn’t going to happen and when it does I am in the wrong position or I have missed it.  I spend hours prior to a shoot researching the location where the sun will rise and the light will fall so I can plan to be in the right location at a specific time of the year to have a chance of getting the image I am after.  All this hard work can easily be undone with a moment of madness.

Just to demonstrate how important light really is to a subject here are 2 images I took minutes apart.  If I had moved my chance of getting the image would have come and gone and I would be driving home cursing myself without the image I was after!

Spring is nearly officially here!!!

For me it is a little disheartening as I have a couple planned location shoots that have been parked now for the last couple of months due to weather and other commitments.   One thing about landscape photography is at least in this particular case the mountains won’t be going anywhere soon so there is always next year if we don’t have a good snow fall before summer arrives.  Having said that I have been up there waste deep in snow during late March/April so fingers crossed.

This week I set out with the intention of something a little different and head to Gloucestershire to photograph daffodil fields in full bloom for spring.  Not my usual style of Photography but I made a new years resolution to myself to try and be a little more diverse in what I shoot from time to time.  I set out at midday so I could have a relaxing walk and setup ready for sunset but due to SatNav problems and 30 minutes driving round in circles I found myself back on the M50 heading to the Breacon Beacons.  I just can’t help myself can I??  I knew I had a few routes loaded into my GPS which I had previously planned and never got round to walking and after an hour I found myself parking up on the busy A470 to do a 5 mile circular hike up to Fan Frynych.  I had not done this route before and with time getting on and the route being relatively short it was worth a go.

There are a couple of routes here where you can have a wonder around the lower level route amongst trees in the shadows of the cliffs of Craig Cerrig Gleisiad and a couple of streams or you can take the high level route climbing up above and walking around the top up to Fan Frynych which is the route I took.  The initial climb is a steep thigh burning one but the views across to Y Gyrn and Pen Y Fan are stunning but it was cold, wet and very windy and I couldn’t find any foreground interest to get a decent shot so I carried on round up to Fan Frynych.  The views from here are gorgeous with the large rolling hills across to Fan Bwlch Chwyth and I presume views to the Black Mountains but the cloud cover was making visibility poor.  Although the view is magnificent I just couldn’t find a composition and my fingers were about to drop off holding the camera so I decided to give it up and continue round and back down to the car.   I was then greeted by several wild horses which would have made a stunning photograph if only I had a longer lens with me….Grrr.

On the way back down the cloud was starting to lift and the sun slowly starting to break through where I stumbled across a couple of trees on the side of the mountain.  The sun was low and slowly coming round into view so with an hour till sunset I setup and waited in hope that the sun would illuminate a tree I really liked.  With the direction of the sun to my composition I knew if it played ball the photograph would be high in contrast as the sun illuminated the tree making for a nice black and white image and finally I was rewarded with this lovely shot.

The clouds lifted and I took a few more photographs but struggled to find a decent composition with the direction of the sunlight and capture the moment to do it justice but I did get a few nice shots.

With Valentines Day approaching, which also happens to be my birthday,  I was totally torn on what to do and where to go.  I needed to treat my better half to some much needed TLC but also wanted to get out.  The weather forecast was not the best although there was fresh snow on the mountains but then I also fancied heading to the coast for so seascapes photography.  I decided on a more relaxed weekend and headed to gorgeous Pembrokeshire in Wales.

Roch Castle Hotel the most amazing hotel I have ever stayed in!

I booked us into the Roch Castle Hotel which I will say has to be one of the most amazing hotels I have ever stayed in.  Seriously if you are looking for somewhere different for that special occasion to treat your loved one then this place will take some beating. https://www.rochcastle.com

It was a bitterly cold evening on the coast and we headed down to Whitesands Bay to catch the sunset over this gorgeous beach.  But once I had a scout round to find my composition with the sun setting fast and the tide coming in I found I had lost one of the locking screws off my Manfrotto ball head which caused me all sorts of problems grrr.  I don’t think that this was what Kay had in mind for a romantic evening freezing to death and me cursing every 5 minutes trying to keep my camera attached to my tripod.  But the end results I feel were worth it and I captured this lovely seascape with breaking waves, God rays and golden sunset and a nice blue hour shot.

The following day we explored the coast and coves of this truly gorgeous part of the country where I stumbled upon a beach which is a photographers playground.  Unfortunately it was low tide and absolutely freezing but the rock formations and little pools made for great intimate photographs.  Definitely a place I will be returning to in the future for some epic sunset photographs.

Happy New Year!!!

My first landscape photography shoot of 2017 was a bit eventful to say the least.  I had planning to go to the glacial lake Llyn Llydaw at sunrise for the last couple of weeks but the weather had just not played ball but on 2nd January 2017 the forecast was perfect.  I had a specific shot in mind where I wanted to catch the rising winter sun illuminating Snowdon and the aptly named Crib Goch which translated means Red Comb.  My main problem was that I wanted to get a mirror like reflection on the surface of Llyn Llydaw so I need a calm day.

Sunrise was at 8:30am so left at 4:00 to get there in plenty of time to get my composition right and shoot the scene as the sun rose over the mountains.  On autopilot and lack of coffee I joined the M42 and then realised what a total muppet I was and should be on the M5.  I had to go 20 minutes out of my way before I finally got onto the M5 heading in the right direction.  The sub zero temperatures made the driving conditions slow and I totally underestimated the welsh roads this early in the morning as they were white over.  It was a long, slow journey and I didn’t arrive at Pen Y Pass car park until 7:15am where the car park was already nearly full with plenty of people already heading up the mountains with the sun already illuminating the horizon.  I legged it up to my vantage point where the sky was already a beautiful crimson hue and the golden sun illuminating the mountains as I had planned.  I had to rush my shot to get the above photograph titled Red Comb Reflections.  In truth I was about 30 minutes too late but overall I was happy with the final result even though there was a slight ripple on the lake surface.

My second plan for the day was to climb up to Gylder Fach so I could get some good contrast shots of Castell y Gwynt (Castle of the wind) with the sun being low in the sky this time of year.  Looking at my maps I estimated by the time I arrive at the summit the sun would also be falling nicely on Elidir Fawr, Mynydd Perfedd and Pen yr Ole Wen allowing me to capture some images of the Glyderau range and Nant Ffrancon down in the valley.  After a leg bursting climb carrying all my gear I arrived at the summit around 14:00 and the view didn’t disappoint with breath taking views.  After having a breather for 10 minutes and watching a family trying to climb onto the ice covered Cantilever stone I decided to make my way round to Castell y Gwynt and get some images and do some time lapse photography.  On arrival it was just as I had planned, simply stunning.  Excited I climbed a little to get a good composition and then from nowhere cloud came in the wind picked up and it started to hail then turned to snow.

Cursing myself for A not checking the latest weather charts before I set off so I knew what time I had, B not monitoring the Barometer on my GPS and most of all C for messing around and not getting my camera out as soon as I reached the summit it was time to head back down.  To top it all I then twisted my knee right at the top and had to limp nearly 3 miles all the way back down to the car.  I also did a quite spectacular face plant in a bog in darkness at the foot of the mountain which didn’t help my mood!

Even after all the pain of the decent, the long day and freezing temperatures in all seriousness there is no place I would rather have been even though I didn’t get the images I was after.  That’s landscape photography, it’s visiting these stunning locations that make it all worth wile.

Always have a backup plan or 2 or 3!

This has never been more true than one of my recent most popular images ‘Golden Lonesome’.  I planned this trip to Wales days in advance as usual with the view to photograph the Nantygwryd River with its majestic overhanging trees full of autumn colours.  I planned my shot in detail from position down to the time of day when the sun would be in the exact place I wanted illuminating the scene making the tree leaves pop with vibrant autumn colours.  The weather forecast was good, sunny spells with little cloud so everything was looking good for the shoot.

When your travelling nearly 3 hours to get to a destination to take a photograph the last thing you need is to get there and the weather or some other factor influencing your shoot making the whole trip a waste of time.  This is a part of the course when it comes to landscape photography and what makes it so challenging and difficult but also so rewarding when everything finally comes together.  Sometimes things happen you can’t plan for, like hiking up a mountain for a sunset shoot to be foiled by fog and cloud.  When this happens you take it on the chin as you rarely have time to go elsewhere but for this trip to Wales my planned vantage point was only half a mile hike from the car so I knew if anything did happen I could travel to my 2nd choice destination.

My contingency plan would be to head to Snowdon where snow was setting above 600 meters and little wind was forecast.  There was a little cloud cover which could make for a nice sunset so I decided I could head to Llyn Llydaw and get a nice reflection shot of a snow-capped Snowdon at sunset.  As usual I planned my vantage point where I could get the best shot and where the sun rays would fall as the sun went down.  I had the image in my head of what I wanted but wondered whether there would be sufficient snow and also worried about the wind factor when it comes to try and get reflection shots so decided to have 1 more alternative in the bag.

My 3rd and final choice was Llanberis where I thought I could get a shot down the lake with the Snowdon Mountain Range and Glyderau in the background.  The sun was setting behind me so I knew if all else fails then this was an option so I set about planning this shot as like any other with vantage point, possible compositions and timing.

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I was up early that morning and again checked the forecast before I left the house, nothing had changed so full of optimism off I went.  On the drive down into Betswy Coed the Autumn colours of the leaves were stunning and I got quite excited thinking this was going to be a good shoot but the cloud seemed to be getting a lot thicker and I couldn’t see me getting any of the sunny spells predicted.  I arrive at my destination got my gear and wondered down to my vantage point but as soon as I approached I knew I had gotten this wrong.  I was literally a few days to a week late.  Leaves had already fallen which left patched in the trees and this coupled with the thick cloud cover and now starting to rain I just wasn’t feeling the shot.  I had a good look around to scout out the view for the future and decided to abort and head to Snowdon.  It was now early afternoon so I spent an hour in betswy-coed looking in the outdoor shops before heading off.  For those who have never visited this little town it really is a beautiful place especially in the summer but it does get very busy, definitely worth the visit.  Now the rain was starting fall quite heavily and sky very dark but I thought that’s ok as you get the best dramatic shots when the weather is like in this the mountains so I felt quite optimistic.

I pulled onto Snowdon main car park at around 16:00 and then the heavens opened.  I battled against the wind to open my car door,  Ummm this is not good!  It was now starting to hail with driving winds a storm was coming so I put on my waterproof and decided to hike up to Llyn Llydaw before it started.  It’s about an hour or so walk and I was about 30 minutes in when it seriously started to hail, it was horizontal straight into my face with driving winds making it hard to breathe.  I really wanted to keep going as I knew these types of condition produce the most dramatic shots but it was so heavy it would have been difficulty keeping the lens dry to get a shot.  I decided this was not going to work and turned back to the car, 3rd and final destination here I come!

The drive down the pass showed how much rain, hail and sleet was coming down in the mountains as the streams were all in flood.  I pulled up and headed to my destination close by but rushing worrying about the time as I had around 15 minutes before sunset I left my rain cover in the boot of my car.  I just composed my shot then all of a sudden the wind picked up and the hail storm began.  It hammered it down I couldn’t keep my lens dry and didn’t have time to go back to the car and watched the sky turn from white to grey to pink to grey in 2 minutes.  I fired off a few shots but didn’t get the shot I wanted.  I composed myself dashed back to the car to get my cover and when I returned the rain started to ease and the wind dropped.  I was confident I would get the shot if I waited it out and let it blow over, with the sun setting Golden Lonesome was my final shot.

Persistence, planning and more planning with contingency plans allowed me to come away from my trip with a shot that I was very happy with.  Always plan and always have a backup when you can otherwise it would have been a wasted trip for me or I would have just come home with an average shot that I took out of desperation.

Following on from my previous blog post I decided to yet again go and have another go at getting my shot from Cadair Idris especially as I was so close last time.  I check the weather and a gorgeous day ahead was forecast with little wind so I set off at 10:00am. After leaving Welshpool heading to my destination I hit traffic, which was at a standstill.  Great! I waited for 20 mins but nothing was moving so I span the car around and decided to try my luck over the hills across B roads to go around.  I drove for around 45mins then eventually got back onto the main A road where I wanted to be then 5 minutes later I hit traffic again.  A total standstill nothing moving so I got out the car to try and find out what was going on and to my surprise it was the Tour of Britain.  Thanks Wiggo!

After an hour wait the road was reopened and I was finally on my way to Cadair.  The weather was hot with little cloud around when I finally arrived so I set off on my ascent nearly 3 hours behind schedule but I still had time to get up there before sunset.  I do love this 6 ¾ mile walk taking the Minffordd path which starts with a leg burning solid steep path through a wooded gorge which then leads to the spectacular views of the mountain lake of Llyn Cau enclosed by the crags of Craig Cau.  From here a climb up onto the ridge where you can walk around the rim to Penygadair, Cadair’s highest pont.

During the climb I could see the clouds beginning to thicken but decided to continue in the hope of some miracle that the clouds would clear.  Obviously they didn’t and it ended up quite a challenging walk in places where visibility was very low.  On the way down I did get the camera out and took the shot shown in the title image, not the shot I was after but a nice shot all the same.  All weather sites were forecasting clear skies for that evening which again shows care needs to be taken and how unpredictable mountain weather can be.

This mountain sure does not like me but I will be back….Next time in the snow!!!!