I´ve just returned from a three week trip to the UK, for two weeks of which we made a fantastic tour of the north of Scotland. The weather was amazing and the scenery was breathtaking. I took this at Neist Point on Skye where we had a wonderful night wild camping.
Neist Point, Skye, Scotland copyright: charles kenwright/ http://www.openmind-images.com
Llyn Llydaw, Y Lliwedd, Snowdonia, Wales, UK copyright: charles kenwright/ http://www.openmind-images.com
Another image of Y Lliwed and the ruins of the copper mines. This time it´s a two shot panorama using a 28mm lens. On the left is the reservoir, Llyn Llydaw. I´m not sure if the miners who toiled there all those years ago had much time to take in the grandeur of this Welsh mountain cwm, probably not, but it´s a wonderfully impressive place. And, for me, a black and white landscape – maybe it´s got to do with it´s history, maybe it´s the monochrome power of the massive cliffs on Y Lliwed, maybe it´s both, anyway, here it is, in all it´s black and white grandeur!
Copper Mine and Y Lliwedd, Snowdonia, North Wales. copyright: charles kenwright/ http://www.openmind-images.com
I´ve often walked past these ruins of the old copper mines on the Miners Track. I was usually on the way to do a climb on Y Lliwedd or in winter, one of the Trinity snow gullies on Yr Wyddfa, Snowdon. But this visit I wanted to photograph them, hopefully with some moody lighting. The weather was clearing as I got there, but at least there were still some clouds above Y Lliwedd in the background.
There´s a tremendous sense of history here. Industrial history with the copper mine, mountaineering history with Y Lliwedd. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th Centuries Y Lliwed was one of the prime crags for the still young sport of rock climbing. It´s a big crag, one where it´s easy to get off route on. There is also mythological history here too, King Arthur is rumoured to be buried in a cave somewhere on the Y Lliwedd face, ready to spring forth when the kingdom is in danger.
Cwm Idwal, Snowdonia, Wales, UK copyright:charles kenwright/ http://www.openmind-images.com
I´ve just returned from a few days spent in Snowdonia, North Wales. This images shows a small stream in Cwm Idwal which eventually flows into Llyn Ogwen. It was a very nostalgic few days for me – I´ve spent a lot of time climbing and walking in this area and it was really good to get back there after all these years. The weather was cool and blustery when I arrived in Ogwen on Monday, as this shot shows, and I was hoping for some dramatic lighting – but I was to be disappointed. Both Tuesday and Wednesday, my last day there, were sunny and virtually cloudless! I know, normally when visiting Snowdonia one hopes for such weather, but I find mixed weather to be most creative for me. Such is life and although the weather wasn´t my sort of landscape photography weather, it was perfect walking weather.
Returning snow. copyright: charles kenwright/ http://www.openmind-images.com
Returning Snow –
Snow has returned today,
I stand on the balcony
As my mind´s eye
Leaves tracks across the hill.
Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA. copyright: charles kenwright/ http://www.openmind-images.com
“The world today is sick to its thin blood for lack of elemental things, for fire before the hands, for water, for air, for the dear earth itself underfoot.” Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
The other day I read a blog post by Julian Hoffman called the Bugling Sky He prefaced it with a quote from Henry Beston´s The Outermost House. I´d never heard of Beston before, or this book, so I did a bit of research. The nature writer, Henry Beston, lived for a year in a small beach house he´d had built on the sands of Cape Cod. His description of this year spent on the shores of this fragile peninsula which stands on the eastern US seaboard, exposed to the power of the North Atlantic, is one of the most lyrical and descriptive pieces of nature writing in the English language. The above quote from The Outermost House resonated with me, and although he wrote this in 1928, it´s still just as relevant for us today.
Chiemsee, Bavaria. copyright: charles kenwright/ http://www.openmind-images.com
A while ago I was speaking to a photographer friend about the best times for landscape photography. This conversation was place unspecific, by that I mean not being dependent on the right time of day/year to photograph a specific place. And we both agreed that two important times were when a weather front was either coming or going. Both of these often give dramatic lighting and atmospheric conditions. This shot I took last Thursday was one of those – when the weather was changing for the better.
I´d driven down to Chiemsee, the biggest Bavarian lake, last Thursday to hopefully capture one of these “weather change” events. The drive started off with snow showers, low clouds and a cold wind. When I arrived there it was still cold, grey and windy but the weather forecast had said it would brighten later. I´d already chosen the place, Seebruck, at the North end of the lake, with a view across the water to the Bavarian Alps. The landing pier for the pleasure steamers was also to be an important feature in the shot. I set up my camera on the rather wet edge of the lake. The clouds started to clear and, because of the fresh wind, were moving quite quickly. To compensate for the brighter sky I used a Lee 0.6 ND soft grad. filter and, to soften both water and clouds, a Lee little stopper filter to increase the exposure time. The exposure was 15 seconds. I processed the RAW shot using Capture One Pro, but this time, instead of doing the black and white conversion direct in Capture One, I exported a Photoshop file and did the work using Silver Effects 2 in Photoshop.
Of course one drawback in going for these times of weather change is that you will have to put up with uncomfortable conditions at either the beginning or end of your shoot. If you´re somewhere were this may have serious consequences, in the mountains, for example, you should bear that in mind.
Sunsets don´t just have to revolve around colour – they may well have elements in the composition that look better in monochrome. I´ve converted yesterday´s post to monochrome, admittedly with a lot of tweaking, to compare the scene with and without the “clutter” of colour. Maybe it´s just my love of black and white, but I prefer this one. Comments welcome – what do you prefer, or are both crap?!
Monochrome Landshut Sunset. copyright: charles kenwright/ http://www.openmind-images.com
Yesterday we had quite a sunset here – I make no apologies about this being a “chocolate box sunset”, because it was simply wonderful!
Landshut Sunset copyright: charles kenwright/ http://www.openmind-images.com
Last weekend I had a good weekend in the Tuxer Alps, snow shoeing. Saturday was a brilliantly sunny day but with a very stron Föhn wind blowing up from the south. It led to some very impressive cloud formations which were blown along at a tremendous speed. I took these shots whilst climbing the Vennspitze (2390m) which is above Paduan.
The Wildseespitze taken from the Vennspitze, Tuxer Alps, Tirol Austria copyright: charles kenwright/ http://www.openmind-images.com
Shadows on the Vennspitze, Tuxer Alps, Tirol Austria copyright: charles kenwright/ http://www.openmind-images.com
During Saturday night it started to snow which lasted well into Sunday. Changes in weather just completely change the atmosphere of a place. The last shot, taken on Sunday is looking down onto a small hamlet near Lippenhof. By the way this area is near the Brenner Pass which leads over into Italy.
Snow storm, Tuxer Alps, Tirol Austria copyright: charles kenwright/ http://www.openmind-images.com
Charles Kenwright, www.KenwrightFineArt.com 