Hello and today I am in Snowdonia I'm very excited about the day I've already
got some pretty spectacular 360 degree views and I have only just set off so it
should be a really great day a little bit windy, but a great day of landscape
photography..... let's go
okay so I'm set up for the first shot of the day and I've just been sort of
naturally walking up the mountain having a good look around and I found this
little composition here it's a vertical shot but I've still got some of that
flowering heather. It is coming towards the end of the heather season but there is
still a little bit here and as I've been walking I've noticed this natural
s-curve in the bracken here...or the heather.... sorry as the ditch kind of is going
through the landscape and on little each section of the hill that heather
is there and flowering nicely and it just makes a nice s-curve that then
leads you up into that mountain above my head there. It's not the ideal time of
the day but the Sun isn't in a bad position for the shot I'm at f/8 and
I've gone to ISO 200 in order to let me get up to 1/200 of a second to
freeze that heather because there's so much wind just blowing about and I want
that to be still in the frame and I'm just waiting for a little bit of light
to poke through the clouds just to light up that bracken...... why do I keep calling
it bracken?? It's heather. I want the light to come through the clouds to light up
that heather because it just comes alive when the light hits it so
that's what I want it's gonna brighten up a few of these rocks here a really
nice shot to get me going for the day so I'm happy with that I've just noticed as
I've been walking up. Right here we go.... a bit of light in the scene now and that
is absolutely brilliant
Now when I travel to a new location the type of quality of shots I get generally
will depend on the connection I feel to a particular area when I visit somewhere
I want to understand it I want to enjoy it and I want to really feel it and
build a connection and an emotional connection with the landscape because
once I do that it's at that point I feel I can start to tell the story and put
some emotion into the shots I capture sometimes it doesn't happen and
sometimes it does and it doesn't even really depend on the actual beauty of
the place I once visited the Grand Canyon and to be honest I didn't really
like it it is a magnificent spectacle but for me I just didn't make that
emotional connection to the place I don't know why it just happens that way
sometimes last week when I went to Anglesey I was
overwhelmed with disappointment when I didn't get the image that I was looking
for and that's just the sort of type of photographer I am. I do try to be more
stoic to be more practical to have that even level that can then allow you to
sort of overcome these things a little bit easier but I'm just not like that
and get quite emotional about my photography as you may have seen there
are highs there are lows and a lot of that will depend on how I'm feeling
about the landscape around me. I've just been thinking a lot more recently about
the actual shooting of landscape photography getting out and about, why we
do it that sort of things I just wanted to share that little feeling. Right
the day's looking good it's just so windy which is why I've had to take cover in
this little cove here but I'm gonna crack on get up the mountain now I've
got a big steep hill ahead of me and I'm gonna get to the top where I'm hoping there is
going to be a really nice composition for my main image of the day
This boulder here has clearly fallen from the cliff face at some point in the
past it's now covered in heather and it's absolutely beautiful. There's no shot there but it's very cool. I
have not seen anything like that before. A nice little break from the climb to have
a look at that
That is a daunting climb
Okay. I've stopped for the second shot of the day and a welcome break from this
really tough climb. Can you see this tree here just sticking out of the side of
the cliff it looks absolutely spectacular I just noticed it as I was
walking up and it's sort of set in those really dark rocks of that cliff and I
noticed it at first and then suddenly like it is now the light struck it
through that this tiny little Canyon it's only gonna happen at a very
specific point in the day and it just happens to be when I was walking past so
I had the 70 to 200 millimeter lens on there and I'm in at about 120
millimetres just on the tree so I'm isolating the tree in the frame that's
the main subject that's nice and bright you've got that golden light on it and
then that's contrasted against that really dark cliff it's a very simple
shot but it's gonna work really well I'm just gonna capture one more see what
that looks like absolutely brilliant
Right I'm at the top and it is extremely windy the top is actually.... or the real top
is actually up there that's Y Garn. I'm not going up there
today I'm tired and I have pretty much got the composition just here that I wanted
it's a very straightforward shot this is pretty much why I came here to see this
viewpoint and it does make a really nice composition I've trekked out on to a
little precipice and I've got to say it is very high and a little bit close to
the edge even for me I'm not feeling particularly brave today so in the
composition I have the two lakes down at the bottom of this beautiful valley and
then in the foreground I've got some of the rocks at the top of this cliff and a
few of the grasses just moving around a little bit
providing a little bit of foreground interest they're covered in some
beautiful golden light at the moment it's definitely not the perfect
conditions for this shot it would be beautiful in a winter sort shot
with some snow-capped mountains some moody light today it's very bright but
there are some clouds so there is a fair bit of contrast in the scene it's not
too bad it's still gonna be a good shot it's my first time here in Snowdonia so....
woah.... so I can't.....woah.... it's it's been a great experience today I feel like I
have made a bit of a connection....woah... with this place despite the fact I'm
nearly falling off this cliff. So I'm not going to wait till sunset today I'm just
gonna trek back down it was a harsh trek and I don't fancy doing it in the dark
so I'm gonna trek back down to the car I might get a little sunset shot down by
one of these lakes at the end of the day and then I have a long drive home back to Yorkshire.
Anyway I hope you've enjoyed this video please leave a comment down below and
let me know what you think I would really really love to hear from you
I do read all the comments I reply to as many as I possibly can depending on what
I'm doing but I'll hopefully see you on another one very soon head over to
firstmanphotography.com to check out the workshops and you could come on a trip
like this with me get a bit of tuition, a bit of guidance from me and really improve
your landscape photography. Anyway I will see you on another one very soon I'm
Adam this is First Man Photography in.......
Snowdonia
Out!!!!