This has to be one of my favourite places to photograph ... North Wales ... there's so many
beautiful scenes to be had and even though it's quite a challenging place to photograph sometimes
you can find some amazing shots with mountains like this in the background you can't go wrong you
can get everything from Moody Skies to brilliant sunrises and sunsets so I'll be sharing with you
my favorite seven places to photograph with all the information you need to get to those locations
the old Gwen Valley is an amazing scene and even though it can get really busy if you get here at
the right time you can almost have the place to yourself now this first one's a classic it's Avon
clear and it's the classic shot of triven with that waterfall in the foreground to get here
there's a big long straight before you get to linoguen and you park on this street as close
to the lake as possible there are lots of cones because people Park illegally just don't park
where those cones are once parked here walk to the West End of This Strait across the road and head
up this Lane don't park down here because this is private land and your car will get clamped
go through the gate follow the path turn right at the entrance to the farm again don't go into
the farm that's private land the path tends to disappear as you're walking up here and every
time I've come up here I seem to go a different way there are paths that appear and disappear
but sometimes it's quite hard to find them ah and I've just spotted a path now [Music]
video here a while back on finding foreground and I'll link it in the description I found a
wall down the bottom with a V shape that almost mirrored the shape of triven I found a couple
of bits of the stream that I got in the shot with driven and then I found a path and the
wall at the Top If you do hike right to the top there'll be a stye over the wall just on
the other side of that wall there's another shot there you basically just have to follow
up Avon clear all the way up and you'll find lots of different foregrounds to put in front
of triven now this is very much a wide angle lens location I shot a lot of these images
with my 17 to 28 millimeters at 17 millimeters I know I say to use longer lenses when you're
first starting landscape photography but this is one of the exceptions to that suggestion foreign
this location is one of my favorites and it's best to come here when it's overcast or a little
bit gloomy and foggy although when the weather is like it is today it's worth coming just to
explore because there's so much to see here if you search for kamurthan waterfalls this
will take you to the car park Google Maps takes you through tanagrissia but it's better to take
the first left hand turning after the turning into tenegrityi and go past the reservoir because that
Road's a lot better whereas the road through the village is narrow tight and a little bit steep
once parked head up through the gate and into the Quarry there is so much to explore in this
area so make sure you give yourself loads of time if you head up to the lake you'll
be greeted with the old kamurthan Terrace later known as Thai Finn now this Valley is
quite high so when the clouds are low it can get really foggy up here and this will add so much
mystery to your photos after photographing and exploring the comorfin Terrace you can either
go to the left of the lake or to the right of the lake if you go left it's quite a walk and
it'll take you past the church and then if you go right to the end of the valley and
follow the track all the way to the top of the hill this will take you to another mine system
if you go to the right you'll go to the closer ruins and then if you head up one
of the tracks you'll find a big open Quarry now one thing when you are at this location
you need to be really careful watch where you walk and watch where you tread you need
to take a bit of common sense when you're here if you see the entrance to the mines
there are tours that you can go on to go into the mining system which are well worth it but
unless you're with a tour guide you need to stay away from those this is such a great
place to photograph and you'll find yourself exploring and spending so much time here I've
probably come here about 10 times and I still haven't seen it all oh yeah and before I forget
over this side there is a path going up here up to the top and it's another mine system
where you've got ruins you've got little caves you've got lots of different things to explore
one of my favorite places to come is up on the end of one of these screens overlooking the whole of
the lake you can get a fantastic Panorama and I've shown it on my channel quite a few times such an
amazing landscape with so much history [Music] this next location is just outside better socoid
and it'll cost you a couple of pounds to get in one pound for your car and one pound per person
it's parking for about eight cars and as its private land you have to pay in the honesty box
a few times I've been here the farmer does come out so make sure you have some cash with you she's
quite good with change as well as long as it's not too busy and to be fair they do a great job
of maintaining the path so it's only fair to pay a couple of pounds it's half the price of a pint
you follow the path and basically take two left turns at each point until you're above the river
so when you're walking along this path you can see down on your right
down there there's a river it's a big deep gorge keep following this until you get to this point
then head down these steps [Music] so the path is a dead end there and you go down these steps here
these can get really Slippery When Wet so just be careful there are also a lot of rocks to scramble
over once you get down to the riverbed so you make sure you've got some good walking boots on oh wow
the last time I was here was in the winter and it was a torrent now it's much lower stream you
can see all the rocks at the Glen once you're down the bottom you'll be looking up this Gorge if you
get this at the right time you can get the sun shining down this Gorge and it looks fantastic
backlit it's a great place for long exposures but make sure to bring your longer lens to get
the right framing of the gorge itself I shot this Photograph at about 110 millimeters and
then I shot this wider shot at 50 millimeters so the gorge is quite far away from where you can
stand this is very much an autumn and winter location where you'll get those higher River
levels and you'll get the water cascading Down The Gorge it is pretty in the summer but I think it
looks much better in the winter and in the winter you'll need a slightly longer lens I think a 70 to
200 millimeter would work perfectly fine here so this shows you need to come back to locations time
and time again and you can get very different conditions depending on the time of the year
this next location is back in the old Gwen Valley and this time you have to pay for
parking it's three pounds for four hours and six pounds for the whole day as of June 2023
if you want some hot food to take with you you can get it at the takeaway Cafe
but don't get the sausage rolls they're mine just head up this path to the lake [Music]
thank you as you get to the lake there are some great little photo spots if it's perfectly flat
turn right and go across the bridge at the moment it's out of commission but there are
rocks to get you across this way just on the other side of the wall there's some really
nice locations where you can usually get a good reflection if the wind isn't on the lake [Music]
now if you're feeling really energetic there's a two hour hike up to the top of a gun which
is this peak up here and you're looking back along the valley to the east you'll get the
sun in the shot you'll get flynnid wool and you'll get Lynn ogwen as well and that's a
fantastic location for Sunrise but in the middle of the summer this means a 12 to 1
o'clock start now if you go on the path to the left of the lake you can go all the way at the
back and there's a bridge with a metal railing this can make a really good foreground element
trying to get up there now before the shadow gets on it but I'm not sure if
I'm gonna make it so it's in there somewhere and the Shadow's just about to hit it I think
I've got another 30 minutes before it's in Shadow so hopefully I can get it [Music]
so it looks like I missed the bridge uh it's in the shadow now but I do have this kind of bridge
going down which is pointing to clinid wool and Penn are all went in the distance so I'm going to
try and get a photo here the light is a bit flat because the sun's almost behind me but again it's
amazing how locations will change during the different times of year I was doing a workshop
here in March time and we came up earlier in the morning and all of the lake was in the shadow
and all of this side of the mountain was in the sunlight and it was really heavily weighted to the
left hand side so like I said it's always good to come back to a location time and time again
when the conditions are different at different times of the year and through different seasons
now the problem I always seem to find with this location is that you either get flat
light in the middle of the summer as the Sun hits 12 o'clock and then it's five o'clock now
still pretty harsh light by the time you get that golden hour the sun is down behind the
gun so because of this this is very much one of those shots that works really well on a cloudy
Moody day so I shot this at 28 millimeters but because the sun is still quite high in the sky
and it's behind me I'm not getting any kind of things that are popping out and it's all kind
of bland and flat so if it's really sunny save yourself the hike up to the back here take a few
shots down by the lake and then maybe go to that other location I was at earlier on at avonclear
this is another classic to get when you're in North Wales and it's in the village of
flanderust all you need to do is park somewhere in the village and then walk back to the bridge
just to the right of the bridge you'll see the Tea House it can take a photograph of
roadside or you can come down Riverside in the winter the river is quite high so you've got
to watch yourself down here you could see all the debris on the trees as you walk along this
path down on the Riverside just keep an eye on those water levels and stay safe and stay
on this path now at the moment the tea house is green but in the Autumn it goes red and that's
the time to get a photograph of this place so it's around about the middle of June now
and the Sun is going to be rising over here you can see it actually shining on The Tea House in
the winter the Sun comes through the Arches on the bridge for Sunset it's over this way
you don't get much light on the front of the tea house so it is a little bit of a Gamble
foreign this next location is on the other side of the lake from flamberis and it's the Anglesey
Barracks you park at the dinorwig bus terminal and then you don't walk along the footpath but you
walk along the road you follow that road down it turns into a footpath that you keep following that
down and it brings you to this fantastic location these are the old Barracks where the miners used
to live and with these old gnarly trees around it and the mountains in the background it's an
absolutely fantastic location it's quite tricky to find a good composition here but there are a
few to be had again the composition I've found it's probably been done before but it's such a
nice shot to get one thing with this location is because it's surrounded by mountains you've
got to wait till a little bit later in the day sunrise today was about five o'clock in
the morning and it's around ten to eight the best bet is to get the sun just rising over
those mountains so it hits the barracks and it's hitting the mountains and trees so everything's
catching a touch of Light by the looks of it to the west of the barracks there are a few trees
so that might block the sunlight hitting the barracks when you are shooting a sunset here
another great time to shoot here is when you've got some Moody stormy clouds where it's a little
bit Misty with the trees and the barracks and a bit of mist that would give you a really eerie
shot I've been shooting at this shot between 28 millimeters and 24 millimeters so if you had a
standard kit lens say a 24 to 70 on a full frame camera or a 16 to 55 on a crop sensored camera
that would work and you'd be able to get a great shot here like most of these locations in North
Wales I could just explore this place for hours so again give yourself enough time this is similar to
komorphin but very different with all of these old gnarly trees and then these Barracks which are in
really good condition you'll get some fantastic photographs and then you've got the backdrop of
the mountains as well it's absolutely fantastic now really haven't done this place Justice I got a
photo of the Anglesey Barracks but there's so much more to photograph and so much more to explore
so if you do come to the Anglesey Barracks leave yourself a lot of time now when you do come to any
of these quarries or mine systems you've just got to be really careful read all of the signs
and make sure you don't go over any fences that you shouldn't or under any structures that could
fall down there's a lot of dangers but there's also a lot of amazing photographs to be had
thank you
this is the Roman bridge at penmacno it's quite a nice scene it's really green and
it's quite sheltered as well the light's a bit harsh today but when it's overcast
this is a fantastic location to come to I've been here in the winter and
the water's probably been about this deep and a flowing torrent as well
I was perched up where the camera is now there are only a few rocks showing so if you do come to
this location be really careful when you're close to the river at the moment it's a little bit like
a pool and it's dead flat but in the winter time or after a really big storm the water flows down
here like anything and it's a bit of a torrent to get to this location you basically turn right at
the Conway Falls and then follow this back road when you get to a group of houses there's a right
turn turn down there then you'll go across a little bridge and then just on the left
hand side after this bridge there are a couple of lay-bys the second one is better and it fits two
cars well as long as no one's parked right in the middle just park up here and then walk back along
the road to the bridge if you take the first left turning just before the bridge this will take you
to the wrong side where there's a rope swing but you can't actually see the Roman Bridge what you
want to do is walk across the road bridge and then turn left just where there's that little garage
now if you do come here in the winter time this path can get really muddy so make sure you've
got Wellies on or some waterproof hiking boots then it's just a case of finding a composition
somewhere here along the Riverside I think at this location you'd be fine with a kit lens I shot this
image at 50 millimeters and then I got closer and shot this image at 28 millimeters now you can see
how strong the currents can get there's a whole tree trunk wedged in the Rocks almost vertical
right underneath the bridge and it does take away from the shot normally that's not there
I think when the next storm comes through that'll probably break that away another thing with this
bridge because the road bridge is just behind it and it's an arched Bridge as well you almost
want to line those up because it can be quite distracting now even though with the reflection
and the Still Water it looks quite nice I actually prefer it with a torrent flowing through it just
adds to the drama of the shot this location also works better when it's overcast so if you get to
North Wales it's cloudy and the lanterns are all in the clouds this is one of the locations to
come in the middle of the summer it can be really green but as you go into the Autumn you'll start
getting those Browns and yellows from those autumn colors now when you come to a location like this
it can be quite daunting but if you learn certain tools in composing a nice shot chances are you'll
get a good shot and in this video I show you exactly how to do that I'll see you next time