Venturing out to Wales one day...

I was still in two minds about what I wanted to do for my final six photographs. I had two ideas; one being sticking to the Woodland/Forests/Trees, the other being the juxtopositions between American Landscape and the British Landscape. So I decided to go out and take pictures that could fit into both of the categories and make my mind up later. My destination for the day - Wales. Where else could I get better Landscapes?

The night before I went through my checklist to make sure I would be fully organised.

Checklist:

• A fully charged camera, with spare battery ( Just in case I got a bit too snap happy ).
• My Tripod. ( A must! ).
• A spare memory card.
• The right clothing ( As we were going quite high up I presumed it may possibly be windy and cold ).
• Gloves! ( I find if I don't wear these I get too cold too quickly and I end up taking quick photographs and give up quickly ).
• My photography Guide for my Camera.
• A full tank of Petrol.
• My Sat Nav!

Monday Morning came and I set off very early. I had an idea of the destinations I wanted to visit, as I lived in Wales for three years and knew where the nicest shots could be taken. I was fairly impressed by the weather; we were driving as the sun came up through the trees and over the hills. It was bitterly cold but everywhere looked crisp and warm, with a blue sky littered with small fluffy clouds. As we were driving on a main road to actually get into Wales we were unable to stop randomly and take photos, but I must admit I saw some amazing shots that would have looked spectacular. This is my regret of the day. We decided to travel to Betws y coed first and stop off if I saw anywhere worth capturing.

Shutter Speed: 1/60  F/8  ISO: 100 WB: Shade

I didn't mess around with the cropping of this photo as I quite like the composition and the difference in the type of treese. If I did crop I may cut off the fencing/road off the bottom but then I feel the tree in the foreground would look peculiar.

Shutter Speed: 1/60  F/5.6  ISO: 100  WB: Direct Sunlight.

Here, instead of cropping the image a little, I took the picture from a lower angle looking up. Which meant changing the White Balance to 'Direct Sunlight' as more of the bright sky was on show. I intensified the colours a little using the editing effects on my camera. I only mainly intensified the blue as I felt the photographs I was taking didn't do much justice to how bright the sky actually was around the time I was taking this photo.

Shutter Speed: 1/60  F/5.6  ISO:100  WB: Direct Sunlight.

I loved how dense this forest was and the sun was shining directly onto the trees which made a warm glow appear. I didn't have to edit this photo in any way as I think the colours and sharpness makes this photo stand out without any retouching effects. I like how simple yet effective this looks.

I then drove around Llanberis Pass, Lake Crafnant in Trefriw, Llandudno and The Great Orme and then finally ended up in the Portmeirion area. The wind started to play up throughout the day increasing quite drastically. I did use my Tripod all day but even when using this, some of the shots seemed to come out with camera shake due to the wind being so intense. Especially at Lake Crafnant and The Great Orme. I have no shots of The Great Orme; I could hardly keep my feet on the ground let alone my Tripod and Camera.

Shutter Speed: 1/15  F/20 ISO: 200 WB: Shade.

I have tweaked the Colours on this photo by using a warm effect. The Sky stood out more in reality and I wanted to show this through the camera. With the long distance shots, It's very hard to get all the detail (the further back the hills go, the more it seems to vanish.) So by darkening the picture a little in the foreground it makes the outline of the hills sharper. I took this photo as the sun was beginning to die down for the day.

Shutter Speed: 1/15  F/20  ISO: 200 WB: Shade.

I don't particularly like this photo but I wanted to put it on my blog to show how windy it was. I was using my Tripod on some fairly muddy ground at Lake Crafnant. The mud made it hard for me to position my tripod so the ground was level hence why this picture is not very level. Also the wind was hectic. As you can see it is fairly blurry around the edges of the branches.

Shutter Speed: 1/200  F/20 ISO: 200  WB: Incandescent.

I do think the fencing ruins this photo but the actual sunset was amazing. If I was going to edit this photo I would use Photoshop to erase the fencing. Unfortunately I only have Photoshop Elements which does not have this tool. This spot was also very busy and I was not the only one taking pictures, which meant positioning was awkward.

Shutter Speed: 1/100  F/20  ISO: 200 WB: Direct Sunlight.

This photo was taken once we were down from The Great Orme back onto level land. The sunset was at its peak and I thought it looked breathtaking so I tried to capture the best shot I could get whilst being blown over by the wind. I haven't used any editing effects on this photo as I think it works by itself. I think this image would look great on a postcard.

Overall my trip was succesful. The only downfall was the wind as it made it tricky to take photos even whilst using my Tripod. I also felt a little rushed due to it being quite cold. Even though I was wrapped up, it was too cold to sit around for ages perfecting the photo angles, aperture, shutter speed etc. I did persevere as much as I could though.