I Like Lichen...

Today's pictures from my walk on Saturday are different to the ones which will follow over the next few days in that while the others will all be of the wider landscape these focus on the things we don't tend to notice.  

The first is of a small cluster of lichen and moss which were growing in the shelter of a small cleft in some rock.  This was taken using my Canon 100mm macro lens.  Pictures 2 & 3 are of lichen growing on the side of a rock at the edge of a fast flowing stream. 

Good Fortune

Today while driving home from North Wales I had time to think about good fortune or good luck.  I felt very lucky or blessed  today, as lucky as Pedro who has shocks and pegs on his bike and as lucky as the guy in the Tubelord song I was listening to.  

The reason being... the weather was perfect for photography.  As I set off at 7.00 a.m. in the dark and the rain I was being hopeful but it paid off because the light was great and although quite cold the conditions were perfect as I combined my photography with a really good walk up to and around Llyn Idwal in Snowdonia. Over the next few days or so I will be sharing a selection of the images I captured.

I also felt lucky to have met a really lovely couple and as we chatted about cameras and photography they told me how lucky they feel to live in such a beautiful part of Wales.

Perhaps the luckiest of all however was the person in the photos below who was being rescued by the absolutely amazing RAF rescue team.  Obviously not lucky to have fallen down the mountain and needing to be rescued of course, but lucky that we have a service such as this with servicemen/women who are dedicated and highly trained to preform such dangerous work.  More good fortune for the rescuers was the conditions were so good, and as you can see from the shots below this was a blessing indeed as they hovered so low and close to the rock face.  The couple I spoke to told me that last week they had seen a similar rescue on the other face of the mountain but on that occasion there was a gale blowing and it was raining sideways.  Respect and admiration by the shed load for these guys,  if I had a hat I'd be taking it off right now!

Sandcastles

Following on from yesterday's fast paced pictures I have chosen two more beach based photos but this time something smaller and stationary.  

I'm sure that at one time or another most of us have made sandcastles and on the same day as I took the kite surfing pictures I stumbled across this sandcastle, like most of the other castles along the Welsh coast it had been abandoned and was falling into decay.  I tried to get low down to get a good perspective for these shots. I think the lighting and the angle of the first picture works best.

Kite Surfing

Canon EOS 6D 24 - 105mm @105mm f4 ISO 100 1/1600s

24 -105mm @ 58mm f4 ISO 100 1/2000s

70 -300mm @ 225mm f16 ISO 100 1/80s

70 - 300mm @ 225mm f14 ISO 100 1/80s

24 -105mm @ 50mm f4 ISO 100 1/1600s

Today I have posted some action shots taken at Black Rock Sands near Porthmadog in North Wales.  It was March and although the sun was out it was quite breezy as you can see and there was a definite chill in the air.  It was amazing how much speed the carts and Kite surfers reached.  It looks like a lot of fun.

A Rainy Day in the Lakes

I've been itching to get out to the Lake District for a while now and when the forecast looked promising this last weekend my eldest son and I decided to go.  We planned on walking around Rydal Water and Grasmere along the "Coffin Trail" as this would not be too strenuous and would give some good photo opportunities.  However, and this will not come as a big surprise, the met office got it wrong.  So alright it was cold I didn't mind that, it was a bit cloudy and I didn't mind that but the rain, that was not in the forecast at all and we got soaked.  It also limited the opportunities to get some good shots.  

Even so we had a great day out, we got some Sarah Nelson's Gingerbread too which is really really tasty.  So you enjoy the pictures and I will enjoy some gingerbread...

Stunning Sunset

A short while ago I posted some photos of a sunset taken from my bedroom window and tonight I have some more.  While much of the country is covered in thick cloud here in the north west it's not been too bad. 

Again these shots are looking across west Wirral towards the North Wales Coast and I have my next door neighbour to thank for alerting me to the changing light. Hopefully you will agree that they are quite spectacular.  

58mm @ F18, ISO 160, 1/8s

60mm @ F13, ISO 320,  1/30s

60mm @ F13, ISO 320, 1/40s

65mm @ F10, ISO 320, 1/30s 

Maritime History

Today would have been my dad's 74th birthday and I miss him loads so I wanted to post some photos today as a remembrance to him.  Many years ago he was at sea with the merchant navy and growing up in and around Portsmouth he taught me to appreciate our Naval History.  The pictures below of HMS Warrior and HMS Victory at Portsmouth's Historic Naval Dockyard are images I know he would love and so that is the reason for my choice.  

These shots were taken in 2002 and 2003 using my first digital camera.  As with many of the pictures I post from back then I would love to go back and take some high resolution pictures using my new camera, I just have to be patient.

An April Evening Too

Today's images were taken at the same time as those in yesterday's blog.  They are at Meols Shore which is part of the Wirral Coastal Path.  Early evening is a great time for photography as the light is often just right. I particularly like the third of today's photos although it would probably be better without the mast.  I also like the way the light is catching on the lifebouy in the final picture.

An April Evening

Living near the sea provides lots of great photo opportunities, today's photos were taken at Meols Shore in April early in the evening, in the distance over Liverpool a storm was brewing and I just caught the end of a rainbow dipping into the Mersey.

Loch Ard two...

In September I posted one picture from my trip to Loch Ard in March 2011.  The water was crystal clear and it was mirror calm meaning that even though the sky was overcast the reflections were beautiful. I had such a great trip and got some lovely shots so wanted to share a few more today.  I hope you enjoy them, I will and I will enjoy the memories that they bring back too.

Red Red Robin...

I noticed today that a friend loves Robins so I decided that I would share a  few photos I took in January 2009 when I had only just got my first DSLR enjoy...  

they were taken at Llyn Brenig in North Wales but of course you don't really need to go far to enjoy these cheeky little birds

Hatton Locks, Warwick

Many years ago when I studied at Warwick University I saw a poster of the flight of locks at Hatton just outside of Warwick.  I decided to go for a walk to see them for myself and as my house at the time backed onto the canal I set off, but it was much further than I had expected and I had to turn back.

In March this year a mere 29 years later I stopped off on a drive back from Canterbury and took a few pictures, I have posted a few shots today, I am happy with them but I was pushed for time on the day and would have liked to take more time over the composition and exposures.  The RAW files of these images are in colour and look really nice but the files are a bit too big to post.  One day I will sort some out in Lightroom and then I will post some of the better colour images, but for now please enjoy...

At Herne Bay

The three pictures above were taken on the beach at Herne Bay in Kent, The Garden of England.

I took a number of pictures of the breakwaters as they stretched down the beach into the sea, I think the one I have posted today is the best of them.  

I have chosen two other pictures of the waves breaking, one in monochrome and the other in colour.  Again I took several pictures to try to capture the right moment as the wave hit the breakwater, I think that they are  dramatic shots even though the waves weren't particularly big the effect as they broke was quite exciting.

I like water as a subject for photography and in the future I will experiment with different shots and different effects.

Hidden Beauty

The pictures I have chosen for today were taken in September, often when I'm out walking I see piles of cut wood and I like the patterns of the logs as they are stacked.  I also like the patterns in the bark which very often we see without really seeing... so the reason I have posted these is to show some of the beauty in nature that we don't usually notice.