…well actually, in two! About 2 months ago now, I set out for a planned shoot in Snowdonia (for non UK residents, that the mountainous north east region of Wales), the scenery is majestic and I'd just bought some ND filters that I was itching to try out on some moving water.
As I work full time, I have to plan in any extended days shooting well in advance, so when I heard the weather forecast and saw the massive low swirling just off Ireland, I was concerned! Not to worry, said the BBC weather monkey - no rain until sunday, late afternoon. Perfect, thinks I - leave early - arrive in-country at 10.00 am saturday shoot all day on the slopes of Tryfan - camp overnight - get up early and catch the dawn for another great day clicking away - drive back before the rain. I'd be in and out like the SAS right?
Well - didn't quite work out that way!
Day one went to plan. Tryfan, for those who have yet to go, is a beautiful mountain and - unusually for Wales and England - sits on it's own, so you can frame it perfectly against a dramatic sky. I found a great position where I could catch fast moving water and Tryfan in the background - the sky was full of interest and I had a great couple of hours experimenting with long exposures – I even managed to not drop anything in the river, of destroy my equipment! All was good. The shot above was the most successful of that batch of exposures and it's my personal favourite from the trip - hope you like it. If you go to my google plus page you can see the colour version, but I think the mono version has the edge.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/103320240261166592824/posts
As the evening drew on, the light was dramatic, with shafts of gold breaking through the building cloud cover and I got some really atmospheric gems. Now, the secret to getting great colour into the sky is to make the most of the low dawn and dusk sun, so if you're away from home in the middle of nowhere, that means an overnight stay. The weather was still fairly warm - it had even been sunny most of the day - so I had planned to camp in a farm at the foot of the mountain. Them I could set an alarm, get up in the dark and deploy for the glorious dawn I was expecting. I ate my lonely dinner, got into my bag and hunkered down with my i-pod for the night - what can go wrong!
This was where the wheels came off the agenda! That night, not only was it "brass monkey" cold in my tiny one man tent - the wind built to the point where it was actually blowing under the tent with me in it. I put on all my clothes and hoped the tent pegs wouldn't let go. The rain thrashed down for a solid 8 hours and when I finally struggled out at dawn, the cloud was about 15 feet from the ground - I couldn't see the mountain - I couldn't see my car! It was a wash out, literally!
I paid the farmer - possibly the most miserable man in Wales - £5 for the privilege of laying in his mud and packed up my sodden camp in the refreshing 45 degree rain - got in the car and got the f*** out of Dodge - there was no chance of any more shooting and you've never seen two more different days. I drove off to find a full english. And this is the point of my tale - sometimes the random factor that you just can't allow for, will destroy your best laid plans! The weather man sometimes gets things 24 hours out of whack and all we can do is be as prepared as we can, take our opportunities where we can and with some luck, bag a couple of great images!
Over the next couple of post I'll be looking at filters and how they can be used to add some great dramatic enhancement to your landscape shots. I'll put up another "put you on it" and "essential kit" and I have a top ten tips posting planned so you can make the most of your outdoor shoots and plan for success!
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