Framedlight

As promised the photos from the previous blog have been digitally converted to monochrome using Silver Efex Pro 2. In most of them I have been pretty heavy with the grain. Which do you prefer? The last picture is the one pinhole photograph I took. My umbrella was blown inside out by the wind and a strut snapped while I was taking it!.

In came New Years Day 2014 with wind and rain. As the conditions were fairly depressing we thought of going with the ambience and visiting a ruined slate quarry at Blaenau Ffestiniog. The quarry opened in 1810 and 50 years later mining for slate had also begun. The mine was known as the 'Slaughterhouse' as so many men were killed - between 1875 and 1886 there were 22 deaths out of a workforce of around 550. The fortunes of the mine were varied and it opened and closed several times as companies went into liquidation. It closed finally in 1970 although a little quarrying for slate took place in the 80's and 90's. It is approached up a path leading up from the edge of the town passing a small waterfall. The stream follows the path up to a lake and the outflow was used for turning machinery, The main buildings are a set of miners cottages now fallen into disrepair, although in late 2013 a move was made to save them. As there had been some work going on when we were there...