Framedlight

 Again a long gap between blogs but I will attempt to back fill a little. These pictures are from a long weekend we took in June. I had bought a Lomograph 32mm Minotar lens that will fit on a digital camera. (I also have the film camera which sports the same lens). I was really impressed by the way this lens renders colour, and for a really cheap lens it is quite sharp. It also has a rather nice vignette which I must have cut most off as I was shooting in square format on a full frame camera. We went on a long walk, after parking in Penmachno, near Betws-y-Coed. It was a slightly pointless walk, as although we ended up coming along the river from Betws, we were mainly going on dark forestry paths through pine plantations.  The last 3 pictures were taken in the village of Penmachno. We were staying in a rental cottage in Pentrefoelas, not a scenic village, on the A5. We happened to be opposite the pub which we thought useful until we saw the reviews. It was very local but our v...

New Years Eve dawned blustery but we had already planned on a journey over to Cwm Idwal which lies to the east of the Snowdonia range under the mountain Tryfan, and we were not going to be deterred. This was a place we came to often when we lived near Mold in North Wales, many moons ago. The trip over took in the same route through Beddgelert and Capel Curig we had already passed over several times. So you will forgive more pictures of the same, but the light through the stormy clouds was quite special.

Overnight the rain poured and the wind blew. On the morning of the 30th December it looked as if the old year was going out with a bang. The wind was still growling and the coast seemed a good place to visit. We drove over to Anglesey through flooded roads, first stopping at Betws Garmon to see how the stream was coping with the extra load. From there we went over the Menai straits and across the flat boring hinterland of Anglesey before turning off to look at the west coast. In a small cove called Porth-y-Post we discovered the force of the Atlantic playing out, not as violently as it would do later in the week, but at least it was safe to watch. The first two pictures are of Betws and the rest of Porth-y-Post, these taken at first with a 70mm lens and then with a 200mm lens.

After breakfast Alan, Rene (Alan's mum who was staying at the house with us) and I went to the quiet hinterland of the Lleyn to visit St Cybi's Well. The well lies near the village of Llangybi and is a little walk from the main road across some boggy fields. Rene managed the walk pretty well. St Cybi was thought to have come from Cornwall in the 6th century and the well also has a habitation next to it for pilgrims and a detached latrine a little further off. It was thought to cure all sorts of things including scurvy and rheumatism, if taken with equal quantities of seawater, and was in use until after the reformation. In fact there was a donation box in the church for it until the 18th century. After some pictures of the well there are pictures of the church at Llangybi and then Penarth Fawr, a medieval hall house which is a little way away from Llangybi and currently up for sale! I have used the Lensbaby 35mm Sweet Optic for some of these pictures which gives a small plane...

On the Monday morning we took the kayak to West Angle beach and paddled up the Milford Haven Sound to Angle. The day was dull and overcast with no wind and after the rocks and caves we had seen before the kayaking was rather dull, apart from a tour of Thorn Island, an old fort that had been used as a hotel and then as a private residence but now looked deserted and rundown. We packed up and drove to Abereiddy, moving north-west of St David's. My favourite Pembrokeshire place is Porthgain, not far from Abereiddy and we went over there for a walk on the clifftop . We stayed at a farm called Llandigige Fawr in Berea and on our first night had a sunset over the rear of the campsite with mist rising from the ground. Thorn Island Channel marker at Porthgain Fisherman's hut at Porthgain Sunset from the campsite

Gigrin farm is only a 15 minute drive from Rhayader and it is here that they feed the red kites. There are a number of hides for people to stand in based on one side of a field and at 3.00pm in the summer and 2.00pm in the winter a tractor comes onto the field and scatters a large amount of meat in. The red kites, a few buzzards and a number of crows gather waiting for this event and as soon as the meat is down start to feed. They seem to come in waves, it will go quiet for several minutes and then a large number of birds will come in to pounce on the food. I couldn't count how many kites there were in the sky at any one time but there must have been at least 50. It is thrilling to hear their wingbeats over the top of the hide. I was using the Nikon D800 to photograph them, either with my 70-200mm lens and a 1.4 teleconverter, or more commonly my old Sigma 400mm, which is fine as long as you keep it on f8. I went in to the lowest priced hide just for photogra...