Chester

Hope you all had a fabulous Christmas. We had the usual, too much food, not enough exercise and an overwhelming sense of well being!
We used the poor weather as an excuse not to get out but a few days after, the rain stopped and the sun came out so we decided to venture out into the great outdoors. Only as far as Chester tho!

Dropped the girls off shopping while Carl and I had a wander along the river. It was very high.

Nothing major is flooded in this area, we are extremely lucky and all thoughts go out to everyone who is suffering because of all the rain.

I am loathe to complain about the sun as we don't see it often enough, but it was very bright and very low and I was the wrong side of the river, having to shoot straight into it, so desperate measures were called for. Well, no, actually we just crossed over the bridge and came down the other side of the river.

I can't believe the sky tho, pure bright blue, made such a nice change from all the grey we have been having recently.

The other side of the Dee is uncharted territory for me so it was fabulous to be able to wander around and discover new treasures.

Just loved this sign lurking in the undergrowth. Had to do a fair bit of clambering to get to it and a bit of precarious balancing on the bank, but so worth it. Then as if that wasn't enough, came across this old waterwheel which didn't look like its been used for a long time.

Then back over the bridge to familiar territory. Not the most exciting day I've ever had, but so nice just to get out, enjoy the weather and walk off at least one sprout!

I would like to wish everyone who has read and commented on all my nonsense a wonderful and action packed 2016 and to thank everyone who has helped me during this fabulous year. 

Lessons Learned: It just goes to show that even with a place you go to regularly, there is always something new to find if you look close enough.
You have to walk a long way to burn off Christmas Pud.

Diet Diary: Monday. Been given a Fabulous Christmas Card with a picture of the summit of Snowdon on it reminding me that earlier this year, I was there. It brought it home to me that I couldn't do it now, weight has gone up and fitness levels down. So with renewed determination, diet diary will be back up and running from the 4th. Wish me luck!

Showing Off

Because I usually have to apologize for things I have done, it makes a nice change to have the opportunity to show off about them!
I recently entered a photograph in a competition in The Observer New Review. It was about sharing pictures on the theme of Heaven.
My immediate thought of my idea of heaven is to be walking down a deserted beach while the elements battled around me, which brought me to one of my surfer pictures that I had always been very pleased with.

The Newspaper people seemed to like it as much as I did as they sent me an e-mail last week saying that it may be printed in today's paper, no guarantees.

So the last 2 days went by very slowly and I was waiting on the doorstep of Tesco as it opened. Found the Observer and flicked through. It may seem churlish but at £2.90 a copy I wasn't going to buy one if I wasn't in it. My hands were shaking and I could barely turn the pages, but there it was on page 38! I may have whooped, I can't honestly remember as it is all a bit of a blur. I do remember walking around Tesco with an inane grin on my face clutching 2 copies of the paper (one to show around, one to stroke).

So here it is.

You are now reading the musings of the terminally unfit, but nationally published, photographer! 

Dinorwig

So the day dawned cold and drizzly. Needed to get out for a small hike somewhere to top up the zen. Thought I would head to Snowdonia. Haven't been to the Dinorwig Slate Quarry for ages, and if the weather didn't improve I had the Slate Museum to visit.

So decided to get prepared for any weather eventuality, so checked waterproof trousers, snood, scarf, gloves, hat, spare boots and socks. All set.

It was only when I was almost at Betws-y-coed that I suddenly thought that I didn't remember picking up my coat. Parked up and ransacked the car, no coat. Its the middle of December and I am hiking up a hillside and I have no coat! I really am a danger to myself.

So 3 choices:
a) Go home and get coat - would waste the whole day, so not an option
b) Put up with the cold - really don't like being cold and it would spoil the day
c) Go buy another coat - any excuse to shop!

So helped by a very nice and rather handsome young man in one of the shops (I do seem to find them on my travels!) with the brief of "warm and cheap" I was finally suitably attired. (Would you like a bag? No thank you, I'll wear it, can you cut the tags out please)

So first stop Dinorwig Quarry. You can either walk up from the bottom, which is a very steep climb, or park up halfway and walk the rest. Afraid I wimped out. Fitness levels still not where they should be, so will work up to that one. Its amazing how quickly they drop. Climbed Snowdon in May, don't think I could do it now!

I was looking for a picture for the Derelict Sunday challenge I am hosting on blip for the next 4 weeks, and had a scene in mind.

I love the ruined state of the building with Snowdonia in the background. A dark and dramatic reminder of Snowdonia's industrial past. I tweaked a bit in Lightroom to add a bit more drama and hopefully make it a more powerful shot.

This is one of the Slate Pools that you come across when wandering through the quarry. The scenery is just incredible. You are surrounded by slate mountains on one side, and real ones on the other, it is very imposing and quite humbling when you think of the conditions men had to work and live in.

Much of it is fenced off which is a shame, but I think it would be foolhardy to climb over those fences because it is obviously a very dangerous place to lose your way in.

It was starting to drizzle again by this time so I headed to the Museum which amazingly, is free entry.

There is a very informative short film when you first get there telling you about the history of the quarry and then you are free to just wander around among the bits of machinery left as if the workers had just popped out for lunch.

On this visit, they were well into the Christmas Spirit, so there was more tinsel than you could wave a stick at, and an assortment of Snowmen, Santas and Reindeer, which kind of changed the ambience a tad, especially as I was the only person in there!

Been here many times and I just love it. I seem to find something new to see every time I visit. This time there was a whole new room open with some very interesting dials! 

The main piece of advice for any photographer visiting here is to remember your tripod. The light is very dim throughout and you will probably need some long exposures. It really is worth the inconvenience of lugging it around!

Last stop of the day was at Llyn Padarn. It truly is beautiful, a large lake with views towards Snowdon. 

The dying sun cast some interesting shadows and gave the light a beautifully dramatic feel. 

So I have hiked over slate, clambered up hillsides, photographed lakes and derelict buildings and also got the chance to do some shopping. Zen levels well and truly topped up!

Lessons learned: Leave the new coat in the car for all the other occasions when I am daft enough to forget one.

Diet Diary: You'd think all this hiking would help with the weight loss wouldn't you. It has been suggested that if I stopped visiting all the coffee shops and having slabs of cake, that it might make a difference, but I can't see that myself. What do you mean "denial"?

Cambrian Railway Museum

Definition of panic: The look on your hairdresser's face when you turn up for your appointment a day early.
Definition of embarrassing: See above.

So I had a bit of unexpected free time, and right opposite the salon is the Cambrian Railway Museum, in Oswestry. Never actually been in it, but have parked in their car park for many years, so decided to explore. 

The Museum itself was shut, but there was lots to see outside. During normal opening hours the admission is free which is such a rarity these days!

I have mentioned Blipfoto in earlier posts and I am completely addicted to the photo a day scenario. So much so that I am actually hosting a weekly challenge now. It is specifically for photos with a derelict theme, so thought I would get in early! Plenty to choose from here.

I am loving getting more to grips with Lightroom, as with minimal tweaking, you can give a picture a completely different feel. For the above shot, it worked better in mono and I tried to make the contrast really strong to give a more vintage appearance.

I am still struggling to get the depth of field right tho. I am pleased with how the post and the cobwebs came out, but would have liked the background more blurry, I guess it will come with practice.

Regular readers will know that I do favour a bit of clambering on my trips, but unfortunately there was nothing available here, just a quick sidle past a no entry sign. I guess that will just have to satisfy the wild side for now!

Unfortunately I think there is going to have to be a lot of work done to renovate some of the railway stock here, bearing in mind that I believe it is just a group of volunteers, but well done them for even attempting it.

So back to the hairdressers tomorrow, at the correctly designated time, for the introduction of Rich Raspberry into my hair. Got to love the pink!

Lessons Learned: Have the sense to actually check the diary before leaving the house. 

Diet Diary: What, this close to Christmas, I think not!

Wild, wet and very windy

So the forecast said gale force winds and heavy rain, so I do what every photographer does and head to the beach. No? Just me then!

To be fair I had been promised 11ft waves but I must have read the forecast wrong as they weren't that. The water at Hell's Mouth was wild certainly but not to that height. And there were no surfers to photograph either.

I have recently bought a rain covering for the camera. It is designed to fit on one that has a much longer lens and also a flash gun, so there was a lot more plastic than I needed, but it seemed that it would work.

So undeterred I got to the beach, attached my new rain mac for the camera and headed for a walk. The rain wasn't heavy but it was being whipped by the wind and felt like needles on my face. There was a lot of spray coming from the sea and before long I was completely soaked. My waterproof boots aren't and neither are my waterproof trousers!

It was so wild and really dramatic but absolutely none of the photos came out which is really disappointing. The one above is of Criccieth a bit later on. The spray made it really misty and it was so windy it was impossible to keep the camera still, so I put it away and just revelled in the experience of being the sole person on a very wild beach in the middle of a storm!

Then I thought that I was already soaked I might as well do my 2 minute beach clean as I couldn't get any wetter! I now always carry a couple of plastic bags and some bbq tongs with me so I can do a clean wherever I am. Its amazing how much you can pick up in a short amount of time. I know my little effort isn't going to make a huge difference but it is so important that we all start to think about taking care of our wonderful coastline.

So I get back to the car park and start to disrobe. The wind is so strong the car is rocking and I am sitting there in little more than a t-shirt and towel and the bag I carefully packed full of spare clothes is sitting on the sofa at home. The car is like a sauna as I am trying so hard to dry my clothes. It doesn't work. There is little worse than putting wet feet into wet boots through wet trousers! I just hoped that no-one would come by as if they see a rocking car, all steamed up with a scantily clad passenger I think that they might jump to erroneous conclusions!

 

On the way back I briefly stopped at Llanbedrog. I had been here over the summer and it is a beautifully sheltered beach. I found that they have moved all the beach huts to the carpark for the winter, and I thought that this would make a nice colourful photograph. I have done very little to the colour here, the surrounding areas were as grey and dismal as they look!

But I didn't want to go home, still had a couple of hours of daylight left! So my final stop a squelch along the front at Criccieth, 

Had a very welcome and warming coffee at Cadwaladers so things seemed to be looking up, but when I went for a walk on the beach and the sea went over my wellies and I found I didn't have a square inch of dry cloth to wipe my camera lens with I decided enough was enough and time to go home for a long hot bath!


Lessons Learned: I have since been taught how to read the forecasts properly. Apparently the wind was too strong and in the wrong direction for high waves, but hopefully I will know better next time.
Take the darned bag with me next time!

Half Term Outings - Anglesey

As you may already know, I have my definite favourite places to go and although I have shared many with the family, I have not yet dragged them to Anglesey, so half term arrived and off we went.

Started off with breakfast at that Welsh place, you know, the one with the totally unpronounceable name!

It was all rather bizarre actually. We go up to the counter and the food is all there under hot lights looking delicious. But instead of serving it out, the chap behind the counter writes down our order, puts it on a clip behind him and says it will take 20 mins! Bearing in mind that it took him longer to write it down than it would have to put it on plates, I can not understand the system! And 20 mins we waited. Need that one explained to me!

Still, undeterred, we then head off to Llandwyn. It's quite a wild day, although not raining, it is very windy and a tad on the chilly side. The clouds are low which makes the visibility over Snowdonia unclear and colours a little hazy, not the best photography conditions.

I am pleased to report that the family loved it almost as much as I do. There was plenty of clambering to be done and some fabulous scenery to peruse. Sometimes at the same time.

Although I do really enjoy going out on my treks by myself, it is sometimes nice to have other people with you. I think for new places, I need to go alone and be able to explore properly and take ages over taking photos, then when I have done that, share with family or friends.

Because this is a much visited place, I was able to share all the little nooks and crannies that I love, and to position myself to get the best views. However, the challenge again is to make sure that the photos don't look the same as they did last time I visited! The above photo I have taken a couple of times but on checking, realised I have never shared it on the blog, so I guess it's your lucky day!

This next photo is a bit different. I am standing by the Lighthouse pictured above, shooting through one window to the other, with the wall and the sea reflected in the window in front of me! A bit weird at first, but I really like it. The little flash of jade in the corner is my coat, couldn't quite get completely out of it.

The day then started to get a bit wild and the wind really picked up, at some points it actually started to feel a little unsafe on a cliff edge, and if I say that, in my present dare-devil mode, you know it must have been bad!

So we head back down the beach and come across kite surfers. This was the most amazing thing!

These guys were whipping across the sea at phenomenal speeds, then the wind would change direction, whip them round and zoom them off in the opposite direction. Completely awesome, sometimes they were lifted out of the water altogether!

I am completely in two minds about this. Recklessness is saying "really need to do this" but Common Sense is coming back with a swift "don't be daft, you'll fall off" 

I do need to sort out the next challenge tho', been a while since I have done something wild and inappropriate for a woman my age. Ideas that have been floating about are hot air balloons, going up in a glider and quadbiking. No decisions made yet. Suggestions always welcome!

We are staying overnight in Holyhead and I have booked a B&B which looked nice on-line. And to be fair it was nice, but when you have to drive through an industrial area to get to it and it is situated right in the middle of a slightly dubious looking housing estate, you can experience a slight case of the "what have I done's"

Ventured out in the evening looking for tea, about 7ish, and to warn anyone else that ventures this way, Holyhead shuts on a Sunday. There was nothing open apart from one very lively pub where karaoke was in full flow and the gentleman singing very enthusiastically seemed to have been in there since lunchtime! We gave that one a miss. 

So reluctantly heading out of town towards McD's on the outskirts, we come across a very nice looking Chinese restaurant, so the evening was saved!

The next day was South Stack and Beaumaris, blog post to follow!

Lessons Learned: sharing some of my favourite places can make them more special because they will have a whole new set of memories. But I do have a couple of places which I am going to keep to myself because I am not sure if anyone else will understand why they are special. Not totally sure I do myself, but sometimes things, people and places just are.

Diet Diary: Nah!

Zoo Day

Just had a whim to go to Chester Zoo. Haven't been for ages and decided it was time for a return trip! 
It was a beautifully sunny day on Monday, can't believe this amazing autumnal weather we have been having, hope it lasts a while yet! 
It costs £20 to get in, but I intended to spend the day and its funny that it doesn't seem so expensive when there is just me and not a family of 4 or 5!

So first stop of the trip are the warthogs!

Is he not magnificent! There were a few in the enclosure, plus about 3 much smaller ones but he was the show-off. He would take a few steps and then stop and pose, look at me as if to check if I had got his right side, then step and pose again. Hours of fun!

There were some wonderful animals, but the biggest "aawww!" came for the baby elephant. So incredibly cute.

The elephants were great to photograph as they weren't rushing about. There was a wooden fence I could lean on to steady the telephoto and I was very pleased with how they came out.

The zoo was really quite quiet, there were a few school parties (nothing cuter than a couple of 6yr old girls walking along hand in hand singing "all about the bass") and a few lone photographers, so I wasn't having to fight through crowds to get a shot.

Next visit was to the butterfly house. Incredible. Worth the entrance fee just to go in there. You are standing in a greenhouse made up like a tropical garden and the butterflies are just fluttering free around you.

Not a huge amount of varieties, think only about 5, but it was amazing. Tried to capture a few in flight but failed dismally at that, need to practice that one. But managed to get a few shots when they stopped briefly.

It was spellbinding. And hot, very hot. After removing as many layers as is socially acceptable, I stood in there for about 20 mins, just watching.

The main problem I had was that the lens kept misting up, so many of the shots were through fog! Not sure how to overcome that, but I suppose its like glasses, going from a colder environment into a hotter one will make the glass misty.

Then off to the section I had been most looking forward to: Big Cats!

One of the main problems that I faced was shooting through obstacles, be it fencing or glass. The fencing in some ways was easier as you could get really close to it and it often blurred into almost nothing. The above pic didn't quite do that, but I still really liked the two lions together so I am putting up with it. I am sure if I was really clever on photoshop I could get rid of them, but I'm not, so I haven't.

However, because I zoomed in really close to the lioness, the fence has gone and it almost looks like I am in there with her.

Many of the animals were being very kind to the visitor, and were just relaxing in the unseasonal sunshine. The cheetahs were no exception.

There is however something a little unsettling about having something so fast and dangerous look straight at you. It's almost as if he is working out just how fast he would have to run to jump over the fence to get to that live buffet just standing there, watching him. I didn't wait for him to work that one out!

This next photo has got to be one of my favourites, taken in the jaguar house.

I think there is something very soulful about his expression and it makes me feel sad whenever I look at it. They have really big enclosures in Chester and I don't know if the Jaguar has ever known life in the wild but you can't help but believe he is thinking of a different life.

Talking earlier of fast and dangerous animals looking right at me, here is another.

I was the only person walking along the path and his eyes followed me every step of the way. He was a real beauty and absolutely massive. There were a couple of walls and a large ditch between us, but somehow that didn't quite feel enough! So moving swiftly on!

There is a lot of redevelopment going on at the zoo. They have built a series of themed islands and I must say have done a fabulous job of it. Its not just enclosure after enclosure, they have created it like a series of African villages and it is splendid. Not finished yet and they are in the process of moving the Orangutans, but when it is done, it will be fabulous. There is even a boat ride! The new tiger area is here, but they were the only creatures not feeling sociable so I didn't even get to see one, never mind photograph it.

Most of the monkeys were behind glass which was a devil to shoot through, especially as it was so sunny there were a lot of reflections. It was either that, or being so far away, but I did like this one shot.

Last but not least, giraffes. Another baby, again very cute.

However, achievement of the day has got to be the bat cave. We have been coming to the zoo for about 20 years and I have always refused to go in the bat cave. The idea of it being dark and having things flying around my head terrified me. However, as regular readers will know, I am doing all sorts of things now that I used to flee from, so to the bat house I headed.

I took a deep breath and walked in, behind a sobbing child who wanted to be there as much as I did!

It wasn't completely dark, you could see a bit and at first it wasn't too bad, but when I got to the bit where the ceiling was lower and something flew past, brushing my hair, I will admit that I nearly lost it! But kept my head and got to the exit. Didn't rush out, made myself stay and look around. OK then, done that, never doing it again!

Lessons Learned: Bats are evil. Although I am assured they would never ever get caught in your hair, they can sense who is scared and like to divebomb them just for the sheer hell of it. OK, that might not be strictly true, but that was certainly what it felt like. But at least I did it, so one more thing crossed off the list!

Diet Diary: Due to lack of demand, diet diary has been temporarily suspended. (too much cake recently!)