Week 2 Mountain hikes and minimalism

Determined this week to get out as much as possible before the threatened wintery weather appears. I am quite happy to hike in all sorts of conditions, but I do hate it when its icy. I have absolutely no sense of balance and it only takes the smallest patch of something slippy to send me head over heels. One of my life's regrets is that I have never been able to ice skate or roller skate, and that surfing will always only ever be a spectator sport. (Although if I am honest, that might be more to do with the thought of trying to squeeze myself into a wetsuit!)

So, with this in mind I head into the mountains. I knew there was snow on the higher ground but I thought I'd be ok. It is the most amazing approach, you turn a corner and suddenly the snow capped mountains are spread out in front of you. It is really completely breathtaking.

My photo doesn't do it justice at all, but if you want to see one that does, follow this link to see one of Stewart's. I can only aspire!

The weather was ok so I thought I would head to Llyn Idwal and walk around the lake to get some miles in, plus some wonderful photo opportunities. I had one of those brainwaves you have when it seems like such a good idea at the time. I parked at the very far end of Llyn Ogwen and walked a mile or so to the visitor centre at Llyn Idwal and then up to the bridge over the waterfall.

I love this bridge and the walk to Idwal is beautiful and quite forgiving to the lapsed hiker! In the dull light, the colours were very dramatic. I have tweaked a bit in Lightroom just to enhance the clarity, but haven't done a lot. Continued up to the lake which was looking fabulous.

However at this point the wind came up and it started to rain, as you can see from the splodges on the lens! Raindrops on roses, fine. Raindrops on lenses, not so much. So decision to make. Take a chance and walk round the lake or wimp out and head back to a flask of soup in the car. Wimped out.

Actually it was a good thing I did as the weather got steadily worse and I walked most of it in hail and horizontal wind. Now this is going to surprise regular readers, but I actually had a complete change of clothes in the car, all the way from ladies "unmentionables", to another coat (the one I bought last time I forgot a coat). So after a certain amount of undignified wriggling in a confined space (well you try changing trousers in a car!) I sat there warm and dry sipping on piping hot soup. Smug doesn't even come close!

On the way home I even managed to take a photo ready for Derelict Sunday on Blip. One of the disused farm buildings on the road from Capel Curig.

All in all a pretty fabulous day with well over 5 miles walked.

In the 52 in 2016 challenge, this week's theme is minimalism. I've never really had a go at this and not sure if I really understand the brief, but here is my effort.

It's hard enough trying to take a good photo with what's in front of you, but to have to put it there yourself in the first place is a whole new challenge. I had a go at a few different things but nothing worked until I found my bottles. It's the positive side effect of being a crafter and hoarder, there is all sorts of junk treasure in the house to shoot!

Lessons Learned: Remember to put the clean dry clothes back in the car for next time!
Never throw anything away as you never know when you might need to photograph it!

Diet Diary: Still feeling determined, so its going well. The trouble is that the hiking makes me hungry, so it's hard trying to find the balance.

Rambling Record: At the end of week 2 I have done nearly 47 miles, with a target of just 40, so well ahead. Gives me a bit of wobble room.

Macro

Trying something new again. Macro. Played around with it a bit but without a huge amount of success. So inspired by Tiny Tuesday on Blip, thought I would have another go.
I have macro filters which have a factor of +1, +2, +4 and +10. The higher the number the closer you can get to the object you are shooting. I bought them cheaply on Ebay to try it out. You can stack them on top of each other to make almost any factor up to 10.
So this is the first attempt.

I was quite pleased with it, but there are areas that are out of focus and some of the central bits aren't very sharp. So I posted it on blipfoto and asked advice, and the wonderful blippers out there obliged.

First observation was that I need a smaller aperture so more will be in focus with a bigger depth of field. The way I explain it to myself is that a small aperture is like the camera squinting and when we squint we can generally see details a bit clearer.
Second was a tripod. This eliminates any movement and when you use a long exposure, also turn off the Image stabiliser and use the timer delay.

Second attempt using all the advice. Not as close but the boat is only about an inch and a half tall and I was pleased with the amount of texture and detail picked up on the sails.

Next attempt getting up really close. This is part of the front of one of my vintage cameras. Got as close as I could with the camera, mounted it on my gorillapod (a small flexible tripod that looks like an instrument of torture) and played around with shutters and apertures, finishing touches added in Lightroom. By Jove I think she's got it!

So last attempt to get it completely sorted.

This is my late Father's pocket watch and the workings are actually tiny so it was lovely to be able to get in close and see just what a work of art an old watch is.

So its all been a bit trial and error, but so far so good, just got to keep practicing!

Next post will be my 100th, have to do something very exciting for that one!

Lessons Learned: One of the most gratifying things about all the wonderful advice was that it was getting quite technical and I was actually able to understand most of it! I'm not the dummy I thought I was!

Diet Diary: Finally got back to Slimming World last Tuesday. Had put on a pound or 5 over the summer, so back on it now :-(

Blipping Photos

I wanted to tell you about a milestone I have just hit. I have just blipped my 100th blip!
For those of you who think I have finally lost the plot, let me explain. 
Blipfoto is an internet thing where you produce a photographic journal, basically taking a photo every day and posting it. You can write about it or just post the photo. You have the opportunity to comment on other peoples photographs and have them comment on yours.
This is My blipfoto page. I call myself Maisiebeth in case there is any confusion.
I posted my first picture on the 18th of May after much deliberation.

I was concerned that having to take a photo everyday would prove to be too demanding. To be perfectly honest it has been challenging at times and I think my photography has improved because of it. It really focusses the mind and makes you look at things in a completely different way.

On a day when I couldn't get out at all, I blipped Al, my ted.
The challenge was to still make it a good picture and not just an "it'll do snap". So I arranged him as best I could, gave him a pretty background which I tweaked in Lightroom and let the world in on my secret cuddle!

Over the 100 days I have started to follow other photographers and got a fair few followers in return which is lovely and every single comment I have had has been kind. No harsh criticism on this site! As I follow people, I have made the obligation to view and comment on their work which can be time consuming but I have learned such a lot from other peoples interpretations.

There is Abstract Thursday and the above is my first ever attempt at doing abstract. That is a whole new avenue for me, never tried that before and really enjoyed it. The picture is actually of torch being shone through a blue glass bottle and then edited a bit to take away some of the detail.

Blip isn't just for serious photographers. Some people just take snaps of their everyday life and use it more as a diary, which is great. Some just post pics and don't comment, but being generally nosey, I like to know about the picture and why it was taken. You meet some very interesting people and some excellent photographers.

This was taken at Ty Mawr Country Park in Wrexham on a beautiful summers day and was one of my most popular photos. Although the one that has had the most views and comments is the tree I blogged about a few days ago, my black and white nightmare tree.

One of the very best things about Blipping for me is that when I get up in the morning, I have absolutely no idea what my blip for the day will be and that is very exciting.

Lessons Learned: I do seem to have a bit of a creative imagination! I am being brave with my creativity and surprisingly, sometimes it actually works! I can do Art, so there, Mrs Icke, art teacher from school!

Diet Diary: D-Day, September 8th, waddle back to Slimming World. Making the most of it till then!

Blipfoto and Erddig

After much deliberation, I have signed up for Blipfoto. This is basically an on-line thing where you have to take a photo every day and create a photographic journal. I have resisted up until now because I am not able to get out every day to take photos, but then I tried to look at it from a different angle. I want to be able to take pictures of the ordinary and make them interesting, like Richard Hammerton (see photographers to inspire) is so good at. So I decided that this was probably the challenge I need to inspire me. This is my page: https://www.polaroidblipfoto.com/Maisiebeth and I do hope you will go have a look. This is one of the pictures I have posted.

Taken in Whittington, Shropshire. The tombstone graveyard!

Today I was able to get out for a couple of hours for my photos and decided to revisit Erddig and maybe go around the house this time.

The difficulty there is that due to the delicate nature of the furnishings the lights have to be kept very low. You are not allowed to use flash or a tripod so it was a real challenge to get some decent shots. 

My ISO never went below 1600 with my aperture as wide open as possible, and even then I had to lean on odd bits of pillar to keep the camera as still as possible!

This little selection was in the music room and I thought quite charming. I am not into all the pretty furnishings or paintings, I prefer the everyday bits and pieces that people used and enjoyed.

Erddig is one of the few places I have visited that show how the servants lived and worked. This fabulous vacuum was in the housekeepers room. Just add small boy to peddle!

This next one is my favourite photo from the day. It was taken in the Butler's rooms and is completely fabulous.

Because the room was so dark, I have had to do quite a bit of editing just to get out the details and you can see that it has gone quite grainy as a result, but to be perfectly honest, in this instance I don't think it is a problem.

I am just loving anything old and mechanical at the moment. I adore the whole steampunk rage that is going on. Show me anything with cogs, clocks or keys and I am hooked!

This is in the main kitchen and I can imagine Erddig's own Mrs Patmore sitting in that chair, overseeing preparations! Always found life below stairs more interesting than that above. Obviously know my place in life!

(A 2021 edit, this is my most plagiarised photo! Do a search on steampunk kitchens and this comes up and has been used dozens of times, but sadly there's not a lot I can do about it so I have chosen to be flattered rather than annoyed!)

Saw these beauties (and their horses) in the courtyard, for ferrying guests around the estate. Certainly a bygone era. Another old form of transport, but not quite as old follows:

Another fabulous trip today, I must admit I am really getting my money's worth out of my National Trust Membership.

On a completely different note I would like to share what I am thinking of doing next. Because for most of the last few years I have never done anything, I have never thought of having a Bucket List. I have now decided that it is about time I did. Not much on it yet, but throwing it open to you for suggestions. So here it is:

- Zip wire, worlds longest zipwire is in Snowdonia.
- White water rafting, plenty of that around here.
- Be a bit braver on roller coasters, aiming for the Rock n Rollercoaster at Disney next year.
- Photograph the movement of the stars, then sleep beneath them.
- Get a tattoo. Maybe only temporary and certainly small.

There is one more thing on it, but I can't tell you that one!
That's not much of a list so ideas welcomed. If you can't leave a comment here as I believe it doesn't always work, please e-mail me.

Lessons learned: Don't go anywhere family orientated at half term! There was so much shouting, shrieking, crying and complaining going on, and that was just the parents!

Diet Diary: If you go to a NT property you have to have a scone with jam and cream. Its the law!