Show Basket (0 items costing £0.00)I’ve now added categories to this blog – see the menu on the right hand side. Try it out! I’ve also added tags to each post which should help Google pick up my site and give it a good search rating.
Here’s a photo from a recent trip into the Brecon Beacons, taken after climbing the hill where I really should have had crampons (which should arrive next week!)
View from Craig Cerrig-gleisiad up the A470 in the Brecon Beacons (Canon EOS 5D)
Yesterday I drove to the NEC in Birmingham for the Focus on Imaging show, all about cameras and associated things like printing, etc. I had a very nice demonstration by Longridge mount cutting people (FrameCo who I currently use have pulled out of the UK) and I am looking to perhaps buy one of their cutters as it will reduce my mount cutting time by 75% at least! I have a lot of mount cutting coming up for the Brecon craft fair so if I do go for it, it’ll be good. Even if I don’t, I can recommend you check them out if you are in the market for a mount cutter as it’s extremely easy to use. I also had a meeting with a magazine editor that I had prearranged to see how I could help supply him with material. It was very positive and hopefully in the months to come I shall be writing about my new features being published!
Here’s a photo from a recent trip out, taken from Corn Du looking towards the Carmarthen Fan.
View from Corn Du (Canon EOS 5D)
On Friday my brand new shiny Canon EOS 5D Mark II arrived, with its 21.1 megapixels of detail. For the past 3 years I have been using the 13 megapixel Canon 5D which has given excellent detailed images, so this new one should be mind-blowing! Today we finally went out for a short walk to test it – it was cold, cloudy and very windy so not the best time to try it out. The huge amount of detail it provides will be great for the canvases I sell as the native size of each image is 48x32cm /19×13″, but the downside is the TIFFs are 134Mb each! Anyway, storage problems aside, here is the first processed photo with the new camera:
Carn Lechart in the Brecon Beacons foothills (Canon EOS 5D Mark II)
And here is a 100% crop of the detail for interest. Not the best example, because it was so windy and difficult to get a pin-sharp photo:
A 100% crop of a bit of the photo (Canon EOS 5D Mark II)
I hope to get out this Thursday or Friday to give it a more definitive trial. On Tuesday I am off to Birmingham for the Focus on Imaging show to meet up with a magazine editor for a chat.
I’m pleased to announce that my photos can be purchased on canvas and perspex from iseacanvasart. The quality is fabulous and the service excellent, so make sure you take a look.
A few weeks ago snow was forecast, so I got up at 5am, cleared 4 inches of snow from the car and left the house at 5:45am. My plan was to reach the other side of Swansea before rush hour kicked off and everyone panicked about the snow. I only slid once – down a steep hill on ice, but managed to slow to 5mph before coming out of the juction without being able to stop (I just shoved it into 2nd and then 1st gear so the engine slowed the car). The rest of the journey in the snow was fine, apart from the idiot in the Renault who drove up very fast behind me and then swerved to over take – and the Royal Mail lorry who got very close (one of the main reasons the country grinds to a halt in the snow is very few people know how to drive in snow – I saw one car in the hedge that shouldn’t have slid in the first place!). I got to Pennard in good time and realised I’d left my tripod at home. Annoyed with myself, I set out into the pitch black across Pennard golf course to Pennard Castle where I balanced the camera on my bag to take the following photo.
Pennard Castle (Canon EOS 5D)
I then walked to overlook Three Cliffs Bay, but it was so windy that without my tripod I couldn’t get a decent photo. I decided to wait for sunrise, but then it started to snow heavily. I sat in the dunes and got snowed on, then walked down to the beach and still got snowed on. The photo below was taken in a brief respite when it just snowed hard before switching back to heavy.
Three Cliffs Bay in the snow (Canon EOS 5D)
Eventually, I gave up and went back to the car for a cup of coffee. Finally, the snow stopped and I walked all the way back to my viewpoint only to find the tide had covered the snow on the beach and it was very windy, which made it difficult to take photos. I took several, the one below being the best. The horizon may not look straight, but that’s the cloud creating that effect.
Three Cliffs Bay (Canon EOS 5D)
In an effort to get a decent photo, I drove in the snow to Rhossili and Worm’s Head. It wasn’t snowing, which was good, so I walked down the path. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any snow on Worm’s Head. Suddenly, the sun came out, lit up Rhossili Bay very nicely and I was finally able to get a photo that I’m very happy with before going home.
Rhossili Bay (Canon EOS 5D)
I added a load of photos to my Gallery last night, including a new Snowdonia section. There’s more to come soon…
I’ve spent most of the day working through the photos I took in January. Here are a couple from Mynydd Illtud common near Libanus and one of Brecon:
Mynydd Illtud Common (Canon EOS 5D)
Twyn y Gaer from Mynydd Illtud (Canon EOS 5D)
Brecon (Canon EOS 5D)
My online gallery here is gradually swelling as I work my way back. I’ve updated my About and Contact pages now. All that’s left, really, is finish updating the Gallery and the Buy page. In the meantime, here are a couple of recent photos from the cold weather we’ve been having:
Carreg Cennen Castle in the Brecon Beacons (Canon EOS 5D)
Pen y Fan from Blaen Taf Fechan (Canon EOS 5D)
Pen y Fan from Corn Du (Canon EOS 5D)
All images and site contents are Copyright © 2002-2011 Dan Santillo and may not be reproduced or used without the written permission of Dan Santillo
