I’ve been doing a lot of work behind the scenes on my website. The biggest change is the addition of a search, seen on the right of the menu bar. This will search my photo database that I’ve created. I’ve also modified the way you can buy images so now the gallery is linked to buy rather than you having to then search for the image in the buy page. As I add more photos to the database, the old gallery will be migrated over to the new gallery. The Gower section of the gallery has been completely migrated over, so do take a look: Gower Gallery. If you then click on the buy link, you’ll see all the formats that photo can be bought in. In the near future, I will change the top level buy page so you can do searches such as “show me all Gower photos available as a coaster”. Hopefully this’ll make it much easier for photos to be bought. Meanwhile, back to adding Brecons photos to the database…
January 29, 2010
January 22, 2010
Thwarted by Cloud
It’s been rather dull recently since the snow disappeared and this afternoon a break in the dullness was forecast. Sure enough, as the afternoon started, the cloud disappeared and blue sky was seen. I headed out to Storey Arms car park with the aim of photographing Pen y Fan from Fan Fawr. But the trouble with mountains is they tend to generate cloud – beyond the national park, skies were clear but in the hills, thick cloud was covering the summits. I managed to take one photo of Beacons Reservoir just before the sun finally disappeared.

Beacons Reservoir (Canon EOS 5D Mark II)
January 18, 2010
Backlog…
I have a dream that one day I won’t have a backlog of photos to process… I’m not sure it’ll ever happen, but periodically I process a lot of photos in one go. Here’s one from our family holiday in the Lake District in March 2009.

Derwent Fells, Lake District (Canon EOS 5D Mark II)
January 13, 2010
More Snow!
Well, we had heavy snow again overnight, but this is supposed to be the end of it with a thaw quickly following. It’s a pity as I’m loving this snow and cold weather – it’s how winter should be! Below is a photo I took in the Brecon Beacons on commission for Photography Monthly. It’s the A470 on the way to Brecon from Storey Arms.

Traffic Trails in the Brecon Beacons (Canon EOS 5D Mark II)
And waking up to more snow meant building Willow another snowman :-)

Snowman Number 3 (Sony Ericsson C510)
January 12, 2010
Brunel Bridge in Saltash, Cornwall
Rather than go out in the snow, I’m going through my 2009 photos and putting them where they belong in libraries, etc. I’ve just processed this one that I took after the celebration fireworks – the smoke is what’s left over from the immense display.

Brunel Bridge at Night (Canon EOS 5D Mark II)
January 11, 2010
Frozen Afon Pyrddin and Sgwd Gwladys
On Saturday, the three (four including the baby which hasn’t been born yet!) drove to Pontneddfechan to walk along the river to see Sgwd Gwladys. The path was treacherous in places but we made it to the confluence and from there on in, the scenery was amazing!

The Afon Pyrddin (Canon EOS 5D MkII)

Frozen Sgwd Gwladys (Canon EOS 5D Mk II)
On Friday last week, I took a drive to see if the road to Llyn y Fan Fawr was driveable. It wasn’t so I continued up to Brecon and shot this panorama:

Brecon in the Snow (Canon EOS 5D MkII)
Click here to see a larger version of the panorama.
January 8, 2010
Pen y Fan Massif at Sunset!
I spent yesterday in the Brecon Beacons. I had planned on viewing Pen y Fan from Pentwyn Reservoir, but had to turn round at Pontsticill as it was too snowy and despite having 4 brand new tyres, it wasn’t worth attempting the hills. Plus I was obviously annoying people in their Chelsea Taxis as they kept tailgating me on the snow – this is perhaps the only time in recent years that having a big 4×4 for the school run is actually beneficial, although most schools are closed…
Anyway, I digress. I had to stick to main roads so Pen y Fan was an obvious choice. After having lunch and helping dig a jaguar (not the cat) out of the snow I set off along the Storey Arms path. My new and very expensive Helly Hansen thermals are absolutely brilliant in this sort of weather and despite it being several degrees below zero, all I needed on top was the base layer and a fleece. Crampons and ice axe were a necessity as the path up to Corn Du is treacherous – mountain rescue have had to pick people off it recently with ankle injuries as it’s so slippery. I stopped for a while to watch snowboarders come down from Corn Du – rather impressive! I reached the top for sunset and once I summited Corn Du, the view took my breath away – it was amazing and well worth the climb and aching limbs that I have today. I spent a while taking photos and getting very cold fingers despite thermal liners and windproof gloves before walking back in the semi-dark. The car temperature dipped as low as -10.5 degrees C on the way home. Anyway, here are a couple of the photos – I have many more but have spent all afternoon stitched the panorama…

Corn Du and Pen y Fan (Canon EOS 5D Mark II)
Click here for a large view of the above panorama.

Corn Du and Pen y Fan (Canon EOS 5D Mark II)















