Brecon Beacons « Blog: Photography by Dan Santillo

February 14, 2012

The Afon Mellte

Tags: 24mm ts-e, afon mellte, intentional camera movement, sgwd isaf clun-gwyn, sgwd y pannwr, water falls, waterfalls, ystradfellte — Dan Santillo @ 7:25 am

Yesterday, I thought I would take a trip to the waterfalls near Ystradfellte. I arrived just before 9am so had the place to myself, which was nice. I normally walk along the path to get to the waterfalls without stopping, but this time I saw this view and stopped for a while.

Afon Mellte

After a few minutes there, I carried along the path to Sgwd Isaf Clun-gwyn. The path isn’t very nice with large drops off to one side and lots of slippery mud, so I was relieved when I arrived. This waterfall is very heavily photographed so I wanted to try something a little different – I stepped back from the usual viewpoint and used my 24mm tilt/shift lens to focus on the rock whilst keeping the waterfall sharp. I’m not sure whether I achieved anything new, but I like the result.

Sgwd Isaf Clun-gwyn

Not wanting to walk back the way I came, I headed down to the river and walked along the path to Sgwd y Pannwr. I haven’t really got a decent photo of this, so I composed a shot using the rocks and trees to frame the waterfall.

Sgwd y Pannwr

I was about to leave when I spotted some rather nice rocks so I used my 24mm ts-e again to emphasise them.

Sgwd y Pannwr

I left the river, using the Waterfall Link path, and headed up the hill into the forest. I had recently seen an Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) done by Nick Jenkins and wanted to try it myself. After several goes, I ended up with this

Ystradfellte Forest

I’m particularly pleased with this and especially like the way the path is still, just about, distinguishable as the path. It was almost lunch time now so I headed back to the car, having really enjoyed my morning out.

http://www.dansantillo.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/sociofluid/images/digg_48.png

http://www.dansantillo.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/sociofluid/images/reddit_48.png

http://www.dansantillo.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/sociofluid/images/stumbleupon_48.png

http://www.dansantillo.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/sociofluid/images/delicious_48.png

http://www.dansantillo.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/sociofluid/images/google_48.png

http://www.dansantillo.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/sociofluid/images/myspace_48.png

http://www.dansantillo.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/sociofluid/images/facebook_48.png

http://www.dansantillo.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/sociofluid/images/yahoobuzz_48.png

http://www.dansantillo.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/sociofluid/images/mixx_48.png

http://www.dansantillo.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/sociofluid/images/twitter_48.png

Comments (1)

February 10, 2012

Landscape Photography Workshops

Tags: brecon beacons photo workshop, brecon beacons photography workshop, Gower Photo workshop, gower photography workshop, Landscape Photography Workshop, Landscape Photography Workshops — Dan Santillo @ 10:34 am

It has been a very busy time for me over the past few weeks. I am delighted to announce that I am now running Landscape Photography Workshops on Gower and in the Brecon Beacons – see here. In addition to group outings, I am also able to provide one to one tuition where we work out an itinerary to suit you. If you want to learn how to take photos like me, then be sure to book a session!

I have just added an email subscription to the right of this blog – enter your email address to receive an update when I add a new post to this blog. This email is used for nothing else whatsoever, just new blog posts.

I have been a little slack in writing blog posts recently, but I have been busy taking new photos – here is a taster from an amazing day out with Neil Mansfield. We trekked up to Corn Du for sunrise and were presented with this lovely view:

Pen y Fan from Corn Du, Brecon Beacons National Park

Comments (0)

January 16, 2012

Mynydd Illtud at Night

Tags: Brecon Beacons, brecon beacons national park, image stacking, Mynydd Illtud, Mynydd Illtyd, night, stacked images, stacking images, star trail, star trails — Dan Santillo @ 10:55 am

When I first shot some star trails, the interest was negligible. After a year or so, people started to take an interest and my one photo of star trails in the Brecon Beacons started to sell really well. To get the more effective star trails, the moon mustn’t be in the sky so there are less than two weeks out of every four when star trails are possible. Adding in the weather factor makes it even more difficult to get the right conditions. The Met Office forecast was for clear skies last night, so I headed out to Mynydd Illtud for sunset, but unfortunately the peaks were shrouded in cloud. Nevertheless, I decided to give it a go. I waited until it was partially dark and then set up my camera in the chosen position whilst I could still see well enough to set everything up. I then took a photo to use as a base image so there was detail in the foreground and sky. Once that was done, I had to wait until it was dark before taking the star photos. I set my timer to take one minute photos and left it for about an hour.

Mynydd Illtud at Night

I then had to turn 57 photos into one. I used Star Trails software to stack all the photos and then did the final processing in Photoshop. It was pretty cold last night on the hill – on my top, I was wearing a thermal top, a base layer, two micro fleeces, a thick woolly jumper, a soft shell and, finally, a waterproof/windproof coat. It worked well keeping the cold off!

Here is the more traditional sunset photo, although unfortunately the peaks were in the cloud.

Mynydd Illtud

Comments (0)

January 13, 2012

Pen y Fan Massif

Tags: Brecon Beacons, brecon beacons national park, cloud, Corn Du, Cribyn, Panorama, Pen y Fan, Upper Neuadd Reservoir — Dan Santillo @ 3:45 pm

With the forecast saying valley mist, I decided to walk to the ridge by Corn Du for sunrise. I started walking from the Storey Arms at 6:30am and arrived on the ridge at 7:30am. Sunrise itself wasn’t anything special, but I stayed on the ridge for 2.5 hours to see how the weather would pan out. During that time, a hundred or so army personnel were walking to Pen y Fan, presumably doing the dreaded ‘Fan Dance’. I set up the camera for a panorama shot and framed it so I could get the peaks in as well as Upper Neuadd Reservoir, and anyone who knows this area will know that it’s far wider than the eye can see! Every so often, clouds would build on the peaks and blow away again. This is the best of the 6 or so I shot.

Pen y Fan Massif (Corn Du, Pen y Fan, Cribyn, Fan y Big) and Upper Neuadd Reservoir

Comments (0)

January 6, 2012

A Visit to the Beach – at 886m Above Sea Level

Tags: Fan Fawr, Old Red Sandstone, Pen y Fan, summit — Dan Santillo @ 3:14 pm

I went for a walk to the summit of Pen y Fan this morning (it was in thick cloud despite the weather forecast, but that’s another story). I could some sunrise colour just after I started up the hill, which I duly photographed:

Fan Fawr, Brecon Beacons National Park

I had seen the summits were in cloud already, but decided to walk up there anyway for the exercise. On the summit, I had a coffee and some food before photographing the rocks. If you’ve ever been to the summit of Pen y Fan, you might have noticed rocks with patterns in them. The reason for this is sand – Pen y Fan is formed from Old Red Sandstone. These ripples in the sandstone were formed by the motion of the water over the sand, which means that millions of years ago the summit of Pen y Fan was once at the bottom of the sea!

The beach on Pen y Fan, Brecon Beacons National Park

Comments (0)

November 2, 2011

Usk Reservoir

Tags: Brecon Beacons, brecon beacons national park, Brecons, Usk Reservoir, Worms Eye Photo — Dan Santillo @ 2:12 pm

Day 2 of my car being serviced and repaired at the garage so I borrowed my wife’s car and drove out to the hills west of Usk Reservoir. On my way to the slight hill overlooking the reservoir, a rather old and gnarled fence post caught me eye.

Fence in the Brecons

As a slight aside, it may interest you to know that this is a “Worm’s Eye” image – the tripod legs were splayed out on the ground to emphasis the fence and get it to break the horizon. Here are some comparison shots:

Left: Tripod at full height; Right: Tripod at half height

I left the fence and crossed boggy ground to get to a slight rise that looked down onto Usk Reservoir. I set the camera up, held onto the tripod to stop it being blown over and waited for a brief patch of sun.

Usk Reservoir

And with that, my time was up and I had to get Paula’s car back to her so she could go to work.

Comments (0)

October 20, 2011

Stormy Brecons

Tags: Brecon Beacons, Brecons, cloudy, Corn Du, Cribyn, Fan y Big, Pen y Fan, storm, stormy — Dan Santillo @ 6:15 pm

Having been out of action for a week or so with a mild chest infection, I decided it was high time I went out to the Brecons. The forecast was for heavy rain showers in the morning and clearing from midday with snow on the peaks. Perfect as I wanted to get a stormy shot or two! I parked near Upper Neuadd Reservoir and walked up the Gap Road where I wanted to shoot a panorama. I set the camera up just as the clouds darkened behind Pen y Fan:

Corn Du, Pen y Fan and Cribyn

Then I attempted the panorama:

Corn Du, Pen y Fan and Cribyn

Before I started moving again, I also shot a self portrait:

Walking the Gap Road

I had spent about 30 minutes in that one spot so headed along the road again so climb Fan y Big where I wanted to get a shot of the Diving Board. It was a long slog up the Gap Road to the base of Fan y Big, but the climb itself to the top was fairly easy. I set the camera up and used the 10 second timer so I could run out onto the Diving Board.

The Fan y Big Diving Board

The weather had been perfect all morning so I sat down for lunch by the shelter on Fan y Big – then it started to rain and hail so I quickly put my waterproofs on and walked to the next location I wanted to shoot from. It had stopped precipitating by the time I got there, but it was still pretty moody!

Corn Du, Pen y Fan and Cribyn

It started to rain again so I started to pack the camera gear away when suddenly a rainbow appeared! I managed to grab this photo before it disappeared:

Fan y Big rainbow

The hail then got too much so I decided to call it a day and walked back to the car, feeling hopeful I had some shots I was happy with. When I loaded them on to the computer, I was very pleased with the day’s work!

Comments (3)