Festiniog Railway, Porthmadog, North Wales

Way, way back in March of last year we had a weekend break in Caernarfon so I could shoot the castle sunset and sunrise, which turned out a bit of a disaster, but you’ll have to hunt out the images for the back story. On the Sunday, rather than head straight back home we decided to drive down to Porthmadog and visit one of my other forgotten loves – steam trains.

In my late teens/early 20s I spent many a weekend down on the Festiniog railway working as a volunteer or “Deviationist” as we were known then rebuilding the line back to Blaenau Ffestiniog following the flooding of the line due to hydro power reservoir at Tanygrisiau.

It’s been decades since I last visited and the Welsh Highland Railway and Festiniog now meet at Porthmadog Station. It’s now possible to take a stream train all the way from Caernarfon to Blaenau Ffestiniog via Porthmadog... a trip now firmly on my bucket list. Not sure if Mrs R would be interested as the last trip on the Festiniog didn’t live up to the Orient Express experience she had envisaged.

Tags:   Festiniog Railway Porthmadog Blaenau Ffestiniog stream trains narrow gauge great little trains of Wales

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Caernarfon, Gwynedd, Wales

I was quite happy shooting reflections while waiting for the sun to make an appearance over the Snowdonia mountains that I didn't actually notice when it did. There was a blanket of cloud sitting just above the mountains that was going to eclipse the sun the minute it cleared the ridge. I was already packing up to look for another location when the sun briefly lit the boats and yachts in the river. Had I been on the other side, as intended, I would never had captured the morning light shooting the castle... every cloud as they say!

Tags:   Caernarfon Afon Seiont Gwynedd Wales yachts boats reflections morning first light sunlight golden glow warmth trees winter leafless

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Caernarfon, Gwynedd, Wales

Alternative titles for this could have been... "the best-laid plans of mice and men"... "a funny thing happened on the way to the castle" or more in keeping with one of my own idiosyncrasies..."not a full spreadsheet!". The plan was simple... reccy the area Friday night, take some shots for the sunset/blue hour. Go for a meal and a few drinks and back to the Prem Inn - not forgetting to set the alarm for the following morning. Tick, tick, tick!

The alarm went off at 5am; clothes already laid out and gear packed; out of the hotel at 5:10am; Mrs R not disturbed... too much!. It's well less than 10mins to the castle so I thought I'd walk through the harbour to the castle wall, along the front past the Anglesey Arms and on to the castle itself and the footbridge to the other side.

Sunrise wasn't scheduled until 5:56am but had to clear the mountains first giving me plenty of time to setup, get a few first light/blue hour shots and then as the sun cleared the tops would hopefully kiss the castle walls with some beautiful golden light.

Only problem... footbridge left in the open position to let the early fishing boats out!

Tags:   The Anglesey Arms pub harbour Caernarfon Castle castle Caernarfon Afon Seiont Gwynedd Wales walls spotlights first light blue hour long exposure

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Caernarfon, Gwynedd, Wales

So left marooned in the car park next to the castle with only a couple of refuse vans for company... what do you do? Normally, I would have knocked it on the head and gone home, but having made the effort to get out of bed this early, it wasn't an option, and besides I didn't dare wake Mrs R up again so soon.

Having met up with Mark Waidson a few times, one of the many things I've picked up from him is... work a location, you never know when you'll get the chance to go back! So out came the tripod and filters and a good hour spent looking for alternative images. The tide was fairly high and the water silky calm making for some great reflections, which was my intention for the castle (let it go...). Not my normal stuff, but glad to come away with something different.

Footnote: tried hard to make a title out of the words refraction, reflection, inversion and inception to go with this... saw his concert in Manchester last week - worth the ticket price alone for this piece!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8emPcVRhuc

Tags:   Caernarfon Afon Seiont Gwynedd Wales yachts boats refraction reflection inversion inception Hans Zimmer Time morning first light sunlight long exposure

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Caernarfon, Gwynedd, Wales

I have a number of images that have been sat in my "work in progress" folder on the PC for far too long that I was never quite happy with first time of processing. Well, it's been a mixed sort of day with storm Dennis and everything is packed for a little adventure next week so I thought I have a clear out of the WIP folder.

Tags:   Caernarfon Castle castle Caernarfon Afon Seiont Gwynedd Wales walls spotlights river boats blue hour long exposure

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