It had been a much better night.
The plastic rat trap that was the source of the incessant night time drip and been removed by a surreptitious kick into the bushes when I arrived back at the tent and the raining for once had stopped. The only nighttime excitement had come when I thought my camp kitchen was being stolen. I heard it being shaken and I rushed to the tent door only to find nothing but blackness. However in the distance I could hear the unmistakable sound of a tin being crunched and I surmised that my bin bag had been raided by one of the local fox population looking for a quick meal.
There is the photographers version of sods law which states the light is always at its best when you are in the least able to use it. So it was on the morning of the 3rd day. While not actually bright, the clouds had broken up, promising at least some sunlight at some point. While I had in theory the whole day to myself, I also had to pack the tent away and pack the car up, which was going to take a fair part of it. Therefore the opportunities for photography would have to fit into a relatively narrow time window.
I had decided rather than pack up straight away, that I would head down into Llanberis and try and take some pictures of the local waterfall, Ceunant Mawr, which lay under the Snowden railway bridge.
Unsurprisingly, considering the surfeit of mountains and rain, Wales is well supplied with stunning waterfalls. However my experience with them, especially the popular ones, has not always been a happy one. Often getting a clear shot is a challenge as you have to avoid people take incessant selfies of each other. At Pistyll Rhaeadr once, I had watched as two families almost come to blows as they attempted to out selfie each other. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to have the falls totally to myself. With the amount of rain, the falls were in spate and looked magnificent. However when I tried to photograph them, I found it almost impossible to get a good shot due to the amount of of spray was being generated. That meant it was virtually impossible to keep the lens and ND filter clear during the shot.
Still after a pleasant half hour it was time to go back to the campsite and pack the tent away. This is always the camping job I hate the most. For some reason known only to tent manufacturers, once a tent has been removed from its bag for the first time, it is impossible to get it back in again in the same state. I can only assume that the makers have access to some extra dimension since however tight it is rolled, it will never be go back in the same bag without removal of poles, etc. It also means that you will have to roll the tent at least 3 times and even then getting it into the bag will be like a Geordie lass fitting into into her Friday night outfit. To make things even harder, the ground was muddy and wet. though fortunately the tent itself on top had dried pretty quickly.
Still after an hour or so of only mild swearing the tent had been constrained and the car packed. By this point it was about lunchtime, and the temptation was to head home, however I still had one more thing I wanted to accomplish at the the quarry.
Anglesey barracks
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| Proof that sunshine does exist in Wales |
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| Path down to the barracks |
Despite their name, Anglesey barracks have no military connection. Instead they are two long rows of slate houses that once housed the Slate workers when they worked on site. The houses when occupied had few amenities. No electricity, running water, toilets or soft mattresses and were only closed down in 1948 due to public health concerns and are a testament to the tough working conditions of the site.
Also they make a iconic photo shot and I wanted to explore them before going home.
Accessing them is relatively easy. At the big plateau you turn right instead of left and head down a step path. The area opens out on both sides and you can step of the path to either an area of woodland on the left or the barracks on the right.
By now the weather was the best it had ever been and the autumn trees colours were glorious. However when I got my camera kit out it was still suffering from serious fogging. This was despite me leaving everything out overnight to try and dry it out. However drying anything in a unheated tent was always going to be a hail Mary, so I would forced to work with what I had.
The barracks themselves were a lot smaller than I expected and consist of two rows of slate buildings, now empty and roofless. I played around for a while trying to find a shot, until I realised my heart was not really into it. Maybe I was just tired and but I am not one for re-creating shots that others better than me had already taken and I wasn't really seeing any new angles.
Instead I headed out the other side of the barracks up through glorious Welsh woodland back to the car. It was a reminder that sometimes as photographers we get so tied up in getting a shot we forget to look around us, so it was almost a relief of a just strolling through the Autumnal forest back to the car.
By this point the brief weather window had already closed and the nascent sun had been replaced by the usual grey stuff. So I stripped the walking kit off and headed off home, stopping only at the Snowdonia center in Brynrefail for what I felt was a well deserved lunch.
Post Mortem
So weeks on what do I think I gained from my 2 nights and what have I learned?My purpose was to see whether I was still capable of camping and photographing on my own. I achieved that, however it must be said if I went again I may not camp again. Camping is great if there are no other alternatives, but I think in this case I would next time look for something with heating.
Secondly I wanted to explore the area and map it for others who may want to follow. I achieved that and I hope the maps linked to this blog will be useful for anyone wishing to explore the area. Before I went I was concerned about the risks. In many ways this was a good thing since it forced me to take sensible precautions such as first aid kit and emergency supplies. However the area, while it has its risks is probably no more dangerous than any scree slope or off mountain path.
Finally I hoped to get some decent photos. I was not vain enough to think that I could complete with those who regularly walk these hills, just enough to give me promise that I could improve next time. While I took some images I liked, the rain and issues with my kit, meant that I don't really feel I achieved the results I hoped. Then again to do a site justice I believe you have to build a connection to it and that takes time, so hopefully next time I go I will have better luck. I was also made aware of rich this area was for photography and how much more there was to explore. Two and a half days was just not enough time to cover it all
One big lesson was wet weather photography. I thought I was pretty well equipped, but the constant rain and being out in it for a number of hours caught me by surprise. Fuji equipment is supposed to be pretty well weather sealed, but I got internal fogging for most of the days there. This was not helped by the lack of heating available to dry kit out. It has taught me to respect the wet weather more. Although it feels old fashioned, some sort of umbrella would of been incredible useful. Secondly if I went again I would take more drying cloths to wrap my kit in and zip lock bags with silicon desiccating packets to try and keep things dry. I may also invest in a walking camera bag, since neither my rucksack or general camera bag really did the job
Post script - New Kit
Firstly you cannot plan to go somewhere new without blooding some new kit. I had decided I desperately needed a L brackets so I could easily transition my camera between portrait and landscape seamlessly. I therefore got a Pig Iron L Bracket for my camera. However that left me with a dilemma. My main Vanguard tripod did not have a Arca Swiss plate, so I needed another head. Strangely however, tripod heads seemed almost as much as a new tripod. I therefore bowed to inevitable and got a new tripod. My old tripod had served me well, so again I went with Vanguard getting the Vanguard Alto Pro 2+ 263AT which was only £50 more than the head.
What I love about Vanguard tripods is how the central column can be remove and positioned to get low to the ground or close to the subject. The new system has been greatly improved and it is relatively easy to remove and use as a swinging arm. On the minus side, the tripod log levers have been replaced by twist rings. I do not like twist rings because I find them slower to open and I can never tell whether I have locked them. More than once I caught the tripod as a leg collapsed after I forgot to lock a ring. However this seems to be the way these things are built nowadays. Although not the lightest I found it perfectible easy to carry and it served me well through the 3 days.
When I moved the Fuji system the one lens I said I would never buy was the 150-400mm. However after unhappy experiments mounting a Tamron 150-600mm via an adapter I bowed to the inevitable getting a 2nd hand version. Although the blow was softened somewhat by selling my Sony A-Mount 150-600 on fleabay, it was still an expensive purchase and the most costly lens I have ever bought. However it has been a revelation. Not only was it the lens that performed best in wet weather, its performance was really well. I had never really considered zooms as landscape lenses, but the nature of the quarry meant that its reach allowed me to get close to bits of the quarry that were otherwise in accessible. By contrast my wide angle lenses did not get much of a use.The only downside was that it was a bit bulky to carry around and sometimes a bit more reach would sometimes had been useful.
