Well it is the end of another year and a year has not been that productive for me due to a lot of other commitments getting in the way of the photography. The aim is that 2012 will a much better year, photographically speaking, and I am already planning a couple of possible projects to drive the creative juices harder; but I expect that finding the time to do this will still be hard in 2012.

For my last Image of the Month of 2011, I have another image of Criccieth Castle at sunset, titled: “Rock Pool”.

After spending a disappointing day in the mountains of Snowdonia, with extremely strong winds and cloudy skies, we decided to head down to Criccieth with the off chance there may be a sunset visible (or at least a Fish & Chip shop open). Arriving only 10 minutes before sunset, we were amazed to find an almost cloud free sky and more importantly the sun visible and heading to the horizon.

Luckily, lots of practice and knowing my equipment, allowed me to find a composition I liked and be set-up quickly, ready for that magical time when the sun reaches the horizon.

Oh, the Fish & Chip shop was closed so it was a MacDonald’s on the way home instead!

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For those that are interested in the technical details for this image: Nikon D3x, 16-35mm f/4 Nikon lens at 24mm – ISO 100 for 0.6 seconds at f/11 – with 0.6 Graduated Lee ND (hard) filter and a Lee 0.6 ND filter.

Well it has been a very quiet few months, photographical that is. With too many other things to do, time to get out in the landscape with the camera has been limited; but I am pleased to say that I am now out and about again and looking forward to some nice winter weather.

This month’s picture is titled “Castle and Lava Skies”. Taken just after the sun had slipped below the horizon and with it’s last blast of light, igniting a cloud bank drifting over a silhouetted Criccieth Castle standing proud on the headland.

It is only from this time of year, until about the middle of January, that the sun sets behind the castle. Looking at the tide times, it was just a case of getting good weather conditions to coincide with a falling tide at sunset. Not too much to ask you would think, but the weather in North West Wales has a mind of its own and does things in its own time!

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For those that are interested in the technical details for this image: Nikon D3x, 24-70mm f/2.8 Nikon lens at 32mm – ISO 100 for 0.8 seconds at f/8 – with 0.45 Graduated Lee ND (hard) filter and a Lee 0.6 ND filter.

It is a quiet time of the year; generally I find that I don’t do much photography in the months of June, July and August and basically “hibernate” (photographically that is!) until September.

However, I will still post some “Images of the Month” over the summer.

This month’s picture is of the castle at Criccieth just as a storm passed over the town. I had arrived hoping for a sunset behind the castle and for a while it looked promising; but then a heavy storm descended from the mountains behind.

After taking cover to avoid being drowned in the downpour, I watched the storm slowly move out to sea just as the sunset was starting to develop. Then just as the rain stopped, the scene was bathed in a wonderful steely blue, luminous light.

Quickly forgetting the disappointment of a lost sunset, I set-up and captured the moody and powerful scene that had developed. Job done

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For those that are interested in the technical details for this image: Nikon D700, 24-70mm f/2.8 Nikon lens at 56mm – ISO 200 for 5 seconds at f/16 – with 0.45 Graduated Lee ND (hard) filter.

Ah, the joys of landscape photography and the false sense of reality that photographs can give!

For my image this month, I have chosen “Lakes and Shadows” which shows a lovely peaceful scene; however if you look closely you can see signs that it was not that lovely and peaceful.

On arriving at Llyn Dywarchen in Snowdonia late in the afternoon, I decided to climb the side of Clogwynygarreg behind the lake for an elevated view across the lakes. The light was wonderful, the sort of light we look for late in the afternoon as the sun drops low in the sky, but the wind was terrible. With almost 70mph winds blowing across the lake, it was hard to stand up on the steep sides of Clogwynygarreg, let alone trying to set a camera up on a tripod with the associated filters. Also, within minutes of capturing this image, the clouds seen coming in from the right of the image, proved to be the start of a band of very heavy rain showers, meaning I was absolutely soaked by the time I made it back to the car.

As I said, it wasn’t as lovely and as peaceful as the image first appears.

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For those that are interested in the technical details for this image: Nikon D3X, 24-70mm f/2.8 Nikon lens at 24mm – ISO 100 for 1/60 second at f/8 – with 0.45 Graduated Lee ND (hard) filter.

April was a month full of promise as I had planned a trip to Scotland with some time around Glencoe (on the way up and back) and then a week on the Isle of Eigg. However; the weather was doing its thing again! In Glencoe, the weather was great for people on holiday, but the visibility was very poor due to all the haze introduced by the fair weather. Arriving at Eigg it was not that much better, with no real sunsets or sunrises to speak of – however, the light after sunset, during the twilight, did provide some excellent opportunities for the photographer.

For my “image of the month”, I have selected one of my favourite images from this twilight time on Eigg. It was about 15 minutes after sunset and as the tide fell a small island of rocks and seaweed was revealed. At the same time there was a wonderful “cracked” sky allowing bright light to flood in over Laig Bay.

Setting my composition to make the most of the sky, the rocks and the island of Rum, I timed my capture to include a surge of water flowing around the rocks to introduce a feeling of moment to the image and here is the result…

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For those that are interested in the technical details for this image: Nikon D3X, 16-35mm f/4 Nikon lens at 16mm – ISO 100 for 13 seconds at f/8 – with 0.6 Graduated Lee ND (hard) filter and a 3 Stop Lee Pro-glass ND filter.

March was a good month, in that I spent a number of weeks in and around Snowdonia. It wasn’t so good from a weather point of view with a number of days being hazy with poor visibility and some days of heavy, constant rain. But being a landscape photographer you have to learn not to worry about the weather and just get on with it, making the most of what Mother Nature provides (I am still trying to learn this particular skill !). However, from a photography point of view it is being on the edge of the weather that produces the best light and conditions, which was the case with this month’s image.

This day had been generally overcast and windy (typical Snowdonia weather yet again), but the forecast was for the weather to clear from the west and so I decided to return that evening to Llyn Dywarchen, which is located at the base of Snowdon. I had been there the previous evening checking out possible compositions that would allow me to capture the evening light on Snowdon, so I knew the picture I wanted; I just needed the light and weather to go with the picture.

Settling into position I waited for the clearing weather, which briefly appeared and then vanished well before sunset, replaced by a procession of clouds scurrying across the mountains. As I was set-up, I decided to remain until sunset to see if there would be any lucky breaks in the weather to let some light through.

As it was, just after sunset, the wind settled down and a few splashes of crimson light managed to squeeze through the clouds to paint the flanks of Snowdon, which was still covered in a large bank of low cloud. Seeing the cool blue-tones of twilight, the soft scattering of a crimson blush across the hills and the reflection in the waters of the lake, I knew I had the shot I wanted and a quick squeeze of the cable captured the scene. Job done!

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For those that are interested in the technical details for this image: Nikon D3X, 24mm PC-E f/3.5 Nikon lens (with 3 degrees of tilt) – ISO 100 for 8 seconds at f/11 – with 0.45 Graduated Lee ND (hard) filter and a 3 Stop Lee Pro-glass ND filter.

February has been one of those months where the weather doesn’t play fair for a landscape photographer. The few days where there was decent light, I was committed to doing other things. The days where I was out to make photographs, then all I experienced was flat, overcast cloudy days. I know there is always an image hiding there somewhere, but in February I just couldn’t find one.

Not so bad though, February is the shortest month, and now March is already here and I am eager for the arrival of spring. Also, my plans are made for the next two mouths, with a couple of weeks in Snowdonia and a few weeks in Scotland, visiting Glencoe and the island of Eigg.

However, I still need to share an image for this “Image of the Month” entry and so I have slightly bent the rules by posting an image that came from my last trip to the island of Eigg.

It was just before sunrise and a vivid orange light flooded the beach at Laig Bay, making the scene appear to be some alien landscape from a science-fiction film. Everything just glowed orange for five minutes before before the light faded as quickly as it came.

This image, “Orange Dawn Major” is one of three photographs I took under this wonderful light. As “Major” in the name implies, this photograph was captured at the height of the show.

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For those that are interested in the technical details for this image: Nikon D700, 16-35mm f/4 Nikon lens at 24mm – ISO 200 for 1.6 seconds at f/16