RIVER IRFON

Irfon Valley, Powys mid Wales was my destination for an early Spring image Driving along the old Drovers Road, with my assistant Kato ∞ we found an ideal spot to park and explore the lower Irfon Valley,wolves' Gorge ( Camddwr Bleiddiad ). Heading off the Road and down the steep bank where the River Irfon flows, there lies an embankment, almost shore like, peppered with small and large boulders leading the eye into the rushing River Irfon.

Afon Irfon

You can see this image here;www.amethystlandphoto.com
I used a 20mm Sony lens set to infinity; f16, on a tripod
and as close to the foreground as was possible to stay sharp,
the tripod was essential. The wind blowing down the valley,
 from from the north was 40+mph. It blew both 
myself and Kato ∞ back
up the hill on the way back upto the Road.
  

WOLFS' GORGE

I may return here soon by other means of transport
for those who know!
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CHROME HILL STORM

Chrome Hill on a Winters afternoon. Earl Sterndale
was where we had parked Katos car, a week earlier
the car had been bogged down in mud at the base of
Chrome Hill, luckily a passing local stopped to ask
if we would like a tow out, so many thanks to him 
for the rescue. So we headed homeward, without an image, to return a week later.

 From Earl Sterndale was a 1.5 Miles walk to our view point below Chrome Hill, Blue sky was less than ideal
but as I set up, cloud started to build fast high above
ridge line, within minutes, streams of cloud had climbed  and filled my 20mm Sony lens, five images
later, a cold wind blew down the Hill and the opportunity for more images had gone.

Wisely we packed away the gear, and headed for Earl 
Sterndale. Looking back from where we came, heavy dark rain clouds were forming. A very wet walk back to the car, but one image was worth the muddy boots.
You can see the image here; www.amethystlandphoto.com 

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SUPER MOON CANADA GEESE

E very Year (almost;every one Year one month 18 days) there is a Super Moon, see future Years list below.

 It was a happy coincidence, one day in September I was able to capture an image combining Super Moon, River and Canada Geese.....but it was all about timing.

Perigee-Syzygy

A Super Moon (Perigee-Syzygy) will appear approximately every 14th full Moon, So they are not a rare event and with the extra illumination 30% and the Moon 14% larger, these additions
give a photographer a very small advantage to
 illuminate the land or water.
The Photographer's Ephemeris; Link here was my resource, it gave me the timing for the Super Moon directly over the River Trent at Yoxhall. See the screen shot below.

Click image to enlarge or use the link above

There was only a small window of opportunity with the Moon lined up vertically above the River Trent. 
The idea was to use the River
to reflect the Moon light, as it was a flowing River the moon light would appear as a flood of Moon light, so giving that classic moon lit scene. There was a foreground element that was not in the plan, Seven Canada Geese, but they made the night scene come to life. 

    MOON-RIVER-GEESE
  

© J R Arrowsuch.

See the the image at my web site; www.amethystlandphoto.com/photo

Future Perigee (Super Moon) Years;
September 28th 2015
November 14th 2016
No Perigee 2017
January 2nd 2018
January 21st 2019
February 19th 2019 


Thanks to"The Photographers Ephemeris"For the screen shot.

 

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METEORS - PIPISTRELLE BATS AND CATS

The Annual 13th of August Perseid Meteor shower took me off to the Llyn Clywedog reservoir

on the 12th of August, but due to a weather forecast for cloud, the next night I chose Lake Vyrnwy.

The first night on the 12th

 Llyn Clywedog reservoir was one of the darkest area of Wales I have visited

for a meteor event, a very clear bright starry view, with the milky way clearly viewed through

the upper most part of the sky, the most defined milky way I had ever seen!! (in the UK).
I had though there was a chance to capture a meteor burning through the milky way, but alas no luck this night, but..........to see the Milky way this clear, with no light pollution was reward enough.

See the image below with the Milky way stretching the length of the image, next time I will make a panoramic image, to capture even more of this celestial display. 

Sony A900..... ISO1600                  © J.R.Arrowsuch

As usual with a major meteor event, we saw some of the Perseid's but the camera set to expose via a digital intervalometer, no Meteors were imaged whilst the shutter was open?. 
The Sony A900 was set up in BULB mode ISO 1600 lens(20mm),15 seconds exposure at  f3.5 and dark frame subtraction on each image taken.

After an hour the fog moved in from the  Llyn Clywedog reservoir, the temperature tumbled, almost like it was Autumn, dew enveloped the camera and the car and that put pay to this night's
image gathering. You can see the moment the fog rolled in from this next image.

Fog rolls in

The second night on the 13th

The second night took me off further north (still in Wales) to Lake Vyrnwy, a much milder night with the local wild life very active, Owls hooting and Bats in flight not to mention the local cats on the prowl.

The Bats, (possibly pipistelle) where flying round our heads, the torch light attracting the insects and the insects attracting the Bats, I would have tried to photograph them
but my mission was the Meteor shower, so that was what I concentrated on, besides I was missing a flash.
Here is a image by; Barracuda1983

CC image by Barracuda1983


108 images 1 Meteor, with the timings set into the intervalometer, it's all about mother nature cooperating,
I did observe at least 6 Meteors within the lens area, but they were only visible on the mirror lockup timing or the dark frame subtraction timing, very frustrating, ideally another second camera, set up to take up the off sequence, would be a solution, but I only have one top brand DSLR.   

  PLOUGH & PERSEID                                © JOHN R ARROWSUCH

Lake  Vyrnwy as you can see from the above image, is not a perfect location for a Meteor event, due to the distant light pollution.

 My next night event is the full Moon (super Moon) over the River Trent.

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STANAGE EDGE AMPHITHEATRE

Stanage Edge, runs ribbon like, four Miles long, from the Cowper Stone to Stanage End.

I had planned to find the CROW CHIN rock, to shoot an image, but time and a

pulled hamstring made the trek shorter. 

Kato (my Brother) wanted me to get an image for his blog, a marsh or water scene.

We were fortunate to find such an image, on the track to the Redmires Reservoirs, a marshy pool

matched his request. See his WILL-O-THE-WISP search HERE.

With that image in the can, we set off back to the Edge, I had earlier caught sight of a scene 

through two gritstone upright boulders, that framed a view upon  the "Stanage plantation"

the sound emanating from the woods below, gave me a possible posh

 image title" STANAGE EDGE AMPHITHEATRE".

With the tree's in the centre forming a curtain for the spring evening show, a good mix of

changeable cloud, it all made for a fine image.

The gritstone in this part of the DARK PEAK has a multi sparkled quality, not unlike

a Star field on a moonless night, it may sound a poetic description, but on a Sunny Day, the gritstone

takes on the appearance of a Starry night sky. You will not see this in any on line photo, the resolution

is (deliberately) too low, remind me to shoot a macro shot.

Here are a few images from last Year's visit;

The image on the Left was a reject, Unpublished  test shot. unlike the image on the Right

which can be bought here; amethystlandphoto

Although I had intended to walk to HIGH NEB and the CROW CHIN rock, I chose to return

another day, but the " STANAGE EDGE AMPHITHEATER"  image was reward enough. 

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HOWDEN CONTRAILS

A  Weather forecast  for fine weather, pushed me out the door. I decided to head up to the Ladybower reservoir in the Peak District.

I was not able to spend more than a couple of hours, hiking so a Trekking bike was the preferred mode of transport, I had company, my Brother (Kato), came along with his steel framed, mountain bike, it weighs a ton compared to my aluminum hybrid Trekking cycle.

 

We headed out to find the Howden Reservoir dam, on arriving the low level of the water, stopped us in our tracks, that and the fact the early Autumn was absent, made for limited photo opportunities.

 

looking out over the reservoir, almost empty, the only option was a very close up shot of the Howden dam, with the sky contrails.

More to see over at;http://www.amethystlandphoto.com/

Howden Dam Contrails

I will not return here this Autumn, due to the very low water levels, so where to next, I think North Wales is calling, maybe?.

See more Monochrome here; http://www.amethystlandphoto.com/monochrome

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STANAGE EDGE-FOLLOW THE LIGHT

Stanage Edge ancient, Gritstone escarpment within the Peak district national park.

 

 THE DARK HIGH PEAK

 The gritstone of this area was once used in the making of Mill grindstones

and if you walk the Edge you will see grindstones abandoned

and never put into service, they make a nice foreground

in many a fine photo image.

Another gritstone use was the water feeders, used for the grouse

in this image I used the feeder and water as a reflective surface, to 

fill the foreground with highlight.

 If you pop along here, there is a nice image of the above on BLUE;http://www.amethystlandphoto.com

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OWLET & KATO ∞

  The journey back from Stanage Edge, was eventful. Passing though the Chatsworth 
House area, the Road speed is 50mph, but chatting with 
Kato ∞ my driver and assistant we both thought this was a stupid 
speed, after dark and on a twisty Road so Kato ∞ dropped the speed 
down to under 40mph.
A wise move!?, a Tawny owlet, flew out across our path, clipping him down
 the side of the car, the owlet dropped down stunned, onto the
 center of the Road. We had already stopped as the owlet, fell from
 his flight, Kato ∞ gathered up a rather dazed owl, he bought it 
back into the car, handing it over to me, i perched
him on a blanket, but he was recovering fast, the owl just wanted to fly, 
and flapped onto the dashboard, so he was recovered 
enough to be set free.
Kato ∞ carried the owlet to the fence where he/she, originally flew out, the 
owlet flapped and glided (wings fully spread) down the valley and 
across the River Derwent, landing  in a tree. Did I get a photo
 of the owlet, no, it was all too dramatic, plus my compact camera was
 packed away?. The morel of the story is always be prepared, camera ready.
As for the owlet, hope alls well with him/her, and here is a picture of 
three Tawny owlets, just about to fledge, by photographer; Artur Mikołajewski.

 

From Wiki photo by;
Artur Mikołajewski

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