Well, not really postcards since the inclement weather didn’t allow for the most picturesque shots but I did what I could in the brief time that I drove around this spectacular part of the country. Visiting old friends was my primary objective over the Easter weekend and with that accomplished I decided to navigate my way through Snowdonia National Park, an understandably popular and stunning part of Wales. Having lived in Wales for a short time it is a beloved second home to me and after they put Alpha Whiskey out to pasture (not long now) I hope they sprinkle my ashes over this magnificent land of the red dragon.
Thus, this excursion wasn’t really about the photos but rather to enjoy, experience and soak in the environment. My friend Natalia accompanied me and we started our journey with a stay at the grand Castell Deudraeth (Deudraeth Castle) next to the colourful town of Portmeirion. A vibrant, if slightly surreal place Portmeirion was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975 in the style of an Italian village. A walk through the surrounding woods and along the beach treated us to some pleasing views.
The following day was besieged with rain and mist so Natalia suggested we do what any sensible person would in those conditions; hike up a mountain. After wandering through the Mawddwy valley we found ourselves at Cadair Idris. The late Sir George Mallory (who died on Mount Everest) said that the best reason to climb a mountain is because it is there. And while Cadair Idris is no Everest it was only courteous to accept her invitation to ascend her steep and stepped incline into the dense shroud of mist above. Our hike rewarded us with waterfalls rushing down through her wooded aspect until we finally reached Llyn Cau, the canopy of mist nestled within her crater rising up just in time for our arrival.
Some food and rest later we picked the coastal town of Criccieth to see at dusk, with the beach leading the eye to her castle ruins atop a hill.
The next day time was on a budget so we judiciously picked a few main scenic views to take in. A quick stop at the small village of Beddgelert was a prelude to a drive through Snowdonia National Park, viewing Llyn Gwynant from the mountainside before finding the beautiful Swallow Falls by the side of the road. Speaking of roads, Wales has the best I’ve experienced on this side of the Isle Of Man and it was a real pleasure to drive around her undulating hills and valleys, often completely alone for miles but for the ubiquitous sheep.
We finally made our way to Llyn Padarn, our satnav taking us on a rather agricultural hilltop route through skeletal tracks but also offering up some terrific viewpoints. Before the obligatory sunset shot over the lake we stopped at the eerie Vivian Quarry, now an apparent training facility for divers.
It was, of course, wonderful seeing and reminiscing with old friends and as ever I am grateful for their warmth, love and hospitality. I am also extremely grateful to the group of drivers in customised racers who stopped to pull my car out of a hole in Conwy. Without their miraculous help I would probably still be there now. Snowdonia is a wonderful and scenic place and I only wish I had more time and better weather to enjoy it. And if it was good enough for Prime Minister May to spend Easter weekend here (and motivate her to call a general election) then it was good enough for Alpha Whiskey.
As usual I’m not really here and this post is copied and pasted from my blog in the hope that it might encourage others to go out and shoot, and to prove that you really don’t have to travel very far to find exquisite beauty. This was all shot with old mirrorless bits and pieces but who cares about gear? Oh wait, that’s right; almost everyone does. Well, while you are free to sit at a computer pixel-peeping and describing all your gear for internet strangers to either be impressed or validate your choices, take it from Alpha Whiskey that it’s much more fun to carry it outside and use it. It’s a short life and a big world and there’s plenty to enjoy. Dymuniadau gorau a pob lwc! (best wishes and good luck!)
The adventure continues….
“I think everyone is correct. Just seen these on another screen and the greens look especially overcooked. Weird.
My humble apologies for that.”
Why not replace them with correctly processed versions?
Because:
1. They look fine to me on my own screen.
2. I’ve acknowledged the critique and apologised for it.
3. ‘Correctly processed’ is a subjective term.
4. I’m spending my time in far more enjoyable ways.
But thanks for stopping by. Most kind.
Z. Rostov,
In art, there is no such thing as “correctly processed versions”.
Alpha, could you explain how you get the lights in the coastal town of Criccieth at dusk to be yellow. I am seeing a lot of that look in sunset cityscapes where all the lit windows in skyscrapers appear totally yellow and everything else in the frame has a realistic color caste. Is this enhancement or a function of camera or setting?
P.S., I’m disappointed that you got abused. -Phil
Hi Phil,
I think the lights were yellow in hue to begin with, as perhaps those bulbs were tinted yellow or maybe expressed more of that wavelength of light. The image is from a long exposure so I guess the sensor recorded a lot of that yellow wavelength and hue over the exposure time and thus intensified it in the final image. I’ve recently posted some images of the Toronto skyline on my blog and you’re right, the windows all have very yellow lights.
Not sure if that adequately answers your question; I hope it does :)
Don’t worry about the abuse. When people make disparaging comments it probably says as much about them as it does about their target and in any case I never take it to heart; I’m having far too much fun! :)
Cheers,
AW.
Hi Phil,
A domestic incandescent lamp has a colour temperature[1] of circa 2400 K, which is yellow light relative to ‘white’ direct sunlight at 5600 K. A clear sky without the Sun has a colour temperature of circa 15,000 to 27,000 K, which is blue light relative to sunlight.
During twilight there is no direct sunlight so the question becomes: What is the best white balance setting to use for the photograph? In mixed lighting, a good starting point is the harmonic mean[2] of the dominant light sources. Using the values above, the harmonic mean is circa 4200 K.
If, instead, we set the white balance at 2400 K then the windows will look white, but the overall scene will look uncomfortably blue.
References:
[1] en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/…emperature
[2] en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/…monic_mean
Using the word “abuse” in this case and after looking up the translations which point out how strong and exaggerated it is in this discussion, brings me to quote Alpha Whiskey: “When people make disparaging comments it probably says as much about them as it does about their target”.
Which, btw. is nothing wrong with except you’d use the sentence to hide the wish to “insult back” the criticizing person. But from American forums we are used about the forbidden critic policies – that goes as far as censorship by moderators.
And Pete A., street lamps in England, Wales or elsewhere are simply no more incandescent domestic lamps but very often are made to emit yellow light so drivers you not confuse a street lamp with another car’s headlights, see also en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_light They are meant to be yellow in some countries around Europe. This and a courageous move with the saturation slider to the plus side (although that will have little impact as clouds and lamps already are strongly coloured) makes the appearance.
That bit about yellow street lamps to not confuse drivers was new for me, so at the end: Thank you for your question, Phil, just check for yourself the meaning of “abuse” in a serious encyclopedia.
Joachim,
I mentioned the lights in the windows (coming from the domestic lamps), but I forgot to mention the street lights: they seem to be sodium vapour lamps, which emit mainly orange/yellow light, as you said.
Living in the UK, I’ve had many ‘battles’ with sodium vapour and mercury vapour lamps in my night and twilight photography over the years :-) And don’t get me started on compact fluorescent lamps!
“..you’d use the sentence to hide the wish to “insult back” the criticizing person.”
I neither need nor wish to insult anyone back. I’m not the kind of person that insults people. But thanks for clearing that one up for me. :)
I would always defend your (and anyone else’s) right to constructively criticise as much as you wanted and I certainly don’t take it to heart. Far better things to do (and see) :)
With “Which, btw. is nothing wrong with except you’d use the sentence…” I said “except you would use” but this is not “you did use” – I’m no native speaker, but if I would have wanted to say “you did insult me” I would have said so ;) I don’t think you did. Are we cool now? :D
Pete A, I’m coming from a country with mostly sort of greenish white street lamps. I understand your pain with the lights, but they go better together with a dark blue sky. I like them a lot, but you know, tourists like a lot of stuff residents don’t feel so happy with. Shooting at night in the streets and getting sick looking faces of pedestrians is not so great, either.
Joachim,
No, you don’t understand my pain with various forms of artificial lighting because you have made it clear via your comments that you do not begin to understand the relevant science.
You have also made it clear via your comments that you do not understand psychology — especially the edict: When you are in a hole, it’s best to stop digging!
Kindly desist from inappropriately and incorrectly psychoanalysing Alpha Whisky and one or more of the commentators on his article.
I don’t need to understand science to like or dislike several artificial lightings. I even don’t need a full study of psychology for that. And don’t tell me what to do – I don’t do that either. First one “pschoanalyzing” was btw Alpha Whiskey himself. So why don’t you take reading classes? Or get reading glasses? Lecturing other people could very easily lead them to see in you something else than a kind or interested person. Now, keep on digging… by pointing your index finger towards other persons, at least three fingers of your hand are pointing towards you.
Many thanks for your informative reply :-)
I have to post because I’m shocked at all the negative. Every time I see your posts pop up i click on them right away. I always enjoy seeing the world through your eye. I shouldn’t be writing this right now, beings that it’s sunrise, i should be shooting but alas work wants me to do stuff so i can make money :(.
I do wonder what your images would look like in low contrast B&W … Yep still like them.
Many thanks Andrew. Much appreciated :)
Thank you Alpha.
I am definately going to visit Snowdonia.
What these images and articles help us is in Going out and shooting out there.
This is what I have been doing recently and this site helps here completely.
Pls keep sharing and motivating us. You are helping us Photographers in a way few help.
Good work Alpha, Nasim and the whole Photographylife team. We love you.
Many thanks Himanshu! Much appreciated :)
At least this post provoked a lot of discussion an subsequent posting about post-processing styles. Personally in landscape photography I like to reproduce what I actually see. Recently I saw an old landscape painting in one of the beautiful museums of Vienna, Austria, and I noticed that the sky was overcast and very much white or gray. Of course the painter could have painted a blue sky, but he chose to constrain himself to what he actually saw.
Clouds move, the light changes every few minutes as the sun moves across the sky. Who knows what the sky actually looked like on the day the painter started work. Unless he painted quickly, he likely did not finish the painting in one hour. He used his memory and his view to make the painting look the way he wanted it to look.
Realism is subjective. You and I standing next to each other and taking a photo my have different cameras, different lenses with different focal lenghts. We may choose a different point of focus, a different aperture for different depths of field, different shutter speeds to freeze motion or allow for visible blurring of things like clouds or water. What we capture is affected by when we squeeze the shutter, how we frame the subject, etc.
My “real” and your “real” will not be the same though both may be accurate captures as of the moment each shutter was triggered. Ask any lawyer or police officer about the “truth” of witness statements or the reliability of on scene photos and video taken by several witnesses.
Enjoy your photos and enjoy your time with a camera. Seeing other people’s vision as compared to mine is one of the most fun and intriguing parts of photography.
“…You and I standing next to each other and taking a photo my have different cameras, different lenses with different focal lenghts…”
Many years ago a colleague and I stood side-by-side shooting the same scene. We had identical cameras and lenses but different color films. When we compared the slides a few days later on a light table we were impressed with the different rendering of the scene because of the different films.
I’ve since learned that film, sensors, and even our perceived reality may not accurately reflect what we thought we saw.
The way you see reality could not be same way I see reality. Also the way dogs see reality is not the same of humans. However there are some frontiers, and subjectivity has some limits. As a matter of fact an overcast sky is not a blue sky. To see a deep blue color where you have only grey you must be under the influence of some drugs or not be a human. The painter that could not finish his painting before the scene change must rely on his memory, or could do a fast sketch that help him to keep his first impressions for later.
I gave the example of the painting with the overcast sky only to show that for some people – including myself – to be more or less faithful with what you saw it is important in landscape photography. Naturally, that idea must not be valid for everybody.
Thank you for the very well done post. The discussion around the “overdone” look of some of the photos is also interesting. There is a bit of variation as I look at the immages on my different computers and my iPad Pro. The biggest difference is from the 2015 Macbook Pro to a 5 year old Dell laptop. That is to be expected.
I will add that I did a test a few month back and processed a photo of Lower Yellowstone Falls. One version was a straight out of the camera, one was done with modest processing to adjust for the rainy, overcast day, and one was more HDR or over-saturated postcard/travel magazine look.
When posted for family and friends, the HDR like/over-saturated postcard/travel magazine look was the most popular among those who commented. My favorite was actually a separate B&W version processed to look more like an antique postcard.
Alpho Whiskey has commented on the look and what he saw on his computer. I still like the shots and, by the way, what is wrong with some people preferring the postcard look if that is what triggers their interest and fondest memories of whaere they have been and where they would like to visit?
Keep up the fine, high quality, attractive work. I find your style, compostion and attitude refreshing and enjoyable to view and to read. Your approach differs from mine and that is a good thing for all of us.
Many thanks Joe, I appreciate that :)
First, “straight out of camera” is an illusion when it comes to RAW – all converters “do” already something to it. That’s a fact, not a guess, and the work of the editor starts there.
Second, did it ever crossed your mind people admire your work itself on a picture more than the decision between “HDR type vs dull and flat”. Each picture benefits from work on it, starting with composition and ending with print. Without having seen them I don’t comment any further than general statements. But as well as the ones liking the amount of saturation are happy with them the others with a less huge saturation slider have also their reasons to stay within bounds.
Basically, the photographer tells with a picture what and how he or she saw it, therefore all are valid interpretations except one does not know better how to achieve the picture sawn before clicking the shutter. Valid interpretation – doesn’t mean I have to like it, I can just respect the work or skill.
A perfectly fair point.
I used to have a slight antipathy to post processing, feeling it was cheating the image and subject somewhat. But I came to accept that the camera is simply a device that measures the available light and has no idea how the photographer intended to see the subject or present it, or even imagine it in their mind. So I guess any processing I apply reflects how I want the subject to look and that, of course, is down to individual interpretation. (I’ve acknowledged that on some screens these look more saturated than I intended). Of course I’d never expect everyone to like my interpretations and nor do they have to. :)
We see all kinds of comments about processed vs. “real” photographs as compared to what we each saw. Your comment that the camera is a device that measures available light is spot on. It captures a 2-dimensional record of the light levels in a scene in a very small time slice (typically).
That is not how our eyes work. We see in 3-D and in full continuous motion. We can rapidly shoft ourt focus around the scens and combine those pieces into a picture in our mind that the camera cannot capture.
Each camera sensor and processing hardware/software has its own quirks as noted by people’s preference for the color palette of a Canon vs. Nikon vs. Fuji vs. Sony, etc. Then the raw processor we choose uses its own unique demosaicing algorithms to construct the image we then process. The camera does not record what we “saw”. It does not know what drew me to the scene. It is the photographer who must then make the raw file match what he/she saw when the shutter was pressed.
My daughter and I stood next to each other shooting a Maui sunset over Molokai. Same place, same time, very similar cameras, and little overlap between the shots we each chose to represent that sunset. That is what makes it all so much fun!
Keep up the good work!
Of course the camera’s view is only an aproximation to reality (our human reality), but we have photoshop to try to adecuate what the camera captured to our memory of what we saw. If somebody wants to do something more it’s up to him. Personally in landscape photography I like realism.
Danny, the images are fine. It was the processing which was the issue here. There is always the temptation to add too much enhancement in the software. Lots of software plug-ins and programs offer presets and options which can overcook images. If your monitor calibration or your photoshop colour space is not well set up, images can wind up looking unrealistic.
The other issue is that you do sometimes see colours like several of these in the real world. It is very rare, but we have all probably seen it for a few minutes in the right conditions. Does that mean we should not take the picture? I am not saying you should feel free to add it in software. If all a photographer’s images have the same look it reduces the effectiveness because it becomes a cliche. Alpha Whiskey has said he feels the images are over processed. Let’s leave it at that because the quality of the composition and subject matter is not in contention.
Alpha,
Wherever you travel you always bring home some really good images. Great work!
Have you considered writing an article about your post-processing method?
Thank you Sinisa. :)
If I were to write such an article I’d be sure to advise holding back on the saturation! :)
I don’t know about that. I like colors in your photos and they don’t look oversaturated on my laptop.
I could very well have seen you at Porthmerion that day as I was there too! The easter weekend was a bit of a washout but you seem to have made the best of it photography wise. :)
Alpha Whisky,
I like your blogs and photos and thank you for taking the time to inform of places that have not visited.
The criticism of your images is unfair. I have your blog up on two Dell computers – an XPS machine with 4K resolution and a 7 year old Latitude with 1920 x 1080p resolution. The colors on the 4K machine are “stronger”, but for me, still quite pleasing.
Readers have to cut some slack here because many of the images were made with overcast to rainy skies. You wind up with stronger colors in an underexposed environment. I had the same result when I processed my January photos from Puerto Williams, Navarino Island, Tierra del Fuego, Chile. I used my old machine and the colors are strong.
I now process all of my images on my 4K machine. I am not seeking the postcard effect, so my images have less pizzazz when viewed on an older monitor.
My call sign with the 101st was Buffalo Bill. I am from Buffalo, NY. Served in the RSV, I Corps, Hue, LZ Sally and FSB Whip in 1968-69.
Regards and Over and Out.
peter
Bless you Peter and thank you for your service too :)
I’ve acknowledged further up in the comments section that the colours do look overdone on some screens, certainly more than I would have intended for them to look.
I’ve apologised for that but of course everyone is entitled to express their view :)
Is any part of england ever not overcast? A friend told me once that they only had about 10 sunny days in manchester in 2010.
Wales is not England, at first. At second, I’m quite happy people still have the prejudice of “rain and fog all times”, so there’s some space for new tripod holes and less overrun than, say, Iceland’s waterfalls and glaciers :))
During the last 30 years I experienced in the whole UK lots of sunny days and best of it, not only with sometimes dull blue skies. I like clouds and even more massive cloudscapes around hills, mountains.