Anglesey is known for three lighthouses. The first two I have already shared – Penmon and Twr Mawr on Llanddwyn island. The third is South Stacks lighthouse, famous as an RSPB site with a varied collection of bird life. I originally left it out of my Anglesey collection because I was really annoyed at the schoolboy error, cutting off the right hand edge. But for the sake of completenesss, and for those not in the UK who enjoy “virtual travel”, I am adding it. Just don’t judge me.
I did it!!!
If you hover over the Gallery menu there is now a drop down with different classifications of my images. It seemed difficult but was, in fact, easy.
This image is the Church in the Sea on Anglesey. It is cut off at high tide and only accessible via the little spit of land to the left. The long exposure has streaked the sky, helping to point out the church itself. This is such an unusual feature that I am amazed there are no direction signs to it. Not one. Unless you were looking for it you would not even know it was there… very odd.
In the background you can see the mountains of Snowdonia.
This time the entirety of Swallow Falls and another snippet. You can click on either image to see it full sized. One advantage of a country that is always wet is that the waterfalls are normally quite healthily fed.
Now, if I can work out how to do it, and I have failed consistently for the last two days, there should be a change to the gallery page. Unfortunately I am a little tight-fisted so I am not prepared to pay for the more expensive websites just for a hobby, so I am stuck with trying to push WordPress into doing things it was not designed for. Wish me luck.
I may come back to Anglesey, but in the meantime… On the way home we called in at Swallow Falls, located between Capel Curig and Betys-y-Coed in Snowdonia. There is a hotel opposite the entrance which makes for a great lunch stop, and the falls are only a short walk from the road. Swallow Falls is magnificent, and I will share an image of the full vista, but in the meantime both my artistic director and I were taken by some of the detail within the overall cascade.
Another from Llanddwyn island. The name Llanddwyn means “The church of St. Dwynwen”. Dwynwen is the Welsh patron saint of lovers, making her the Welsh equivalent of St. Valentine. Her Saint’s day is 25 January and is often celebrated by the Welsh with cards and flowers apparently. The island bears the ruined remains of 5th century St. Dwynwen’s Church, through which you can see the cross from my last post.
An over-photographed part of Anglesey is the lighthouse on LLanddryn Island. normally photographed from a raised aspect onthe right of my image to get the steps and path as leading lines. I admit I did that, but the contrast was so strong I was not happy with the result. Clearly a sunrise/sunset shot. However, there are a couple of crosses to give some foreground interest, so I did not leave empty-handed.
The vast majority of images from Penmon Point seem to focus (no pun intended) on the lighthouse. However, as you will have noticed in a previous post, the lighthouse comes right up close to the rocky shoreline. This can make it tricky to isolate other than at a really high tide. Often overlooked, there is a marker buoy a little further out which lends itself a little better to the minimalist style of photography. Probably better seen on a bigger screen, and if I have done it right, you should get a larger view by clicking on the image.
I haven’t finished with Penmon Lighthouse yet. There may be another, or I may move on to other images from our break in North Wales. Who knows…? The mist was a great help, meaning I did not have to blend the horizon to get a minimalist shot – there was no horizon visible. Result.
Just back from a short break on Anglesey. On the way we stopped, as usual, at a National Trust property for a break. This time it was Penrhyn Castle. The castle itself is well preserved, as are so many in Wales, and this area of North Wales is renowned for its slate. Penrhyn has a slate splitting demonstration on site. Hopefully you can see from the photo, this guy managed the seemingly impossible, splitting a slate which was already only about 3mm thick.
St David’s is a city in Wales and is the smallest cathedral city in the UK based on population count. I thought it was really kind of them to name a city after me, so had to visit. Normally I tend to go for the stained glass windows, but this suspended sculpture caught my eye. I really liked the contrast between the cold wall framing the warmer interior, caused both by the lighting and the warmth of the wooden sculpture.