Welsh Waterfalls

[minicooper]

Well, I made it to the Brecon Beacons in Wales to take some waterfall pics.

Set off this morning at 10, took 2 1/2 hours down the M4, over the Severn Bridge into Wales and up through Merthyr Tydfil into the heart of 'Waterfall Country'- the village of Ystradfellte.

It was much more remote than I thought it would be, I think next time I will take a friend! I felt very aware while climbing down vertical-faced 200ft gorges and through canyons that if I slipped, no one would know!! It was a bit of a cellphone black spot, so my phone was pretty useless! It was great though, I felt like the only person on earth. All I could hear was waterfalls, wind, and birds singing.

It wasn't ideal weatherwize- quite contrasty- could of done with some more clouds really, was struggling to get decently slow shutter speeds even with polariser and ND's at f22 but did OK I think.

Have learnt two important lessons from today:
1- You EITHER hike OR take pics. You MUST pack everything away to change spots- even if the spot you want to get to is 4 ft away.
2- Lowepro AW bags are essential. I used my new Rover AW II bag, which lets you put day stuff in the top compartment. I used the AW protector to walk round the back of Sgwd yr Eira (Spout of Snow) waterfall, and could not have done it without AW.

I have uploaded an initial selection, what do you think?
Ystradfellte Falls (http://www.pbase.com/tombellchambers/ystradfellte)

Cheers!
Tom

[iwatkins]

Hi Tom,

Glad to see the trip panned out OK for you. Yes was a great day for photography, but not if you wanted to do waterfalls during the middle of the day ;)

Even so, I've just looked through your gallery and I think you can be proud. Some really nice shots there. 8)

So much so, I think I might take a trip out over the weekend if time allows.

I know what you mean about feeling like the only person on Earth. Not too easy to do in the UK but parts of Wales are just like that. I took a trip to photograph around the Elan valley last year and for six hours I saw no one at all. Great for clearing the head of all that day to day stuff. :)

Cheers

Ian

[hickory]

Tom,

those are awesome shots, very ancient feeling. Now if someone can tell me how to pronounce those names :lol:

tom

great self portrait too!

[L A Mac]

Very nice...

I am a waterfall addict. What is the cause of the golden streaks
at Sgwd Clun Gwyn falls? #2
I have yet to put on the ND filters my new 10D. Do you have any tips or tricks to offer to get the exposure while slowing the flow on digital? Or just like film?

[minicooper]

Thanks for your comments, I think I will go back in a few weeks when we have some green on the trees, I think it will bring the place to life.

As for any tips- just vary your exposure as much as you can, at most of the falls I was trying to underexpose by about 2/3 of a stop (in matrix metering) to get detail into the water without it turning into a white blob. This made the rocks quite dark in places, but you can bring them back easily, using raw or jpeg. Use histograms. But mainly, I just treated it like film really.

And the water was that colour because of the metal in it I think. If you look in the last picture of Sgwd yr Eira, you can see that the water is very coppery coloured in the smoother bits of water. It tasted very metallicy too!

Cheers!
Tom