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Always photograph red!
That's a snippet of advice from Americal photographer Tony Sweet that has stuck in my mind, ready to be acted on as the opportunity arises.
This particular opportunity arose during an expedition Liz and I made away from our usual haunts of North Wales into the wilds of the southern half of the Snowdonia National Park around the Mawddach estuary.
We'd spent the afternoon exploring the lovely Cregennan Lakes at the foot of Cader Idris before dropping down to the coast at Fairbourne for tea.
After eating we drove out from the centre of Fairbourne, following the tracks of the charming little steam railway that runs out along a spit of land which gave us amazing views up the Mawddach estuary.
A little climb over a set of sand dunes gave us access to the other side of this low lying peninsula and this scene out across the mouth of the estuary to the seaside town of Barmouth, nestled up against a small mountain across the water.
That's when I saw the red warning flag, and remembered Tony Sweet's words of advice.
It was the work of just a couple of minutes to fit a polarising filter to my lens, rotating it till the red colour really popped against the blue of the sky.
Tony Sweet was right, that little patch of red makes all the difference to this image, seasoning it just as adding a chilli would season a stew.
Thanks for the advice!
Filename - barmouth 01.jpg
Camera - Canon 6D
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 24mm
Exposure - 1/30 sec @ f16, ISO100
Location - Barmouth Wales
This image - 800x533px JPEG
Conversion - Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop CC
Comments - Polarising filter used to enhance colours
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