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Trekking up the path to Llyn y Foel, on the slopes of Moel Siabod in Snowdonia, North Wales for a day's photography, I was pleasantly suprised as the route, which was new to me, took me past a variety of old quarries and abandoned, derelict mine workings such as this one.
I've always been attacted to the decaying old buildings which litter the landscape of Snowdonia, so many of which are slowly sinking back into the ground and rocks from which they were originally constructed. I feel that they add an aura of history and a certain melancholy to the scene and I will always try an photograph them in a meaningful way when I can.
On this occasion I passed these buildings around noon under a clear blue sky as I was going up the path to photograph at the lake. Not good conditions for the sort of atmospheric image I had in mind to create here.
However, on the return trip back down the path the sun was at a lower angle and racks of cloud had moved in, filling the sky with brooding detail - just right!
A graduated ND filter allowed me to keep detail in the sky and land in the same exposure, and a partial monochrome rendering of the scene in Photoshop helped me to bring out the slightly downbeat mood that the view engendered in me at the time.
Filename - cottage stone 04.jpg
Camera - Canon 5D
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 37mm
Exposure - 1/15sec @ f11, ISO100
Location - Moel Siabod, Snowdonia
This image - 640x800px JPEG
Conversion - ACR & PS-CS2
Comments - ND grad filter used to balance exposure.
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