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I always look forward to the coming of autumn in the Snowdonia National Park, North Wales, as the colours on display can be just stunning, depending on the weather of course!
One of the more famous and well photographed autumn locations is the old stone bridge at Llanrwst, arching across the river Conwy to the Tu Hwnt-I'r Bont tea rooms on the far side of the water.
For just a couple of weeks every autumn this old thatched cottage, now owned by the National Trust, turns a vivid red as the Virginia creeper clad walls and roof take on their astonishing hues.
This image was shot quite early in the season, with the Virginia creeper showing a delightful mix of greens and reds, picked out in a late afternoon sun, and set against a backdrop of trees just starting to turn to gold.
How lovely it was to just sit by the river, watching the ducks swim by and taking the odd set of bracketed exposures every now and then as the light came and went, along with the tea room's patrons who kept on appearing just when I wanted to shoot.
Those bracketed frames were important to me as the dynamic range of the scene was too great to record adequately in a single exposure.
In the end a set of five exposures, each one stop apart was needed to fully cover the range of brightness levels in this scene, to be merged together to create a high dynamic range (HDR) file in Adobe Lightroom.
The HDR file was further optimised in Photoshop to bring out the best of the colours, and a medium strength 'Orton' effect was applied as the finishing touch to enhance the autumnal feel.
Filename - llanrwst 01.jpg
Camera - Canon EOS 6D
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 58mm
Exposure - various @ f11, ISO100
Filters - Polarising filter used to enhance the colours and remove glare
Location - Llanrwst, Snowdonia National Park, North Wales
This image - 800x484px JPEG
Conversion - Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop
Comments - Multiple exposure taken with tripod mounted camera for HDR rendition
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