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Pen yr Olwen #7

Pen yr Olwen mountain and Llyn Ogwen, Snowdonia National Park, Wales

The story behind this image

The Ogwen valley, in the heart of the Snowdonia National Park, North Wales, is a place of astonishing beauty.

With Llyn Ogwen running up the middle, flanked to the west by the Glyderau mountains and the the east by the Carneddau range, there's just so many lovely views to take in.

This particular photo shows the conical peak of Pen yr Ole Wen, the westernmost peak in the Carneddau range, which slopes steeply down right to the waters of Llyn Ogwen at its base.

It was a lovely afternoon in late August when Liz and I stopped at the side of the lake for a picnic, but I couldn't resist delaying eating for the sake of capturing this scene.

With sunlight and shadow playing over the flanks of the mountain, fluffy white clouds overhead and bright yellow reeds puncuating the surface of Llyn Ogwen below it was just too lovely a view to miss.

The contrast range was a bit too much for my camera's sensor, but with the help of a polarising filter and some negative exposure compensation I managed to capture detail throughout the frame, showing the mountain and lake in all their resplendant colours.

Image data

Filename - pen yr olwen 07.jpg

Camera - Canon 6D

Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 24mm

Exposure - 1/20 sec @ f11, ISO100

Filters - Polarising filter used to enhance colours

Location - Ogwen Valley, Snowdonia National Park, North Wales

This image - 640x800px JPEG

Conversion - Adobe Lightroom

Comments - -0.7ev exposure compensation used to preserve highlights