Oct 06
I love Pembrokeshire, its such a beautiful part of the world, with many photographic opportunities, an abundance of wildlife and not least several standing stones! I’ve got a thing about standing stones, and so it was with this in mind that myself and Grant travelled down for the weekend in his camper van and booked ourselves onto a campsite.

The first morning the sunrise didn’t look that promising, but then things began to improve so we had to race from the wrong side of Fishguard to the Pentre Ifan standing stones.  When we arrived the cloud was covering the sun, but it soon made way for some glorious early morning light.

Pentre Ifan Standing Stones, Pembrokeshire

From here we then headed down to St. Davids and booked ourselves onto a boat trip on a very fast and bumpy zodiac around Ramsey Island. Located here are the largest concentration of Atlantic grey seals in the south, and there were quite a few on the beaches, with several coming out to see us. In fact, even before boarding the boat we found a seal pup that had come ashore just to the left of the jetty, so managed to get a few shots up close. The geological make up of the island was also very interesting, not being dissimilar to the Giant’s Causeway in places, and their are a great number of guillemots, razorbills, kttiwakes and fulmars on the cliffs.

Atlantic Grey Seal Pup run ashore

After the boat trip it was back to the camper van for a nice cup of tea and some cheese sandwiches left over from the day before, but still tasted great (thanks Clare!) We took it easy for a couple of hours before heading to Dinas Head for the sunset.

Dinas Head Sunset, Pembrokeshire

A great end to great day.

June 08
I returned again in 2008, this time with the family. This time we stayed at Trefin on a small caravan park that was conveniently situated between The Carig Sampson standing stones and a stone circle a mile or so in the other direction!

My main aim was to photograph the puffins on Skomer Island, and with the first sign of the sun we headed out to Milford Haven and boarded the boat across. A word of advice to anyone going to Skomer Island – pack plenty of food and drink, there’s none on the island! We learnt the hard way, and after a frustrating walk each carrying a child that was getting heavier, hungrier and more irritable by the second we finally had to throw in the towel. We retreated back to the building that sits in the middle of the island for refuge, and it was only then I realised the puffins were only a 10 or 15 minute walk from here. So another word of advice – if it’s the puffins you want to see just head straight for the building in the middle and turn left. So with tempers strained I managed to negotiate a half hour release in which I hot footed over to the puffins. It was incredible just how close you could get to them, they really didn’t mind your presence. I didn’t want to push my luck with Clare so after 10 minutes I had a few decent shots and left.

Puffin, Skomer Island

On the way back I noticed a hide, so I went in for a quick look to see gulls collecting mud for their nests.

Gull Collecting Mud

I headed out one evening to get Carig Sampson, but was more than a little nervous of all the cows and bullocks in the field, so bottled it and decided to head for the stone circle. Along the way I stopped and got a nice shot from the top of the cliffs out across the sea.

Trefin

When I then arrived at the stone circle I was quite horrified to find cows in this field too! So I thought dammit, its Carig Sampson I really want, I’m just going to have to overcome my fear and get in that field. Before I did I checked with the farmer first, and she said the cows were ok, and were quite used to people walking through the fields. As soon as I entered they all got up and started to move off. Whilst I was in the middle of it though, they became braver and started to move closer! I began to get distinctly nervous, these were really quite big let me tell you! They then moved further round so they were now between me and my exit with the big ones asembling at the front. I had visions of them chasing me round the stones Benny Hill style. Once I’d got some shots in the bag I tentatively made my way back and was mightily relieved  to throw my leg over the gate and get the hell out of there. My legs were shaking!

Carig Sampson Standing Stones. The cows are to the left of the shot planning an assault!

I noticed on the way back a lovely little fishing port called Abercastle so returned there the following evening and got a couple of nice sunset shots.

Abercastle Sunset

Across Llynnau Mymbryr to Mount Snowdon

This was one of those magical mornings of photography that you are so very rarely lucky enough to experience. The light was as good as I think I’ve ever photographed in. It hadn’t always looked so promising however. We drove up the day before. I’d suggested to Grant, having seen Joe Cornish’s photographs at Mewslade Bay, that we check it out on the way. Hardly on the way I know, so instead of taking the much faster M40 we found ourselves tootolling up the middle of Wales. It began to snow and before long we were in the midst of a very heavy snow storm. I can honestly say it was the worst conditions I’ve ever had the displeasure to drive in. Visibility was shocking and I was hanging on to the coat tails of the car in front for guidance, although we barely ever exceeded 20mph. On every corner I thought we were going to carry straight on, and in the hills it was particularly hairy. I kept thinking to myself ‘What are we doing?? What a complete waste of time!’,  but by this point we’d reached the point of no return.

Thankfully we made it to our B&B in one piece, and the snow did eventually stop. The following morning we set the alarm for 6 o’clock and were down one end of Llynnau Mymbryr all set up and waiting. It really didn’t look like anything was going to materialise, there was broken cloud, but it was all quite grey. Then as we were chatting we noticed the clouds behind us were starting to turn pink! We rushed back to our cameras, and then had the most amazing couple of hours photographing. For 10 minutes or so initially the whole sky was lit up pink with everything reflected perfectly on a very still lake.

Across Llynnau Mymbryr to Mount Snowdon

The light continued to change without losing any of its drama, and as the sun rose higher in the sky it lit up all the bracken to the right hand side of the lake. I was shooting Velvia at the time and it captured all the vibrant colours I remembered beautifully.

The sun lighting up the horseshoe rather nicely

Bracken, Mount Snowdon

I guess the one thing I took from all this was how sometimes good light follows bad weather. Not always the case of course, but never let it put you off!