Llynnau Cregennen

Location

The Snowdonia National Park covers 840 square miles of mountains, forests, lakes and river valleys and takes its name from mount Snowdon, which at 1113m is the highest mountain in Wales and England.

All photographers will have locations they have visited many times with a vision in their mind that requires the light and weather to come together in order to make the image they think should be possible.

Llynnau Cregennen, in Southern Snowdonia, is one such place for me. I have spent many a dawn at this location and only twice has the light come right.

The first occasion was in August 2008. The summer months are not my favourite time to shoot inland and the mists I really wanted would not be present but I knew the rising sun would be in a good position. I had only one morning available so got up well before dawn. There were no stars to indicate that the early rise would be fruitful but with only one chance to get some shots I decided to take the 10-mile drive from where I was staying. Ten miles is nothing but even though this lake is very accessible by car it takes time to reach on a gated single-track route, requiring sheep dodging, as they like to sleep on the warm tarmac.

There are two lakes and approaching from Dolgellou I recommend ignoring the first smaller one initially BUT the waters are often stiller as it is more protected.

The larger lake gives more options to get wide views of Cadair Idris (892m) a horseshoe shaped mountain, there is a small island with pines, a standing stone, heather in late summer and a nice boathouse.

Parking is at a public car park (with toilets and maps of walks). You may immediately believe that an accessible and beautiful lake would mean you would be sharing the view with many others but I have rarely have seen others here at dawn and on this occasion I was on my own – bar the sheep.

It was when I was opening the sheep gate before the first lake that I realised that the weather was about to work some magic. Stars were appearing and disappearing at a rate of knots and an early glow in the sky indicated that there was a good low-level gap in the clouds with all the activity being at high altitude.

By the time I’d parked I knew I had to work quickly as the light show had started and all the energy was going to be in the sky as the water was being broken by the approaching storm. I prefer to approach a location with time to think, walk a bit and consider options but on this day it was a mad dash to the shore. After a few shots I knew I was wrongly positioned as was trapped by a fence preventing getting a composition that was right as this shows. Nice but not quite right.

I therefore changed my lens and tactics to get this image.

Whilst happy to have caught this sky with the island I went home knowing I would have to return as the image I truly wanted was about the location, the mountain that is not in the shot above and also I wanted a mist.

It was in May 2009 that I was next in this area. Staying in Arthog, which is a perfect location to reach the lakes (a shorter route but steeper and more gates but having my friend Dougie with me made the gates less of a problem – thanks Dougie!).

We had already spent one morning and an evening here on this trip and got these scenes taken when the light was good but the sky lacked atmosphere.

It was the second morning visit that everything came together. It is worth noting that nothing on the drive up had suggested that it was going to be a fruitful journey. The sky seemed too clear. It wasn’t especially still either but as we rounded the last turn we saw that the dip the lake is in was full of mist and clouds were hugging one peak. We had struck gold – we were in the right place and probably the only place in miles where the conditions were showing any drama.

The next hour was a delight. We struggled as the mist came and went causing condensation on lens and grads. The rising sun gave exposure challenges and lenses had to be changed to make the most of changing conditions.

The following images tell the story.

So, do I need to return? The answer is YES. I want to catch images with the heather. This was taken a few years ago but I want a tighter composition.

I want to see what the smaller lake has to offer in winter.

I want frost and snow and ice and autumn colours. I want pink mists. I want moon shots…….

Some places just draw you back again and again but even if the light fails and you go home with nothing in your camera just being there is a joy.

Claire

As a postscript we met a fellow photographer, Andrew Kime, at this lake one morning. He had had a nasty accident with his camera, but despite this tragedy he was kind enough to share his local knowledge with us. Subsequently I looked at his website and would like to share his excellent work with readers here.

Melanie: A couple of months ago I suggested to Claire that we have a weekend away in December, she came up with what turned out to be a fantastic suggestion: Anglesey, and to be more specific with an objective Llanddwyn Island. Not long after we had a couple more interested parties to join us.

As always, the problem with anywhere in Britain there is no guarantee of the weather. My heart was sinking as I left a snow covered Cumbria in the early hours of Friday morning to reach a sunrise point on the way. I’d seen many pictures of the Point of Ayr Lighthouse at Talacre and thought it would make a good stop on the journey and encourage me to leave home early. After days of perfect calm and frost at home I was greeted on arrival by a howling wind and spitting rain. I got some light but not the kind of light I was expecting:

Claire : What a shot Mel! Rainbows are your signature and I’d love to read a PTR review from you on them so I can get a few tips.

We hadn’t planned it but this weekend turned out to be one almost entirely devoted to lighthouses.

Melanie: Thanks Claire I will try to remember that. The rain well and truly came down as the rainbow got brighter and soon saw me back on the road. After a detour in Bangor to stock up on groceries I met up with one of our party at the parking area for Llanddwyn Island. The light promised little, but spurred on by my companion we headed to the beach and the walk along it to the island. The island itself is only an island at the highest tides but the wind that day was fierce and it was not without some concern that we crossed the sandy causeway, with waves rushing towards us from the west. I had studied the tide times, and was reassured by a guy in a Land Rover doing maintenance work that at most we might get cut off for 30 mins or so. We struck up a march to the end of the island but my companion stopped at the sight of a small herd of ponies I was ready to walk by. Not to be left out, I duly got the camera out of my bag and approached the ponies slowly. Only then did I realise I had on my widest angle lens, so had to creep in even further.

The glow of light that had stopped us here was brief, so we soon headed to the tip of the island to its beaches, cliffs, buildings and relics that give the place so much character. There was a stormy mood to the sky that drew us initially to a high vantage point taking in  St Dwynwen’s Cross and the lighthouse of Twr Mawr. This required heavy use of grads and underexposure. It was a spot I went back to after the sun had gone down and took advantage of a different angle.

In between the two shots we were joined by our two other companions and Misty the dog who was having a fine time exploring the place. (Please be aware that we were there in December, between May 1st and September 30th dogs are not allowed on the island or the beach, there are clear signs indicating this.) The clouds remained dramatic and the mood dark we set off in different directions and got busy with our cameras. It must have been close to another two hours before we had some fun trying to find our way back to the car park in the dark.

Claire : On Saturday morning we arrived at Newborough Warren in the dark, with stars in the sky. I was very glad that the others in the party had checked this site out the day before as it was a long walk through  dark woods, to avoid a hard walk through soft sand, before we reached Llanddwyn Island. The sky began to glow but it was obvious a good sunrise would elude us as it was far too clear. After wandering around a bit I settled down to doing what I like best – playing with the surf.

One of the reasons I had been interested in this location was the view one gets across the straits to the  Snowdonia Mountains (as seen in Mel’s atmospheric shot above) but without a decent sky it was a bit disappointing and until dawn broke there were too many lights from the towns spoiling the view. This therefore was a compromise.

As the day progressed I continued to find ways to exclude that sky. We must have been the only people in the UK complaining about the sun!

As Mel has said the island has lots of relics and interesting structures – these are the Pilot’s Cottages, one of which is now a museum.

Mel: After our visit the evening before I found the cloudless skies of the next morning something of a challenge. I wandered around, not seeing stuff with my favourite from the morning being one taken early and even then perhaps a little late as the colours in the sky were on the wane.

Mel: Somehow  everyone managed to spend at least another 3 hours or so there such is the amount of interest around the place. As we made our way back to the car park we happened on a number of camera clutching individuals and were thankful for our early start as we had the best light of the morning to ourselves.

Claire: So it was back to base, and lunch sat outside in the garden (December, Wales and lunch outside are words rarely seen together!) while we recharged our batteries and decided on the evening shoot. It was decided to explore the western coastline and we headed towards South Stack Lighthouse.

This proved a difficult location as the gate to the actual island that the lighthouse is on was closed and there wasn’t a great angle to exclude the sky. We sat it out hoping for a sunset to add some drama but it wasn’t to be. This is the best I could achieve but gives an idea of the location.

Melanie: I failed to get anything I was pleased with from here. Again it was the absence of cloud in the sky and I was concentrating too much on the setting sun to think about going in closer and keeping out the sky. I like the way Claire found this ‘cruciform’ composition.If you look close you can just see another of our group blancing on a rock closer to the lighthouse!

Claire: The following morning we woke well before dawn, defrosted the cars and arrived at Penmon Point (Angelsey east coast) as the sky was beginning to lighten. We were greeted by the sound of a tolling bell that told us the direction to walk to find Penmon Lighthouse. A small concrete path led us safely down to the shore. The next few hours found us totally absorbed as the sun rose, the tide fell and clouds came and went.

Melanie: I’d forgotten about the bell. The frost of the night before gave us clear skies once more, but arriving in the dark meant we could get in some long exposures. It was a little tricky finding a spot to stand having to negotiate the slithering, seaweed-covered rocks.

Claire: It took quite some time for the sun to climb high enough to strike the lighthouse due to the mountains on the Welsh mainland but it was a pleasure to stand and watch the changing light.

Melanie: As we watched and waited cloud started to drift in.  By the time the sun broke through we finally got some of the sky detail that we’d been missing for the previous 24 hours.

Claire: The small island is called Puffin Island. The Puffins bred in considerable numbers at one time, with up to 2,000 pairs recorded. The Brown Rat was introduced accidentally to the island, probably in the late 19th century, and reduced this population to a very few pairs. A programme of poisoning these rats started in 1998 by the Countryside Council for Wales appears to have eradicated them, and the Puffin population has shown an increase since that date.

Melanie: I think we spent another hour here after the sun broke through and sadly it was time to say our goodbyes. As we drove back along the road to Beaumaris, it was clear looking back that there was a lot more to that little area than we had realised in the dark. I think it is the only UK trip I’ve been on when I’ve been without the appropriate OS map, I won’t do that again.

Conclusion

Melanie: For a short break I felt this was a very worthwhile trip. It was not as far from home as I had expected, our accommodation was good value for money. Llanddwyn was a real gem but it was clear the area had a lot more to offer than we had time to see.