My annual trip to see my favourite band The Alarm's musical weekend "The Gathering" brought the event back to Llandudno in North Wales after a few years at Pontin's Prestatyn. It was great to be back in a lovely seaside town I first visited on a school trip back in 1976. The view is from the far end of the pier and I captured pretty much the whole of the Victorian promenade in the top photo using the panoramic setting and joining the photos together.
I broke some rules taking the second picture. I climbed up a cliff which looks over the town and was struggling to keep the lens dry in the driving rain, and the intermittent rays of sunshine weren't helping either. I took the shot and I actually love the resulting reflection of the rain drops on the lens in the sunshine.
I used lo-key during editing of the photo below taken from the pier. I like the way the exposure has me looking from left to right or indeed from right to left. The reflection of the sun on the sea was a key ingredient of getting this photo to come out the way it did.
The Victorian promenade with all the hotels along it is almost timeless and apart from a lick of paint has probably changed very little over the years. This view was taken from the pier and by simply using a bit of zoom it appears that the photo has been taken from the sea itself.
Back on the cliff face and you get a great view of the pier. It is the 5th longest pier in England and Wales and having been extensively renovated over recent years it is looking in good health. It stretches out 700 metres into the sea and was opened in 1877, although it origins to a much smaller pier date back to 1858.
There are some stunning views looking beyond the town to Conway and the Snowdonia mountains. I shall be climbing Snowdon and raising funds for the Beating Bowel Cancer charity in September 2014.
I seem to have a thing about lampposts. There is a great lamppost you can see at the Sacre Coeur in Paris, which was my inspiration for this photo.
Finally a similar photo to the lo-key view earlier. This shot was also taken from the pier, but in this instance the lighting is totally natural and in fact I didn't even adjust the setting son the camera to reduce the exposure. It shows that editing and reliance on it is not always a necessity for a good photo.
