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  • Looking towards the Carneddau range of mountains (over 3000ft) in Snowdonia, Wales. There was a dramatic light from low afternoon winter sunlight illuminating the mountainsides under gentle clouds above. The steep cliffs drop down to the highly glaciated Nant Ffrancon pass below. The foreground mountain is Carnedd Dafydd and the more rounded peak behind is Carnedd Llewelyn.
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  • The peak of Yr Elen in the Carneddau range, Snowdonia, covered in shadows of passing cumulus clouds.
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  • A warm but dreary Autumn day in the Carneddau hills of Snowdonia, looking towards Y Braich from Carnedd Llewelyn. The reservoir Ffynnon Llugwy reflects some of the low light of the afternoon
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  • Last blast of evening sunlight over a stormy winter mountainscape in the Carneddau range, Snowdonia, Wales.  Spindrift blows off the ridge between Carnedd Dafydd and Carnedd Llewelyn.
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  • Pen yr Helgi Du is a mountain peak in the eastern part of the Carneddau in Snowdonia, North Wales. It lies on the south-eastern flanks of Carnedd Llewelyn,<br />
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Sheets of torrential rain swept across these ancient Welsh hills after a beautiful, sunlit morning on the summits.
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  • I think most of my family, friends & followers of my work have seen how far I’ve been sinking since lockdown started back in Africa in March. I haven’t coped that well with losing access to one of the main cures for my darkness, getting out into the landscape & nature. It’s been a real battle internally and I felt I was losing a grip on what life was about, so many waves of loss, fear and entrapment. <br />
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So with the latest minimal change to Welsh lockdown rules, and the ability to drive five miles to meet friends or get exercise, it’s been euphoric for me. My first walk up a small hill, just to be in the mountains again, was as if it was my first time! My heart literally was pounding with excitement and I found myself grinning constantly as I ascended the hill. I found it remarkable to just watch my feet in their walking shoes, taking steps up rocks and grass covered slopes. The wind was cold and I’d delayed the start of the walk to allow a heavy hail shower to pass over, but when the June sunshine appeared it bathed me in warmth and joy. <br />
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From the summit I was able to see all the major peaks, the Carneddau, Tryfan, the Glyderau, Yr Wyddfa, Garnedd Elidir, and even Yr Eifel on the Llyn. A couple passed me on their way down and after an awkward, socially distanced acknowledgement as is the way these days, I saw no one for the rest of the time in the hills. It was the sort of solitude I yearn for, the solitude of choice not the solitude of jail.   <br />
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Shortly before another heavy hail shower, which lasted almost half an hour, I found myself enchanted by the morphing dark clouds over the Carneddau, even their ominous depth seemed magical and awesome. Quite suddenly an intense beam of warm sunshine split the sombre scene and caressed its way up and over Foel Meirch until it ticked the shrouded summit of Carnedd Dafydd. It was my perfect light, theatrical and dramatic, a play with no characters, just backdrops. <br />
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I sat on the summit, alone and happy in my own thou
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  • The 3000+ foot peaks of the Carneddau, Pen yr Ole Wen, Carnedd Dafydd and Carnedd Llewelyn in the far distance, as seen from Eldir Fawr in winter.
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  • Looking towards the Carneddau range of mountains (over 3000ft) in Snowdonia, Wales. There was a dramatic light from low afternoon winter sunlight illuminating the mountainsides under gentle clouds above. The steep cliffs drop down to the highly glaciated Nant Ffrancon pass below. The foreground mountain is Carnedd Dafydd and the more rounded peak behind is Carnedd Llewelyn.
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  • Standing on a buttress high above Cwm Llachar in the Carneddau mountains of Snowdonia, even the patches of sunshine brought little relief from the bitter cold. The ascent to the dark cloud-shackled summit of Carnedd Dafydd was steep, ominous and icy, so in failing evening light we drank a last hot coffee and began our descent in gathering cold dusk
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  • The pointed peak of Pen yr Ole Wen, the first peak of the Carneddau range in Snowdonia, in evening sunlight, reflected in a slow moving, dark, river pool, flowing out of Cwm Idwal hanging valley down to the Ogwen Falls and the Nant Ffrancon pass .
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  • An icy cold but beautiful day in the snowy mountains of the lower Carneddau. The walk which we planned to finish in 5 hours had to be shortened drastically as thick snowdrifts made progress unbelievably slow. We cut out two peaks just below the summits, to save time, but still ended up on dangerous unconsolidated snow which hid treacherous ankle snapping sinks into streams below, as we headed down into the Aber valley in near darkness. Lessons to be learned for sure.
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  • View south over the misty Carneddau mountains and Mynydd Du, over to Elidir Fawr and finally the pointed summit of Snowdon in the far distance.
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  • Evening sunlight over 'Gyrn' and Moel Wnion in the lower Carneddau mountains.
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  • View south over the misty Carneddau mountains and Mynydd Du, over to Elidir Fawr and finally the pointed summit of Snowdon in the far distance.
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  • An icy cold but beautiful day in the snowy mountains of the lower Carneddau. The walk which we planned to finish in 5 hours had to be shortened drastically as thick snowdrifts made progress unbelievably slow. We cut out two peaks just below the summits, to save time, but still ended up on dangerous unconsolidated snow which hid treacherous ankle snapping sinks into streams below, as we headed down into the Aber valley in near darkness. Lessons to be learned for sure.
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  • Slopes of the Carneddau mountains in Snowdonia, Wales, in winter, covered in snow, ice, sunlight and shadows from clouds above.
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  • This beautiful lake sitting high up in Cwmffynnon in the Carneddau mountains of Snowdonia, North Wales, looks totally natural, but has in fact had a small dam added and is now a reservoir, serviced by a narrow access lane up the hillside.
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  • Evening sunlight over 'Gyrn’ in the Carneddau mountains of Snowdonia, Wales.
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  • Sunshine burning through huge masses of low hill cloud swirling over the Welsh Carneddau mountains of Northern Snowdonia and lake Llyn Ffynnon Llugwy below. Taken from Y Braich mountain
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  • In the darkest of times, needles of sunlight pierce blankets of blue winter, illuminating theatrical interplays on the earth below. Tiny little figures show the enormous scale of this mountainous stage,. You don't see these wondrous moments until they are floodlit by the universe above.
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  • A clear blue sky morning gave itself up to banks of cloud rapidly scudding across the mountain tops of Eryri, thankfully backlit by the warmest coloured sunshine you could imagine, a contrast to the cold wind and sea.
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  • Garnedd Elidir & the Carneddau<br />
UNESCO World Heritage Site <br />
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Watching an Attenborough documentary as I write this, and it's clear that the damage we cause is everywhere and it's increasing. It's so much easier to focus on the beauty, to pretend everything is OK, but we are such a destructive, consuming species. <br />
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I was thinking too, about the mental damage going on through lockdown, in so many ways, but for many, through wrongly being denied access to nature and what healing power it has left to give us. So many of us have chosen to live a much more economically challenged life to be closer to nature and landscape, for me at least because being out in nature is the only true means of me maintaining spiritual and mental balance. The governments say they are doing this to keep people safe, but the mental damage they are causing is considerable and very real. I don't think there has been much wisdom or foresight applied by those in suits, to how to keep people safe mentally without any undue risks to health in other ways. This damage is real for me, and will last my lifetime. There was zero need to ban so many sensible and regular outdoor folk from doing their covid safe activities, it was easier for ministers to make blanket rules but to the detriment of many people's well-being.
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  • This beautiful lake sitting high up in Cwmffynnon in the Carneddau mountains of Snowdonia, North Wales, looks totally natural, but has in fact had a small dam added and is now a reservoir, serviced by a narrow access lane up the hillside.
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  • I love the way the virgin snow of the drift seems to funnel upwards like an ice cream cone before exploding outwards across the sky in a 180º spread. <br />
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It was an icy cold but beautiful day in the snowy mountains of the lower Carneddau. The walk which we planned to finish in 5 hours, had to be shortened drastically as thick snowdrifts made progress unbelievably slow. We cut out two peaks and walked just below the summits to save time but we still ended up on dangerous unconsolidated snow, hiding treacherous ankle-snapping drops into streams below. We finally arrived in near darkness at the Aber valley far below, in pain and having learned lessons for sure.
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  • A throw of darkness covered the Welsh hills whilst wisps of pale clouds swirled and writhed below. Bitter winds whistled across the slopes and summit castellations. I huddled behind an airy dry-stone walls whilst hail pounded my shoulders for almost half an hour, chilling me until my hands went white.<br />
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After such an elemental bombardment I should have been miserable but I wasn't. I felt more alone than in a long time, and as I stared at the grass around my boots I became aware of a warm illumination. I looked up at the hills beyond where wide beams of sunlight gently caressing their surface, burning away the darkness and mist, revealing a myriad of details on this earth's ancient skin.<br />
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Knowing the mountains were near empty, made nature seem even more humbling, more magnificent, more wild, perhaps the best it's ever looked, or so it seemed in my own emotionally pulsing headspace.
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  • Sunset washed billowing clouds race across the snowy faces of the majestic Snowdonia mountain range in North Wales, belying the bitter cold conditions on the summits under the warm light
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  • I was the last on the hill, and the sun disappeared behind a huge bank of cloud, dulling the light completely. I watched a snowboarder carve his way down the soft snowy hillside away from me, quietly feeling the isolation, when a gentle hint of colour appeared over Snowdon. I stood for a few minutes, now completely alone, and then the light intensified and the whole landscape was bathed in the most glorious colours. The summit of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) appeared after two hours of waiting, so I trudged back up through thick snow to the summit of my own little hill and became quite ecstatic about everything that was happening. I was smiling from ear to ear, not even knowing where to look as it was all so beautiful, and then tears started rolling down my cheeks and I began to cry! I believe it was both the spiritual and mental joy of the situation but also an intense feeling of peace and freedom that many of us deeply crave to keep our sanity.
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  • Just the momentary interplay of light and shadow when a huge hole appears in the middle distance. With the impressive surge pool in the bottom left of this image, it's an illusion of one-upmanship in this stunning wintry mountainscape.
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  • Yr Elen looking magnificent and imposing in the winter vapours. In the summer it’s just an interesting bump preceding the bigger summit of Carnedd Llewelyn behind, but in these conditions it looked like a sunlit stairway to a snowy heaven. <br />
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Over the last few years I have consciously avoided the snow, and hated the idea of going into cold, knackering snow blanketed mountains, but this year I’ve thoroughly enjoyed safe ventures into the low foothills from where I can observe the big peaks. This looks positively alpine but I was only on a low hill, zooming in on the bigger peaks with my telephoto lenses. It was a sense of being a part of it all without facing any real danger. I think next winter, post pandemic, I will be grabbing a mountaineering buddy and heading into the bigger peaks, that’s for sure.
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  • Welsh mountain sheep pens lie desolate in the bitter winds and snow and there was silence all around save for the wind through the cold stone walls. In the summer there is no such solitude, and the sounds of the sheep return with the sounds of walkers.
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  • Huge slabs of rock just underneath the grass and peat inclined steeply. A fast flowing stream cuts down into the joint as it tumbles down towards the wide glaciated Ogwen in the distance. Heavy rain clouds hang over some of Snowdonia's highest peaks.
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  • Available as unlimited A3 & A4 prints only<br />
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Bangor Pier and the Nant Ffrancon Valley as seen from Anglesey
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  • Welsh mountain sheep pens lie desolate in the bitter winds and snow and there was silence all around save for the wind through the cold stone walls. In the summer there is no such solitude, and the sounds of the sheep return with the sounds of walkers.
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  • Glimpses of sunshine across successive hillsides in the heart of Snowdonia.
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  • A long shot of Moel Wnion after sunset, taken from Anglesey. I’ve always been fascinated by the wonderful rounded profile of this mountain, and in this soft, subdued colourful light, the scene looked like a geometric painting.
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  • In this modern period of climate catastrophe it's so worrying just how fast weather conditions vary. If we get any snow at all it comes and goes in a matter of days. Although still 'cold' water, the sea temperatures are unseasonably warm, and the winds and gales seem relentless.  <br />
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And yet, to keep my mind sane, I have to imagine that whatever I see happening in the hills and sea, is just normal. I see snow and pretend I can't see climate change. I see no snow, and pretend I can't see climate change, for whatever the awful situation on our planet, I still see the weather, I still see nature, I still see the incredible landscapes and the wonderful sea. I have to keep pretending that everything is OK.
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  • Another momentary wonder of light and land, as Carnedd Dafydd captures a rare sunbeam during a dreary, damp evening. Standing on the bank of the Afon Menai was beautiful for it’s sounds, tiny waves slapping pebbles on the shoreline; two Oystercatchers pile-driving the shell-strewn mudflats for rich food on the outgoing tide, and a Curlew calling as it skimmed the sea surface towards Y Felinheli but the light, was dull as dishwater. I was about o head back fro the van when a glimmer of light appeared over the Eryri hills, and within a few seconds a huge beam of sunlight scanned the peaks, illuminating the details and textures with such clarity. I shot just five frames before the sun disappeared completely and drops of rain touched my face.
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  • A peaty hill top pool and the small peak of Gyrn in the background, in low cloud and hill fog, as seen from the saddle of Moel Wnion, Snowdonia, North Wales,
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  • A simple shot of Bangor Pier taken as the thick fog banks from a temperature inversion cleared in the warm morning sunshine. It was strange to see the Snowdonia mountains appear first, and then slowly but surely Bangor Pier and the Menai Strait, until finally the fog disappeared altogether.
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  • Welsh mountain sheep pens lie desolate in the bitter winds and snow and there was silence all around save for the wind through the cold stone walls. In the summer there is no such solitude, and the sounds of the sheep return with the sounds of walkers.
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  • Gentle late morning sunshine dappled across the ancient & eroded Welsh mountains of the Carneddau. I love the way these huge geological structures of solid rock become smoothed, rounded & softened by the elements & the growth of nature
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  • The sun lies, there was NO warmth up here, just a severe and bitterly cold wind blowing from the East over the Carneddau. Slices of sunshine simply skimmed right off the snow surface and was lost in the air. The only compromise was the perfectly rounded and deeply satisfying contour of Moel Wnion in the sunlit distance.
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  • An isolated large cloud passed over a cloudless blue sky and darkened all the hill tops of the Carneddau in the distance, but intense sunlight continued to blast the 1000ft cliffs just ahead of me, beautiful and natural tonality
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  • A face screams from the side of Carnedd Dafydd as sunlight creeps over the top of a higher col. This high mountain river here in Cwm Llachar runs down to the town of Bethesda before exiting at the Menai Strait near Bangor.
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  • In one giant brushstroke of glorious sunset, the Carneddau foothills were revealed as only a painter could imagine them.
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