Diary of a Landscape Photographer | Entry 3

Well, I really don’t think I could have asked for a better first month in my new career as a professional landscape photographer. At the date of writing, I’ve managed to get out into my local area an incredible thirteen out of twenty eight days with my camera so far. Eight of those have been spent in the grounds of the magnificent Powis Castle with the wonderful woodland making for a new favourite subject of mine. I’ve had a great time finding interesting compositions of the winter trees. They have really allowed me to use an imagination that’s been heavily influenced by the likes of Game of Thrones and, especially, Lord of the Rings while growing up. My Nan made me realise that. She recently questioned whether I saw deeper meanings or stories within my photographs as I showed her my work, before proceeding to tell me some of the things that she could see as she looked through. Since then, I’ve made a conscious effort to think outside of the box when out in the landscape, looking for and composing my photographs.

I have been treated to some absolutely superb conditions for landscape photography, as you’ll see when you scroll down. To think that I would have missed out on nearly all of these photographs, had I still been working in the office for ten hours a day, missing the best light at sunrise and sunset, really confirms that I made the correct decision in risking everything to make a career out of landscape photography. Of course, it’s not been all plain sailing. There have been a couple of days where some self doubt has crept in. I’ve asked myself a few times if I’m sure that I have made the right decision. I think that was to be expected having been in full time employment since I left Aberystwyth University ten years ago. I have sometimes found myself sitting and scratching my head thinking, ‘arghh, I should be doing something right now.’ But then I quickly realise that there is no one to impress or hide from anymore. There are no more ‘quick, look busy’ moments as I fail in evading the supermarket management while I try to take a quick five minute break to swipe through social media.

That’s the beauty of my life now. I have nobody to answer too but myself. Of course, that means that I must be disciplined with my approach to every day now. With a 6.30 alarm and absolutely no exceptions, I’m straight into my journal to write and plan. No more lying in bed until 7.05, scrolling through social media trying to hide from the fact that I have to go and spend my day in a place where I don’t want to be. No more waking up on Monday morning wishing for Friday evening. I have to take responsibility of my life again. Because this life of mine, literally depends on it.

If the weather is good, which it has been more often than not, I quickly throw on some warm clothes, boil the kettle, fill up the flask with some coffee, swing my rucksack over my shoulder and then I’m out of the door with the big wide world in my sights. Ok, not just yet but I do only have a three or four mile radius in my sights for now. Not that I am complaining about that, of course. It’s a small radius that I’ve discovered is filled with natural beauty and hasn’t stopped me capturing some of my favourite ever photographs.

I’ll start with the following series of photographs from the grounds of Powis Castle, which isn’t short of colourful, grand and very interesting trees and woodland. It wasn’t so long ago that I was questioning just what it is that woodland photographers see when they compose their photographs. Here is what I have managed to come up with:


Powis Castle - A Winter Wonderland

Royalty

I was particularly attracted to these beautiful colours that were enhanced by the first hoar frost of the year. They reminded me of a garment that you might see King Henry VIII wearing. This one capped off a superb morning of landscape photography in the grounds of Powis Castle at the beginning of the month.

Royalty is available to buy in my collection of ‘woodland’ fine art prints.

Ocean of Red

One of my more frequent stops is this area of woodland that protects one of the ponds at Powis Castle: Llyn Du, where this line of red reminds me of the sea. This section of trees doesn’t appear to have found its’ way there by force of nature but rather by the careful selection and planting by humans. I’ve made it a little bit of a mission to do some investigating regarding the history of the castle grounds.

Ocean of Red is available to buy in my collection of ‘woodland fine art prints’

The Orchestra

A group of trees that I captured at long distance through the falling snowfall. A slight reduction in shutter speed was perfect here, giving a really pleasing amount of movement in the snow.

This is up there among my favourites since I picked up a camera. I feel like it has everything that a good photograph needs; storyline, action, composition and an emotional response from the viewer (I hope!).

Frozen

An image that I’m most happy with from a very special morning in Powis Castle’s grounds. After watching everybody else across the country enjoying their time out in the snow through Instagram, it was finally my turn. A couple of inches had fallen overnight and I was out of the door at 7.45, meaning that I managed to capture a few photographs while everything still looked a little blue in colour ‘ including these fantastic trees.

I named this one ‘frozen’ for obvious reasons and I can’t wait to see it in print.

More of those frozen trees that look so beautiful after a very cold night here in Mid Wales.

The Enchanted Woodland

I’ve been drawn to this scene since I started adventuring around the grounds of Powis Castle, it is also the section of trees that inspired ‘Royalty’. There is something about the beautiful colours here that I find so pleasing to just stand and admire. What also drew me on this particular morning was that dominant tree that appears in the foreground as though it’s the woodlands’ guardian leading some kind of dance through that morning mist. Put a piece of classical music on and you might just see what I mean. I recommend ‘Bluebird’ by Alexis French.

The Enchanted Woodland is available to buy in my collection of ‘woodland fine art prints’

This was a particular favourite composition from my first month of photography. I’m yet to think of a name for it up to now and it’s been bugging me for over a week.

What really fascinated me was the relationship between the two trees, the giant sequoia appearing to be teaching this spritely young one a lesson or two about life. That seems to be a bit of a trend with some of my writings recently. Maybe it is me that needs the lessons as I head into unknown territory with this new journey that I’m embarking on.

Mid Wales sure does look beautiful in the snow, don’t you think? These following trees all drew my attention for various reasons. At times, I was literally running around the landscape to find some angles that would give my photos some context. Probably drew some funny reactions from passers by but I was in my own world and had no idea what was going on outside of photography mode.

Belan Lock & The Montgomery Canal

My second local escape that I have utilised once again throughout this lockdown is the beautiful Montgomery Canal, specifically the short two mile route to Belan Lock from Welshpool. Not only is this one of the more picturesque walks in my area, you’ll also be treated to an abundance of wildlife and who knows, you might even make good friends with a robin like I appear to have recently. Anyone following along on my social media platforms will have seen some daily videos of my encounters with this little guy:

Red-breasted robin on a snow covered branch along the Montgomery Canal. This little guy has joined me three times while I’ve been by the locks. On one of the mornings, I was taking some photos of the seasons first snowdrops and it came right up to peck at the snow around my knees.

I don’t think that you can ever see enough photos of robins, so here are nine more for you to enjoy.

For anyone interested, I have made a few available for prints and canvases in the store.

Snowfall on bridge number 121 along the Montgomery canal which you might recognise as it’s situated between the two locks at Belan. In the background, the sun rises over the long mountain.

A snow-capped long mountain here in Mid Wales.

A snow-capped long mountain here in Mid Wales.

The family of swans that I have been following for almost a year now. Any moment in the near future, the cygnets will have to fly the nest and fend for themselves as Mum (pen) and Dad (cob) prepare a new nesting site for this year.

A small gallery of the snowdrop photographs that I have managed to collect so far from near Belan Locks this year. It won’t be long now and I’ll be on the hunt for some beautiful bluebell woodland as spring really bursts into life. As much as I enjoy trying to stay here and now in the present moment, I sometimes get caught thinking of the beautiful things that are to come in the future.

A delicate snowdrop in the soft morning light and sprinkle of snow.

So there you have it, very briefly, a summary of everything that I have been doing over the last month. I’m really looking forward to February, I have some exciting things happening.

  • A small selection of products to be stocked in Alexander’s of Welshpool.

  • The first of two business workshops that I’m attending.

  • Hopefully, some more beautiful weather conditions so that I can find some more interesting photographs of and around Welshpool.

If you haven’t already, I’ll encourage you to sign up to my newsletter so that I can bombard you with email after email. Just kidding, I’m planning to send out a bi-weekly email with updates on any events and workshops that I have planned as we (fingers crossed) move out of lockdown in the future. It will also be the place where I can update you with new prints and any future book releases (yes, I’m planning to write and release a book or two).

You can sign up at the bottom of the page.

As I always do, I just want to say a massive thank you for being interested in the work I do and the life that I have chosen to live. It really does mean the world to me. It’s extremely humbling to have grown the social media presence that I have so far and something tells me that this is only just the beginning.

Brad.