The Best of 2021: A Year of Photography

There is no doubt that 2021 will go down in history in my life as a landscape photographer. I walked innocently into some of Wales’ most beautiful and ancient woodlands, yielding my Stanley flask filled with coffee, the Lord of the Rings trilogy and my Canon 5D IV. As I closed The Fellowship of the Ring for the last time, mounted my flask back into the side pocket of my bag and withdrew my camera, my hands rose to the heavens as beams of soft, golden light shone down on me through the canopy. It was an enlightening moment in my photography journey so far.

Mid Wales

1. WINTER WOODLAND, POWIS CASTLE, WELSHPOOL

Local lockdown (again) forced me to look deeper in to my home land for photos once again, as I could no longer travel out to my favourite National Park; Snowdonia. What followed, was a project that probably played the biggest role so far in changing and evolving the way that I do photography. The following is from a short article that I wrote for the Welsh Country Magazine which went alongside some of my photographs from the area that I call home:

‘How a recent conversation with my Nan may have changed the way I do photography.

As much as I love spending my time photographing some of the well-known beauty spots here in Wales, I have been finding a great deal of happiness looking for photographs that are completely unique while outdoors in nature.

I was challenged by my Nan recently (it didn’t get physical, don’t worry) as I showed her some of my travel photographs from Scotland. She was not drawn to the photographs because of their pretty colours or recognisable landmarks or pleasing compositions, as I usually am. Instead, she drew attention to some of the things that she saw within each photograph that were personal to her. My Nan saw faces where I saw rocks. She talked of stories and memories of her past which I found quite beautiful.

This got me thinking about the photographs that I have been taking over the past couple of years or so and inspired me to use my own imagination a little more when I have a camera in my hand outdoors in the landscape. I feel like the modern world has a way of taking this child-like way of thinking away from us. We are perhaps encouraged to think more practically instead of imaginatively – something that I am working hard on to rediscover.

I never thought I would be the man to stand alone in a field in the middle of the snowfall, pointing my camera at a tree but hey, life can throw curveballs every now and then. There I was, in the grounds of Powis Castle and on the hills that surround my home here in Welshpool capturing this series of winter woodland photographs that, I feel, hold some great stories within them.

All of the following photographs were taken in the grounds of Powis Castle, Welshpool unless stated otherwise.’

The following tree caught my watchful eye as I took a hike onto The Golfa hill which stands between Welshpool and Llanfair Caereinion. In my mind, this tree was breaking rank and escaping order and it reminded me very much of myself as I made my escape from the rat race and typical 9-5 office job, or 7.30-5.30 in my case which meant that I missed every single sunrise and sunset during the winter months and in place of those, I was treated to views of a computer screen and mind-numbing spreadsheets. At times, it felt like I was a child staring longingly out of the window for play time.

There is some potential for more photography on this hill and surrounding areas, with plenty of lone-standing trees and rolling, gentle hills that make for a picturesque backdrop, as shown in the photograph below.

I couldn’t believe my luck when I reached the summit of The Golfa and this snow-covered path left me with the perfect leading line into the distant rolling hills of Mid Wales and Shropshire. In my opinion, it’s one of the best photographs that I have captured of my homeland, timed perfectly as the last of the light sweeps across the tops of these winter trees and kisses the hills. The farthest hill to the right is Cornden Hill wearing its’ winter coat. I summited Cornden just a few weeks later for my first photo trip out into the famous Shropshire Hills. Probably a trip I wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for the lockdown measures in place here in Wales. Not a part of this series, but I will share the image below as I think it is a keeper from a special year of photography.

2. BLUEBELL SEASON, MID WALES

I just couldn’t resist heading outdoors during the spring months to photograph every UK photographers favourite wildflower; the bluebell. Hayfever aside, I absolutely love spring after a very long and dark winter. This year I really knuckled down and extensively scouted a couple of areas of beautiful and elegant beech and oak woodland here in Mid Wales.

My reward? Two of the best photographs from the year, both very different in styles. The first, a high contrast photograph that’s full of emotion and concentrates on that soft, golden glow of delicate sunlight and deep, dark shadows. The second, a soft, painterly, transient photograph that focuses on composition and a blend of perfectly complimentary colours. The blue/ indigo and lime green/ yellow are complete opposites on the colour wheel and the splash of brown/ orange on the fallen branch helps to amalgamate them flawlessly.

Twenty minutes: the time it took me to tiptoe my way through the beautiful bluebells to make this photograph possible.

Bluebells as far as the eye can see. I wanted to shoot something a little different to the kinds of bluebell images that I had seen plastered across social media and this scene became apparent when I’d perched up against one of my favourite great oaks to read a book and clocked a young fawn hopping through the bluebells in the distance. Sadly, the fawn was obviously camera-shy and never returned to add a touch more magic to this composition but, as stated above, I think the colours in this photograph hold enough of that on their own.

3. THE GREAT OAKS, POWYS, MID WALES

As you can probably tell by the colours in the first image, this photograph was created in the early autumn of this year and I had to wait patiently for it. The beam of delicious, golden light burning through the delicate morning for seemed fitting to illustrate the introductory paragraph describing the enlightening moment when I discovered a love for woodland photography.

I eventually went on the hunt for this specific beautiful old oak woodland here in Mid Wales after many conversations with my ex boss, who couldn’t stop singing the praises of his favourite location. A first visit to this area in the early spring months led to the ultimate disappointment as I didn’t manage to find the woodland in which these elegant trees reside. Instead, I spent hours wandering around some boring and very mucky farmland thinking about how the journey over here was a complete waste of time. This ‘failed’ visit served as another reminder for me that no trip outdoors is a wasted one just a few weeks later when I went searching once again and wandered into this forgotten land with feelings of complete wonder on a glorious summers evening; think of Sam & Pippin entering Fangorn Forest…

Fast forward a couple more months, after many mornings, a lot of words from J.R.R Tolkien and gallons of coffee, this morning was my reward for my efforts and zen-like meditation beneath these fantastic oak trees. I had scouted this scene weeks before and had progressed to photographing it at intervals over the following visits to document changes within a woodland throughout the year. It was obvious after a few visits that a panorama was going to be needed to really get the best out of it, as there were a host of trees I wanted to include within the photograph.

Weeks and weeks of practicing, nights spent observing weather forecasts, and making minor adjustments to fine-tune the composition and finally I got my shot. I’d have been happy if this was the only image that I gathered from the morning but it was when I looked within the scene, that my jaw hit the floor and I managed to capture two other very special photographs in this series.

The photograph:

The photograph within the photograph:

The photograph within the photograph that was within the photograph:

Snowdonia National Park

You didn’t think I could leave it out did you? The place where this whole dream was born produced some mind-blowing conditions for me this year and some of the resulting photographs will live on in my memories and portfolio for a very long time. I didn’t manage to make as many trips as I would have liked to, mainly because fuel gets expensive when you’re paying for it all yourself and not using a company car! Plus, of course, I found solace in some of the woodland that is close to home and realised that I don’t need to travel an hour and a half every time I wanted to take a photograph. This only comes through evolving as a photographer, however, and I think that travelling to some popular spots to take the ‘obvious’ photographs is essential as you go through your learning process. For me, I became very frustrated as I observed myself struggling to think too far outside of the box. I desired to be somewhat original and I believe that some of the following photographs are very much that. I’m sure that I’ll look back at this series of images one day and say ‘yeah, those are the ones that made me and helped to form my vision’.

I managed to find some beautiful hidden corners of Snowdonia thanks to a recommendation from a follower on Instagram (thanks, Elen!) who told me that the Trefriw area and the Gwydir Forest was a treasure island waiting to be explored. I finally left my comfort zone of the Ogwen Valley and plotted an 8 mile hike through the Gwydir forest and around Llyn Geirionydd. The lake itself was a haven for tourists and paddle boarders in the summer but they seemed put off by the cold weather that followed and I’ve enjoyed my visits there in recent months. Some of the surrounding areas are truly special, however, and this is where I created these photographs.

4. OUT OF THE MORNING MIST

Some of these photographs will be featuring in Outdoor Photography magazine in late January as I have written an article containing some of the best photography locations in Snowdonia. The first photograph is one that I can’t think of a name for just yet. It just screams ‘WILDERNESS’ and means an awful lot to myself in what has been a tough first year freelancing and year in general in fact, as I couldn’t help but pay attention to some of the things that have been going on in this world. My visits to this lake grounded me, reminded me of what’s important in life and provided something of a safe haven from lots of things that I can only describe as nonsense.

5. A TIMELESS WELSH WOODLAND SCENE - ‘EDEN’ & OTHERS

This is a scene that I’ll be returning to time and time and time again. There isn’t a trace of human here and it feels like something of a sanctuary in this modern, forever evolving and increasingly digital world. I’ve never felt more at peace anywhere than I do in here. I would say that this woodland probably looked very similar a couple of hundred years ago. Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to document some of the minor changes over my own lifetime. I have had a little dream to photograph it every morning through the course of a year and create a time-lapse of the seasonal changes. At the moment, I’m managing one photograph every few weeks and here is the series of images that I have been able to produce so far.

There is one photo of the scene that I just can’t stop imagining; a cold, frosty and foggy late autumn morning with a delicate sprinkling of snow on the branches and golden light burning through the fog behind the ancient silver birch trees. It might take me a lifetime, but I’m determined to capture it. Maybe this is why people get into painting instead!

6. SNOWDONIAS’ MOUNTAINS

It’s not been a year of great heights, physically speaking. I can count the number of mountains summited on one hand, instead I’ve preferred to spend my year amongst the trees and enjoying the views of mountains from lower ground. The views from the tops of mountains are wonderful of course and I follow some great photographers that tell their own stories from the summits but the challenge of engaging an audiences imagination is what interested me this year and I hoped to invoke feelings of awe and wonder in my viewers. Here are two of the standout mountain photographs from 2021 from low ground and one different view of the infamous Tryfan from a rare hike up to some higher ground.

7. MYSTICAL MORNING IN THE BLACK MOUNTAINS, SOUTH WALES

Beautiful. Magical. Mystical. Enchanting are just some of the words that I use to describe a special day in the Black Mountain region of South Wales. Situated just on the periphery of the Brecon Beacons, it’s an area that I very rarely venture to. That will be changing in the future. This trip pretty much rounded off 2021 and what a way to do so!

I had only visited the woodland once previously and that was two weeks earlier where I finally met up with a fellow photographer @nutsnath after many conversations about photography and life online. We cooked sausages, egg and mushrooms on my portable stove, hiked through some of these gnarly and twisted oak trees, silver birch and beeches to summit Sugarloaf on which we were battered by a snowstorm, 40+mph winds and rain for what was a memorable adventure.

Photo-wise, that trip didn’t produce many rewards for myself but it gave me a glimpse of what this magnificent area had to offer. Only when I returned two weeks later, after keeping an eye on the weather forecast avidly, did the woodland bear it fruits. I blasted some music and made the hour and a half drive south, through patches of heavy fog. With the full moon escorting me, I just had the feeling that everything was aligning for me. It almost felt as though my whole year spent practicing woodland photography had equipped me with the skills to make the most of this one day on which the fog just didn’t seem to go away. Maybe this was my final reward for a year of hard work, patience, persistency and consistency…

As I explored the first area of woodland during the initial hour of the morning, I noticed that there was very little potential for photos as most of the more interesting trees were higher up the hill. The fog was staying low in this part of the valley and my intuition told me to make a move over to the other side of the valley. I’ll say one thing on this… Always trust your gut!

After the short drive, I tightened up my walking boots, climbed a small hill and, finally, waded into some thick fog which lifted occasionally and very briefly while I gathered myself, only for it to drift back in over the rolling hills to engulf me and the trees once again.

The sun circled in its’ low, winter arc and its’ golden rays were diffused by the fog to produce this gorgeous, ethereal light. It was a photographers dream day and I’m not sure I’ll have many better ones for quite some time.

Each and every woodland holds a story of its' own if you allow your imagination to wander off. I spent a while with this congregation of beeches which appeared to me like a scene from Game of Thrones!