I didn’t expect that when I uploaded my previous photograph, of the Llyn Padarn tree, it’d be such a gap until my next published photograph. However sometimes that’s how it goes – an incredibly busy period in work, the weather and tides not quite playing ball and the usual struggle to take photographs you really believe in.

That said, I have been busy – I embraced, for the first time, a phone with a good camera – the LG G4. The old maxim, that the best camera is the one you have has proved true on a few occasions. Perhaps I’ll start a gallery of some of my mobile photography.

Anyway in the meantime, the above is a photograph I’m really happy with, taken this past weekend when it seemed I’d walk away with nothing. It was a reminder to myself that you have to keep going out, sometimes despite the conditions, as there’s always the possibility things will change. This was also taken photographing away from the sunset, one of my favourite tricks, leading to less harsh light in the sky and (though I didn’t use it here) often more pleasing colours.

Thanks to the weather and a few other factors it feels like it has been an age since I had a proper trip out to do some photography. So this weekend just past I was determined to get out and decided to have another crack at the famous tree in Llyn Padarn, Llanberis. I’ve been a few times but conditions haven’t worked in my favour. On the journey over on Sunday morning there was a bit of promise as a hint of colour started to appear as the sun was thinking of rising. On getting to the spot I met a couple of other photographers and settled into place to see what the weather would bring. Unfortunately, just as the sun would have started to appear it clouded over and also the previously still lake was now showing a little movement from a slight breeze that had picked up. In truth, I was probably the happiest person there, the conditions becoming ideal for the type of black and white photograph I’d originally planned for on the first (and subsequent trips). Managing to blag a better spot, I decided on a square format and the composition above and then gave a couple of different exposures a try. Unfortunately, the clouds also then brought drizzle and a number of spoiled efforts but thankfully amongst the first couple of frames I’d bagged the shot I wanted and this is what you see above.

The second of my photographs from a recent trip to Scotland where, along the way, we took in a visit to the Kelpies in Falkirk.

The first of the photographs can be found in this previous post

This photograph is actually four years old. I was flicking through my old photos and felt this had a feel to it that I failed to make the most of when I originally edited it. It is interesting to go back and look at photographs in this way and to see how you’ve developed and changed as an artist – sometimes not always for the better. I like how I saw this and the simplicity of it back then, something I’m guilty of perhaps over thinking today but my original crop and edit failed to provide the level of serenity that the scene deserved.

For the third year running I connected up with a number of friends from around Europe recently for a weekend ‘photo walk’. In past years we’ve been to Dorset and Ireland, this year we headed over to Scotland.

A little bit back to front, I decided to work on a photograph I took after the photo walk. My wife and I stayed in Scotland for a couple of days after the walk ended and on the last of those we took a detour via Falkirk to check out the ‘Wheel’ plus the Kelpies. The Kelpies were the thing I was most looking forward to seeing (after friends of course!) on the trip North and I wasn’t disappointed. I recently got into an discussion with someone about the value of public art with someone locally – their view being that it was all a great big waste of money. I doubt they’ve been to see the Kelpies – despite it being a Tuesday morning, there were numerous people there enjoying the sculptures and there was a general sense of peace and happiness around the area. What a dull world we’d live in without installations like this.