My first trip in April really was a continuation of the trip I ended within March, where I set off to find a lake but failed to do so. For two days I had been hiking among the Arenig Mountain range to discover (well not really) Llyn Arenig Fawr without finding a trace of the elusive lake. So at the beginning of April and headed out again this time armed with a photo of the google map so that I knew exactly where to leave the road and head for the hills, so to speak. The minute I left the road I was rewarded with some amazing views, although I was sure that I had taken to long with my breakfast and that I would totally miss the forthcoming sunrise and consequently the magical colours that was promising to develop. I hastened my steps but as I was getting more and more sure I would miss the spectacle I decided to stop my by then increasing jog to at least record and photograph from where I stood the magic that unfolded. I found a couple of rocks just to give some foreground interest to balance the incredible vista in front of me.
I still had some colour left in the sky when I first sighted the lake but I knew I had missed the sunrise I wanted to photograph across Llyn Arenig Fawr. I was disappointed and upset with myself for not leaving the camper van earlier and maybe even skipping breakfast altogether. But I had made my choice and I just had to resign myself to getting what nature was willing to give me at that particular moment.
I carried on walking till I reached the lake and having found a crossing over the overflow river I carried on upwards, not so much with the aim of actually climbing Arenig Fawr but to be able to get a different framing of the lake. It was difficult to get the whole lake into the frame, a shot I really did want to make up for the missed sunrise. As I was crossing the dam of the lake I decided to take a shot with my 10 stop filter as I really like shots that show the long exposure especially with moving clouds. I tried to get the movement in the clouds so distinguished to long exposure images. I wonder if it worked ?
I carried on upwards to get a wider vantage point and hopefully that way would be able to photograph the lake in its whole beauty. It was a bit of a slog upwards but as the light altered again I was so glad I did the trek. The views were just amazing, as the next image shows.
The light stayed absolutely awesome for the rest of the morning and I also managed to get a nice shot of the Arenig Mountain range, maybe with the view of climbing the range one day. I dont feel comfortable doing it on my own though and hope that one day I will find a comrade walker who is interested in a bit of a easy and slow ascent to Arenig Fawr.