Skip reading the write-up and just enjoy the lovely scenery in the photographs!

In contrast with my time on Ben Nevis, I had more than 10ft of visibility while on Snowdon – which allowed me to enjoy the Snowdonia scenery.  I can now really appreciate why 35mm full-frame landscape photographers worship the 50mm prime lens – I used a Nikkor 35mm DX (~50mm full-frame equivalent) for the entire day, and really enjoyed the results!

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A “small” mountain

A very brief clear sky

Long-ish exposure over water

???

A friend who is just getting into the world of digital photography used a 18-105mm Nikkor to capture the next set of photos.

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…And here’s a load of mine through the 35mm/1.8 prime.

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Concave, glacial mountains ahead, but a flat plane behind!

A thin band of rain across Llanberis

Curvy glacial landscape

Beautiful blue sky behind, no sky ahead

Thin mist and clear sky

Shame about the mound in the bottom-left, but if I’d gone any higher then I’d have been engulfed by clouds

Reduced visibility near the top – but at least I can see my own feet this time!

A lot of contrast boosting was used here to cut through the thick mist.

The top of the miner’s track

Prime lenses seem to be a bit of a grey area with some beginners, due to the absence of a zoom wheel on the lens. Contrary to popular opinion, it is possible to zoom* while using a prime: walk forwards to zoom in, walk backwards to zoom out.  A bonus of this is that “zooming” a prime preserves the perspective of the scene… but with the slight downside that you may accidentally walk into a pond while you’re busy “zooming”.  During my walk, I was eyeing up the scenery and deciding in advance where the “ideal” locations on my route would be for me to stop and take photos.

Sunset from Llanberis

35mm, wide open. Thin depth-of-field and sharp spider webs in the focal plane!

Off-shore wind farm near Conwy