Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa

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 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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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

Sheeplechase

While travelling around Wales, four unknown intruders infiltrated the hotel that I was staying in, during the dead of the night.  Armed only with a Nikon D5100 (“there are many others like it, but this one is mine”), nightvision and some 35mm/1.8 Nikkor ordnance, I set out to tackle the intruders.

Here are the first three “shots”:

I’ve heard people say that “sheep are stupid” many a time but I really had no idea just how stupid sheep are.  If animals could play checkers, I would fully expect chickens to beat sheep after the antics of this night.

One sheep wasn’t so camera shy: