As I mentioned, over May I attended a course in Aberystwyth, Mid Wales on Freelancing. We covered pretty much everything involved in going Freelance, from Taxes, to Networking, to seeing your Strengths and Weaknesses. For me, it was a brilliant course, funded by the good people of Go Wales, as I learned so much about everything. The tutors were really helpful, with a wealth of knowledge, and I’m really happy I attended.
A couple of weeks after the course, I was contacted by Go Wales, asking if they could do a wee interview with me about the course, what I enjoyed, and if I got everything I wanted out of it, and here it is!
I spent a lovely weekend back home in North Wales, out everyday on the Hills, and catching up with friends. I managed to catch some sun, and got sunburned – in October!! – and take some pictures, as I do. I’ve got quite a lot to stitch together, but here’s one I’ve just completed.
Snowdonia, taken from Nantlle Ridge
The image is taken from Craig Cwm Silyn, a part of the Nantlle Ridge, looking along towards Tal-y-Mignedd, with the ridge connecting to Trum y Ddysgl swooping to the right. Snowdon Massif i sitting quietly in the centre-right of the image, with the Glyderau disappearing into the distance.
It was a lovely day out on the hills. Stay tuned for more images!
I took this image at the beginning of last year, when I was getting back into Mountain walking. We were hiking up Tryfan, the weather was glorious, and we had a big group. We stopped here for a wee break, and I started snapping away. Here’s the result of a 12 photo stitch:
Llyn Bochlwyd - Australia Lake, Cwm Idwal
Llyn Bochlwyd, or Lake Australia got it’s name because if viewed from a vantage point on Tryfan, it looks pretty close to the shape of Australia, which is pretty cool. It’s located right in the heart of Cwm Idwal, in the Cwm below Castell Y Gwynt, above Llyn Idwal. It offers a really beautiful panorama of the Glyderau, and all the way to the coast to the North.
My fave artist, John Butler Trio has released a new video for his awesome new single – Revolution.
The video is really simple, but beautifully made. This song is my favourite from the April Uprising album, and I can’t stop playing it. Check it out folks!
Over the weekend I headed up home to North Wales for the weekend. It was a lovely wee break – I got to hang out with my lovely friends, and walk out in the Mountains. It was nice escaping the busy life that is London, but I was quite shocked to see so many people out and about walking in Snowdonia.
I took my camera with me, and managed to take a few epic panoramas of the views from the Glyderau:
TryfanGlyder FawrDyffryn Ogwen
The first is the view of Tryfan, the second is of Glyder Fawr with the Snowdon Horeshoe in the background, and the third is looking down Dyffryn Ogwen/Nant Ffrancon.
Good times. I have set up an online shop – I’m just about to branch out into the different options of printing these bad boys out, figuring out what the best way of doing it – so if you fancy placing an order for any of my photographs, please feel free to contact me, and I will direct you to my online shop once I have it open to the public.
We had an awesome Winter in Wales in 2009. Really awesome snow, which made walking in the Mountains a fantastic experience. I managed to take this panorama from the summit of Cnicht a couple of days after Christmas.
Gaeaf ar Cnicht / Winter on Cnicht
This beast is stitched together from 12 photographs. I’m really happy with the result, apart from the ghosting effect on the rocks, far right of the image, which I will address in the next pass of cleaning up the image. Snowdon and his friends are on the left hand side of the photo.
I’m getting really into Photo-stitching at the minute. I’m about to make my prints for sale through an on-line shop, so keep an eye out – I’ll be ‘going live’ in a few days I imagine.
Over the weekend, Me and Regi went over to Brussels for a long weekend. My favourite artist – John Butler Trio – was playing there on the Sunday, and one of Regi’s friends lives there, so we decided to combine a trip of epic proportions. And that’s what it was. We had a fantastic time, and it was lovely to meet Nadia, and be spoilt by her lovely cooking and hospitality.
We (thankfully) booked the Eurostar over, left London at 7am, and got into Brussels at around 10am local time. The journey was pretty awesome, there was a lovely morning mist, and the sun was a-blasting.
We went for a wee tour of Brussels, and headed down to the Grand Place. Here are two panoramic I took of the beautiful square;
Grand Place Square
Grand Place Square
We then headed over to see Manneken Pis, the famous peeing fountain boy, today he was wearing a sweet little costume. Apparently, he’s dressed in a different costume, several times each week. Gotta be warm I guess;
Manneken Pis
Brussels is known for their fries, so we just had to get some, Nadia knew of a pretty awesome shop that sold some good ones, so off we went. The sauce I had on mine was called Andalucia I believe. It was really quite good – a bit spicy, but I’d recommend it.
Brussels Fries
We then went for a wee walk, seeing some cool Street performers ‘n that. Came across a nice few streets, and some cool looking old Chapels, which Brussels is full of.
Gina & Saint-Jean-Baptiste au Béguinage
A water feature
We managed to find the Canal that runs through Brussels. It was a beast of a thing, and unfortunately, full of rubbish. It’s a sad thing that I think.
Brussels–Charleroi Canal
John Butler was just awesome, live they are phenomenal. I saw them a few years ago, but now they’ve improved so much. John seems so much happier in the new band, and it really showed on stage, that they were having a great time. In front of us throughout the gig was this crazy old German dude with amazing sideburns, just going crazy to John, he was very drunk – and out of beat with everything. Hilarious he was.
John Butler (pic by Regi)
We walked North, to see the Atomium, and also came across the Chinese Pavilion. The Atomium itself doesn’t really do anything for me, an odd looking thing I find. The Chinese Pavilion and the Japanese Tower on the other hand were amazing buildings. They really were. The Japanese Tower is 80m high! I would have loved to go to the top, but unfortunately, it’s closed on a Monday.
Me & Atomium
80-metre high Japanese Tower
Chinese Pavilion
After that, we just chilled, saw some more pretty buildings, ate some more fries, waffles, had some Beers, and hung out with Nadia. It was a really great trip. Good times.
