Sunset in the Anisclo Canyon

SFTPhotography

SFTPhotography

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It's been a while since I last posted - I spent the Autumn in the Pyrenees and have now got back and pretty much finished the processing. It was an incredible time and I'd like to share some pictures from one of the best evenings there from one of my favourite spots in the area.

The afternoon started well

_DSC2371 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr

_DSC2413 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr

A quick glance in the other direction saw the light getting pretty decent - I was confident I was on for a good evening

_DSC2452 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr

And in another direction this happened

_DSC2455 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr

Later on and a framing a shot I took last year this happened. It was really clear the evening was going to be "one of those" :D

_DSC2467 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr

_DSC2479 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr

And boy did it deliver

_DSC2514 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr
 
It's an epic landscape. I really, really like DSC2455 - zooming in on the peak makes a more coherent shot, and the way the light picks out the layers of rock is very satisfying. The later version of the same shot has lovely coloured light but I like it slightly less because the angle of the light has changed. Of the more wide angle views, the last is my favourite as somehow the gorge and the mountains above seem more unified; I think it's partly the composition and partly the softer light.
 
Of the wider views I like the second; good sense of depth. Like Ihasa my preference is for the two simpler compositions of the dip/scarp; the light on the foreground of the first of them is lovely.
 
NeilA1975 said:
Really nice set there Steve, would be proud of those if they were mine.
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They were taken on the body you sold me - it's a nice thought anyway.

It's an amazing place and I know if you went you'd love it and bring back amazing shots. From where you live it's probably no further than Skye and miles miles better (more pictures will follow later and I am finding my mojo again since falling decidedly out of love of UK landscapes and weather)
 
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Personally I'm happiest with no 4. A tiny bit more brightness and clarify on the bottom left quarter would do no harm to it, I think... It's a very dramatic angle. 2508 is in competition but probably the top one wins due to more even spread of light.

2506 is probably the best of rest. It has interesting light and better colour, and perhaps most importantly the distant higher peaks actually appear taller. If possible at all I would want some sort of foreground even if it is faked at this point, and as a future project - perhaps a higher vantage point or even a drone shot.

I love the light and colours in 2514 but I'll be honest I'd want to be seeing the nice bit from that ridge or cropping it with a longer lens. That wall in the shade is basically cutting you off from the good bit.

SFTPhotography said:
From where you live it's probably no further than Skye and miles miles better (more pictures will follow later and I am finding my mojo again since falling decidedly out of love of UK landscapes and weather)
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Not much wrong with Skye and what it can delivery on a good day... It's a 1st rate landscape location by any means. Sadly for must of us South of Europe is nearly as close bar the delay and expenses associated with the ferry and dreadful slow French roads. Dolomites and CH are actually easier and quicker to get to via Germany
 
LongLensPhotography said:
Personally I'm happiest with no 4. A tiny bit more brightness and clarify on the bottom left quarter would do no harm to it, I think... It's a very dramatic angle. 2508 is in competition but probably the top one wins due to more even spread of light.
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Fair comment.

LongLensPhotography said:
2506 is probably the best of rest. It has interesting light and better colour, and perhaps most importantly the distant higher peaks actually appear taller. If possible at all I would want some sort of foreground even if it is faked at this point, and as a future project - perhaps a higher vantage point or even a drone shot. .
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Any foreground imho wouldn’t be worth having. Some messy tree branches aside. I’m all about the distant view. A drone would be a cool idea but I don’t have one, or particularly want one. However a hike up Mondoto could give a very different view. If/when/if you have been you’ll understand

LongLensPhotography said:
I love the light and colours in 2514 but I'll be honest I'd want to be seeing the nice bit from that ridge or cropping it with a longer lens. That wall in the shade is basically cutting you off from the good bit.
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Tricky unless you had one of your big 600mm. Your kit bag came to mind - all sorts of things 400mm plus could do here.

Not sure if you did this one in your Pyrenean epic of 2015 but I’m not sure how easy it is to get round onto that ridge. It’s easier to get onto the peak in 2506 though - I’ve not done it but if you follow the route from Nerin I know it’s do-able and one on next years bucket list. Actually it was on this years but never got round to it.




LongLensPhotography said:
Not much wrong with Skye and what it can delivery on a good day... It's a 1st rate landscape location by any means. Sadly for must of us South of Europe is nearly as close bar the delay and expenses associated with the ferry and dreadful slow French roads. Dolomites and CH are actually easier and quicker to get to via Germany
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Not much wrong with it - perhaps familiarity breeds contempt and absence makes the heart grow fonder but I’d say it’s second rate (high second rate) - like the rest of the UK compared to what’s on offer here but I far prefer it there to here. All opinion though.

My experience of French driving is different - I use the Toll roads and left Bielsa in northern Spain at 7:15am CET and got home 830am GMT the next day. I hit Bordeaux for 1030am, Rouen for 6pm (avoiding Paris traffic) got the 10pm sailing from Loon Plage to Dover and was clear of Birmingham in the small hours of the morning leaving a relatively short run to Glasgow where I encountered rush hour traffic in the M74 near Hamilton.

I didn’t stop much and tend to drive over 70mph and almost always under but close to 100mph. The worst of the journey was on the UK motorways with facetious variable speed limit cameras and road works putting them up meaning I had to drop to 60mph or lower really when the only required speed was 100mph or over.

On the way down I left home at 7am and the following day was having lunch in Gavarnie before going up the Col Du Tentes (you know the one). French roads are ace so long as you avoid Paris

If I was going to the Dolomites I’d go the way you suggest, Bavaria, Austria and in over the Brenner pass. Unless I was going to Chamonix first...one usually makes a stop there :)
 
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SFTPhotography said:
Fair comment.



Any foreground imho wouldn’t be worth having. Some messy tree branches aside. I’m all about the distant view. A drone would be a cool idea but I don’t have one, or particularly want one. However a hike up Mondoto could give a very different view. If/when/if you have been you’ll understand


Tricky unless you had one of your big 600mm. Your kit bag came to mind - all sorts of things 400mm plus could do here.

Not sure if you did this one in your Pyrenean epic of 2015 but I’m not sure how easy it is to get round onto that ridge. It’s easier to get onto the peak in 2506 though - I’ve not done it but if you follow the route from Nerin I know it’s do-able and one on next years bucket list. Actually it was on this years but never got round to it.






Not much wrong with it - perhaps familiarity breeds contempt and absence makes the heart grow fonder but I’d say it’s second rate (high second rate) - like the rest of the UK compared to what’s on offer here but I far prefer it there to here. All opinion though.

My experience of French driving is different - I use the Toll roads and left Bielsa in northern Spain at 7:15am CET and got home 830am GMT the next day. I hit Bordeaux for 1030am, Rouen for 6pm (avoiding Paris traffic) got the 10pm sailing from Loon Plage to Dover and was clear of Birmingham in the small hours of the morning leaving a relatively short run to Glasgow where I encountered rush hour traffic in the M74 near Hamilton.

I didn’t stop much and tend to drive over 70mph and almost always under but close to 100mph. The worst of the journey was on the UK motorways with facetious variable speed limit cameras and road works putting them up meaning I had to drop to 60mph or lower really when the only required speed was 100mph or over.

On the way down I left home at 7am and the following day was having lunch in Gavarnie before going up the Col Du Tentes (you know the one). French roads are ace so long as you avoid Paris

If I was going to the Dolomites I’d go the way you suggest, Bavaria, Austria and in over the Brenner pass. Unless I was going to Chamonix first...one usually makes a stop there :)
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I no longer have 600mm as it's ridiculous to use. 400mm does the trick well enough and can go anywhere without any effort. Probably I will keep it even with mirrorless considering it is sharp and 2-4X cheaper than anything similar that they might release.

I didn't do this location but likely passed within a close distance on the way to somewhere else. It sure looks interesting to explore.
2015 was incredible, which is unfortunately not something I could so easily say about this year. Italy was really the one place that saved it. Probably I will think about going to Spain next year if all is good. I may look into ferry to Santander, etc to save some hassle as I find bulk of the unexplored mid-France not that interesting... except a few stand out locations. This year I looked at some castles in Loire valley and that was all; not many good shots due to many reasons including castles littering the whole place with repugnant modern "art"; and then onto Chamonix.
French roads... well they are terrible. 80->50->80 does your head in, with a good mix of English style potholes thrown in. Toll motorways are likely to cost you a whole FF camera system at the end, so avoid them as a worst case of ebola. I did maybe 30 km towards chamonix to save time (30min!) that I then lost to some pointless crap and this cost around 10 euros. Total waste of everything.
In Germany you can do (and I did) 180-200 km/h (that's well over 100mph for those of you afraid to go over 50!) most of the way easily; a bit more in a fancier 4x4 and the roads are in the class of their own, maybe only Polish ones come close (140-160 hm/h limits). UK ones are one of the worst in the whole of Europe and those silly cat eyes make them probably the most destructive to the car suspension in the whole "developed" world.

It is indeed tempting to visit both Dolomites and Chamonix in one trip, which is what I unintentionally did yet again. They are really quite far apart, just as Chamonix and Pyrenees. You have to plan in locations in Switzerland or somewhere else in Italy in between for good 2-3 days.... unless it just totally rains making it impossible to justify...

I finally I really wouldn't put Skye and Glencoe to the same category as the RoUK. Your grading may be different of course, but say Elgol and Peak district are leagues apart. It would be really nice having it close by again. Chamonix is probably going to be superior to most other places, the top of tier 1 if you like; but you could still easily come back with absolute head-turners from either. Malverns, Peaks and most of Lake dist. I would say is 2nd rate, and of course 3rd rate is boring, barren or over-industrialised hellholes like Birmingham or some flat pesticide soaked corn-field.
 
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