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Caernarfon Castle #1

Caernarfon Castle on the North Wales coast

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The story behind this image

When most people go to the seaside, they hope for a nice, bright, sunny day with clear blue skies and little or no cloud cover.

Not me!

Clear, blue, cloudless skies may be nice if you want to sunbathe (brr!), but if you want to take some outdoor photos with impact then dramatic cloud action is the order of the day.

It's a good job then, that I live near the North Wales coast, where clouds, storms, wind and rain are the norm and clear blue skies are a rarity.

My wife Liz and I were treated to some dramatic cloud action on this particular evening when, having explored the beauties of the Snowdonia National Park, we wound up at teatime in Caernarfon under lowering skies.

Putting tea on hold for half an hour or so, we drove over the Seiont river to get this view of the castle and harbour walls.

I'm so glad we did, as as we arrived at our viewing spot right on the foreshore of the Menai Straits, this dramatic wave cloud formed over the town and castle.

With its brooding menace it was the perfect compliment to the turrets and battlements of the castle below, whose brooding menace overshadowed the local population for quite some time after it was built by King Edward 1st back in the 11th century.

A few minutes later and the wave cloud had dissipated, leaving the scene looking pretty ordinary, and leaving Liz and me free to seek out our somewhat delayed teatime snack.

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Image data

Filename - castle caernarfon 01.jpg

Camera - Canon 6D

Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 24mm

Exposure - 1/80 sec @ f8, ISO100

Location - Caernarfon, North Wales

This image - 800x450px JPEG

Conversion - Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop CC

Comments - Neutral density graduated filter used to darken the sky