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Parys Mountain #11

Parys Mountain copper mine, Anglesey, North Wales

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The story behind this image

Assaulted on every side by a kaleidoscope of colours, weird shapes and contours, I certainly wasn't expecting this visual sensory overload when Liz and I decided to pay a first visit to Parys Mountain, on the otherwise moderately hued Isle of Anglesey, just off the North Wales coast.

We'd driven past Parys Mountain, once the largest copper mine on the world, on numerous occasions in the past and often said to each other 'I wonder what's there'?

So one afternoon we decided to divert off the main road and check it out.

Well, what was supposed to be a brief 'looksee' turned into a full afternoon's hike and photography session as we worked our way along the heritage trail, skirting around the largest hole in the ground I've ever seen.

The striated colours of leaching ore were everywhere, and combined with the fantastical shapes left by the opencast mining operations, meant I was in photographic overload, with powerful compositions to be found and exploited both in the larger scene, and with more intimate details such as this view of eroded and sculpted rock formations.

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Image data

Filename - parys mountain 11.jpg

Camera - Canon EOS 6D

Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 40mm

Exposure - 1/125 sec @ f13, ISO200

Location - Parys Mountain, Anglesey

This image - 800x533px JPEG

Conversion - Adobe Lightroom

Comments - Polarising filter used to enhance colours