Kilvey Hill Photography Outing – Straight From Camera

Today we had an outing with Great Photography Walks NPT and we ventured to the landmark hill that towers above Swansea. Kilvey Hill is famous for hosting the masts that supply the area with TV, Radio and communications. We parked in Pentrechwyth, which lays at the bottom of the hill, and made the 2 mile journey through narrow lanes, through forests, on rough terrain and an incline which was like walking up a flight of stairs!

For this journey I knew I needed to travel light, and I knew I needed focal lengths from as wide as I could, to as long as I could. For this reason I took both my Fujifilm 15-45mm and 50-230mm. On the way up I was to use the wider lens, and on the way back the longer lens. Weather forecast had been good, so this plan was perfect!

For a change I shot in Astia Film Simulation. The weather was pretty hazy to start, but we had a little break in the weather. The black and white shot was shot in Acros+R, as I shot a couple of film simulation brackets. As well as the shots here, I shot a number of panorama shots, which will hopefully be in an upcoming blog, along with a huge amount of bracketed exposure shots. Please click on the images to see them full screen. All EXIF data is included in each photo.

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Just as we were finishing the day, the rain, against all forecasts, started to pore down. We headed back though, knowing we had seen great views of Swansea City, Swansea Bay, Port Talbot, Mumbles, Neath and the valleys and so much more, including the remains of a 17th centaury windmill!

There are not many places I visit where I still get the “wow” factor, but this was one of them. In every sense of the word, it was mind-blowing. All the years I’d lived below this hill, I’d never been to the top! It was a day we will all truly remember.

— Today was about the experience, I took a total of 335 photographs (which included many bracketed shots) and it was just nice to be out. Edited shots, as always, will be put on Facebook and other sites over the coming days.