Tintern 2022
Tintern is a village in on the bank of the River Wye in Monmouthshire, Wales, the river itself is the border with England. Only 5 miles north of Chepstow it is very accessible. It is popular with visitors, for the rural lanscapes, strong river and steep valley. and of course the ruins of it's Abbey, one of the more famous in the UK.
Tintern Abbey from the Flood Meadows
Tintern Abbey is perhaps one of the most recognisable and visited ruined buildings in Britain. It is very complete despite the 500 years since it's active status.
We arrived on a cold morning with fresh snow on top of ice, so the openning was delayed by two hours!!!
The weather was dark, dull and generally not ideal with a heavy sky, however there is a different feel to it under these conditions, for sure less visitors were there and it has a real-life, less tourist attraction atmosphere. The late Autumn colours were very subdued adding warmth without bling.
We headed out into the water meadows along the sides of the Wye, to find views of the Abbey within a bigger landscape, so we had to work hard to find the right angles and light for images, this in itself means we found different casts to the scene than would otherwise have been the case.
Here a 200mm lens was used to give an appearance of compression, the tree is a good rustic object in some way framing the right of the image. The Abbey itself could then be placed off centre without the balance feeling wrong, allowing some ugly modern features just to the right to be out of view.
Editing here has been limited to the sky, and then only a slight warming to correct the white balance to "as was".
Tintern Abbey was built in 1269, in 1524 it became one of the first victims of Henry III and the dissolusion of the monastories.
500 years a ruin and a national icon, lying on the banks of the River Wye, 50m inside Wales - the Wye is the England-Wales border.
Tintern Abbey
Again from out in the flood meadows, this photo is around 300m from the abbey itself.
A view here allowing the viewer to see a little more of where the abbey is, placing it in it's immediate surroundings. The attractive farm buildings right next to the abbey enhance rather than detract.
There is a trend amongst online photography tutorials that a scene needs to be simplified with as few distractions as possible, effectively "portrait style". Though often the best approach don't let this get in the way of more complexed images, just make sure you have the resolution to be able to give space around the main subjects.
1/40 sec, 86mm, f/6.3, iso 100
I didn't have a tripod and was forced to handhold a heavy lens at 1/40 sec so Image Stabilisation was necessary, I could have gone up to iso 400 to get a faster shutter speed but in the event it was without shake.
The farmhouse here is literally up against the abbey wall and a nice building in its own right. The owners were very friendly and welcomed us to access their field for different views.
A view describing the local feel
With so much to see it really is difficult sometimes to find the candid shots when there is so much more to distract. It is too easy to miss in a blink a great feature and opportunity for a unique photo.
This rock is easy to miss and most people do miss it, it looks this way only when there is strong shadow and only from a small angle of the sunlight. There is definately an impression of a face highlighted by the lichen on the rock.
the longer focal length pulls in the features in the sea perfectly framing the subject.
The colour temperature looks very different from the shot above, the difference is the angle of the sun's light - the polarising filter here having a different influence.
120mm, f/6.3, 1/200 sec., iso 100
This old mixed material farm building with re-frozen snow on the slates, describes the local area - as the person there it reminds you of the scene at the time, for others it describes it.
The main window
In a valley the sun sets early, especially in the short winter hours.
The trees look almost on fire with the sun directly on them, the window for this photo on the day was around 15 minutes, so plan the day carefully and think obout light always.
This image is actually a landscape crop for this page but was taken as a portrait shot - original can be seen by clicking the image from the gallery below.
Very little editing was needed here, though the trees are clearly in sunlight the abbey was not; this low contrast of the building shows the details often lost with shadowed areas. The blue in the sky was half-heartedly coming and going, on a day far from ideal in photography terms, the timing was important, just hang in there and the chances will come.
Oh! and take a tripod!
170mm, f/2.8, iso 100, 1/250
The east window from the Nave, the last of the autumn colours behind.
Edward VII - Post Office Box
When we were trying to find views early on we wandered around the small village, this is another picture to remember the day and describe the area.
Less of a postcard and more of a story is the idea of photo blogs for us, finding off-theme random features just adds interest.
Here is a Post Office Box from the King Edward VII years. They were made only during his reign so between 1901 & 1910, not so long so there are not many.
That's the history lesson over, the contrast between the bright red paint and the dark iron-clad door is the interest here. The wall is framed by the ivy overgrowing the top and weeds along the bottom, without which it would be too plain and onother composition would be needed to have interest.
A relatively rare Edward VII post Box, contrasts well with it's location. Framing for contrast needed thought, but mainly simple.
The new Severn Bridge - from the old one
After a very enjoyable day, having to work hard for the photos with less than ideal flat light, this was the sunset over the Severn Bridge which was entirely unexpected; it appeared in an instant.
Driving over the old Severn Bridge this view suddenly popped up. We were dring on a motorway reduced to single lane, cars pressing behind and obstructions everywhere. There was no indication of this light and sky as we came out of the Wye Valley, one of those occasions where suddenly "look out, get the camera" gets shouted with urgency.
Chris had literally a few seconds to get a quick test shot, adjust settings then shoot quickly. With the interference of cables and road works added to the traffic, framing, zoom changes, avoiding the ostacles all had to be instinctive and fluid; "know your gear".
It's all worth the frantic, effort when a few images to choose from. The sky was like this as we carried on for around 6 or 8 minutes, then was gone.
Exposure was dialled in low to try to avoid the white burn out, this was very fast with no time to look for blinkeys, a great result.
The "Neist Point" peninsular is not only a stunning feature of Skye it is also just very enjoyable to wander around and experience.
On Location Gallery
