Since I made my first dedicated photography trip to Snowdonia back in January 2023, I’ve become a little obsessed and have returned a few times for a bit of landscape photography. Before now, I’d only visited during the colder months, so I could photograph a more wintry-looking landscape, but I also wanted to visit at other times of the year as there were certain locations I knew would look better between spring and autumn.

In May this year, I spent a week staying in Betws-y-Coed, a village on the edge of Snowdonia with my family. It wasn’t a dedicated photography trip, but I still made sure to carve out some time here and there to head out on my own to indulge in some landscape photography and in this blog post, you’ll find some of the photos I took during the trip.

Photographing Fairy Glen

Being late spring and with the woodland full of vibrant colour, Fairy Glen was at the top of my list of places to photograph during this visit. Located just a few minute’s drive from Betws-y-Coed, Fairy Gen is a narrow gorge along the River Conwy.

I’d seen countless photos taken at this spot and the ones I was drawn to the most were those that included plenty of foliage, which I feel brings this location to life. So, knowing that any time between late spring and autumn would be ideal, I set my alarm to arrive shortly after sunrise.

As you can see, I was not disappointed. It looked exactly how I’d hoped; better even. There was so much colour in the scene, helped by the fact that it was raining as I arrived, and the wet leaves were even more saturated.

A spring view of Fairy Glen in Snowdonia by Trevor Sherwin Photography — Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 34mm | 10 Seconds | f/10 | ISO125

I started off with the classic view looking directly through the gorge. The rocks were wet and slippery so word of warning for anyone visiting in similar conditions. I made a feature of the bubbles created by the water cascading over the rocks by using an ND filter and a longer exposure to capture them as they made their way downstream towards me. Luckily there was no wind down there, so I didn’t have to worry about the leaves moving around while the picture was taken.

I tried a few different compositions and crops and took a few photos I liked but the one above is my favourite from that vantage point.

Moving off the slippery rocks and to the side of the river, I wanted to find a slightly different composition from those I’d seen before. Being such a small spot, I doubt I could find a unique photo but after a bit of trial and error, I found the composition seen below. Maybe not unique but certainly new to me. I purposely placed the green leaves towards the bottom left of the frame to add a little interest and to add some visual weight to balance the composition against the gorge on the right. Once again, I took a long exposure to emphasise the movement in the river which flows nicely towards the bottom right-hand side of the frame.

A springtime view of Fairy Glen in Snowdonia by Trevor Sherwin Photography — Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 21mm | 6.5 Seconds | f/8 | ISO125

Photographing Dinorwig Slate Quarry

During the trip, we visited Dinorwig (Dinorwic) slate quarry to spend a few hours exploring this heavily sculptured, industrial landscape. Situated close to Llanberis, Dinorwig quarry was the second largest slate quarry in Wales (and the world) and since closing in 1969 has since become a go-to place for hiking, rock climbing and even scuba diving. The place is oozing history with remnants of a highly active, industrial past scattered all over the quarry.

This isn’t the kind of landscape I would usually photograph, and the mid-afternoon light wasn’t particularly favourable but between the sunny periods I had some defused light to work with and came away with a few photos I liked.

Dali’s Hole is a pool of some of the most vibrant turquoise water I’ve ever seen and as I stood on the edge looking across to the other side, I spotted the small waterfalls cascading down. What I particularly liked about this scene was the colour and how the grey slate, turquoise water and lime green leaves worked so well together. I lined up a composition and waited patiently for the sun to be partly obscured by the passing cloud, defusing the light enough for the photo to work.

Springtime at Dali's Hole at Dinorwig Slate Quarry in Snowdonia by Trevor Sherwin Photography — Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 48mm | 1/13th Second | f/14 | ISO125

For the following two pictures, I wanted to photograph the old industrial structures in the wider landscape. I found these two derelict buildings standing alone and spent a few minutes with each working on the composition and waiting for the ideal light before taking the photos.

Weatherwise, it was interesting as there was still some lovely defused light sneaking through the gaps in the thick clouds illuminating parts of the scene but directly behind the structures I was photographing were just mountains and clouds which II really liked as I wanted to avoid blue sky in the photos to get a better sense of the mood I was trying to create.

Old slate buildings at Dinorwig Slate Quarry in Snowdonia by Trevor Sherwin Photography — Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 23mm | 1/250th Second | f/8 | ISO125

Photographing Swallow Falls

With Swallow Falls just a few minutes up the road from where we were staying in Betws-y-Coed, I popped by one morning to look at these impressive falls. With so much rain falling in the UK around the time of our trip to Wales, there was a lot of water gushing down the river and although impressive to look at, taking a good photo of the entire scene was more difficult.

However much I tried, I couldn’t make a composition work of the wider view of these falls. The light was flat and there was just too much water making it look messy and cluttered. Not to be defeated, I used my telephoto lens to zoom in on the top section of the falls where there was a bit more balance between the rocks and water and took a few intimate landscape photos.

Cascading water at Swallow Falls in Snowdonia by Trevor Sherwin Photography — Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 50mm | 0.6 Seconds | f/9 | ISO125

I spent a minute or two fine-tuning the composition so that the images above and below were as balanced as they could be and with little colour in the scene, I decided these would work better in black and white. After converting them in post-production, I pushed the contrast by decreasing the exposure on the rocks and brightening up the water. I finished with some selective dodging and burning on the rocks to bring through some of the texture and on the water to tone down a few of the highlights.

For this final photo from Swallow Falls, I zoomed in all the way to 300mm to photograph this hanging branch in front of falling water. I like the colour contrast with the vibrant greens against the cooler tones of the water and with the inevitable gusts created by the falling water directly behind, I had to be patient while I waited for the leaves to stop moving before I could take the shot.

Green leaves in front of the falling water at Swallow Falls in Snowdonia by Trevor Sherwin Photography — Fujifilm XT5 | XF70-300mm | 300mm | 1/5th Second | f/10 | ISO320

Before continuing with the photos I took on this trip to Snowdonia, I wanted to link to a few other on-location blog posts that tell the story and showcase the photos I took on my previous trips to Snowdonia. So, if you get to the end of this post and are still eager to see more, feel free to pop by and give these a read.

Photographing the Ogwen Valley

I’ve spent a lot of time exploring the Ogwen Valley during previous, dedicated photography trips to Snowdonia and although I didn’t spend nearly the same amount of time there this time, I did manage to fit in a quick hike up along Afon Lloer to once again photograph this classic view of Tryfan.

Although it was late spring, the weather was predictably changeable and what I remember most about that morning was how often I had to put the camera away and turn my back against the bouts of driving rain coming in from across the valley. With the camera facing the direction of the driving rain, most of the photos I took ended up with raindrops all over the lens, so I had to work quickly with the cloth to keep the glass clear and take a clean picture of this scene.

Lining up this classic composition alongside this small waterfall, I waited for Tryfan’s peak to become visible in the distant clouds and in between the constant wiping of my lens I quickly took the photo as soon as it appeared.

The view of Mount Tryfan across the Ogwen Valley in Snowdonia by Trevor Sherwin Photography — Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 10mm | 1/5th Second | f/5 | ISO125

During the stay I made two early morning trips to the Ogwen Valley and on my second trip I was greeted with thick, low-level clouds and almost zero visibility which put a halt to any chance of a grand vista featuring the lakes or mountains. Instead of waiting around too long for the cloud to lift, I had a rethink and decided to drive to another location I had wanted to visit but before I left, I took a short walk up to the bridge across the Afon Idwal Falls close to the Ogwen Cottage and took this photo of the cascading water below.

With the light levels low, there was no need for any ND filters when taking this photo; in fact, I had to bump the ISO up a little to quicken the shutter speed to achieve the optimal exposure of a 1/3rd of a second to get the look I wanted in the water.

The Afon Idwal Falls at the Ogwen Valley in Snowdonia by Trevor Sherwin Photography — Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 17mm | 1/3rd Second | f/6.4 | ISO400

Photographing the Roman Bridge at Penmachno

I mentioned above that with the fog so thick in the Ogwen Valley I ended up driving to another spot I had on my list and that was this beautiful location here at the old Roman bridge at Penmachno. According to articles I’ve read, the bridge was actually built in the Middle Ages (possibly the 15th century) and is not even close to being Roman but once connected an old Roman road that was part of the Cistercian Way. I had seen a few photos taken here and just like at Fairy Glen, it always looked better with leaves on the trees between spring and autumn, so after parking in a layby just a few minutes up the road, I found the path that took me down to this spot beside the Afon Machno.

Again, I was lucky that there was little wind, so I didn’t have to contend with too much movement in the trees but with a light rain falling and all the leaves wet, there was plenty of reflective light across the scene causing a lot of glare. I opted to use my CPL filter as not only did it help reduce some of the glare in the scene, but it also gave the lime-green spring leaves a slight bump in vividness. I didn’t turn the CPL all the way as it would have removed all the reflective light, leaving the scene flat and lifeless so I experimented a little before taking this final photo below.

Spring greens at the Roman Bridge at Penmachno in Snowdonia by Trevor Sherwin Photography — Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 50mm | 0.8 Seconds | f/10 | ISO125

Photographing the Snowdon Massive at LLynnau Mymbyr

On our final night in Wales, we went for an evening hike near Capel Curig, finishing off here, beside LLynnau Mymbyr. This location offers uninterrupted views of Snowdon and offers compositions for both wide and telephoto lenses.

I’ve visited this spot before during winter but at sunrise and not sunset as in the winter months, the sun would set directly behind the distant peaks and I’m not a big fan of shooting towards the setting sun. I prefer to have it off to the side which is where it sets in the summer months. With the clouds as they were on this particular evening, there wasn’t any vivid sunset colour but there was a soft haze in the air and shortly after the sun was due to set, there were these pastel pink/blue light in the sky and with the lake almost completely flat, it was a beautiful scene to witness and of course, photograph.

A panoramic view of Mount Snowdon across LLynnau Mymbyr at sunset in Snowdonia by Trevor Sherwin Photography — Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 72mm | 1/8th Second | f/9 | ISO125 (7 image stitched pano)

Starting off with my telephoto lens, I decided to take a stitched panoramic photo of the scene in front of me. I switched to a vertical composition and while sweeping from left to right took 7 photos which I later stitched together in post-production to create this panoramic image of the scene you can see above.

The final pano is nearly 100 megapixels and although pixel count doesn’t usually matter too much these days, in this case, the advantage of having so much resolution in a photo is that you can creatively crop it down to make additional compositions from the same image, which is what I did to make the two pictures below.

A telephoto view of Mount Snowdon across LLynnau Mymbyr at sunset in Snowdonia by Trevor Sherwin Photography — Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 72mm | 1/8th Second | f/9 | ISO125

I love how the haze adds depth to the image, creating this layered look as the elements in the landscape become lighter as they get further away, and I’m particularly pleased that there was still enough definition around the edge of the mountains to provide a little separation between them.

With the light now fading fast, for the final photo below, I opted for a wider composition. I wanted to include the rocks in the foreground and although they are predominately on the right of the frame, the dark reflections of the trees on the left helped to keep the composition somewhat balanced.

With enough interest already in the scene, I opted to take a longer 6.5-second exposure to flatten those subtle ripples in the water, creating this mirror-like surface across the lake.

A wide-angle view of Mount Snowdon across LLynnau Mymbyr at sunset in Snowdonia by Trevor Sherwin Photography — Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 18mm | 6.5 Seconds | f/8 | ISO125

Given that that wasn’t a dedicated photography trip, I’m pleased with the photos I managed to take during the week-long visit and look forward to future trips at different times of the year in the future.

If you’ve not read them already, don’t forget to visit my other on-location stories covering my previous landscape photography trips to Snowdonia by clicking the links shared earlier in this article and as ever, if you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment below or message me directly using the form on my contact page.

Until next time.
Trevor.

Photographing Snowdonia in Late Spring