A few months ago, in late March, I spent several days in Snowdonia (Eryri) with my camera, exploring and photographing its strikingly rugged landscape. As with previous trips to North Wales, I had a few locations I wanted to visit, but I also left plenty of room in my plans for spontaneous detours, exploring areas I may not have been to (or even researched) before.

I set off early on the first day, arriving at the car park in the Ogwen Valley around lunchtime and not wanting to waste much time, I set off for a circular hike up and around the Glyders.

While most of the photos I took on this trip are in colour, there were moments when the subject and lighting naturally suited a monochrome treatment. I’ve chosen to group all the black and white images at the end of this post, not because they were an afterthought, but because I believe they work best when presented together, so stick around to the end of this blog to see them.

The view looking west toward Y Garn from the the Glyders in Snowdonia — *Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 15mm | 1/125th Second | f/8 | ISO125*

From the path leading from Ogwen Cottage towards Llyn Idwal, I veered left midway along the Cwm Bochlwyd Path, past Llyn Bochlwyd and made my way up Y Gribin (The Ridge). The last section of Y Gribin was rather technical with some scrambling needed as I plotted my path up towards Bwlch y Ddwy Glyder (Pass of the Two Glyders), but once there, I was greeted with some cracking views towards Tryfan and across the Ogwen Valley.

Tryfan and the Ogwen Valley from the the Glyders in Snowdonia — *Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 18mm | 1/100th Second | f/7.1 | ISO125*

As you can see from this view looking west toward Y Garn, the light was fairly flat that afternoon, which, in hindsight, summed up the tone of the entire trip. During my three days in Snowdonia, I can only recall one or two brief moments of direct sunlight. That wasn’t necessarily an issue for me, as I’m not a big believer in ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ light; I just need to adapt and make the most of the conditions I’m given.

With distant views defused slightly by the haze, I chose to stick with my 10–24mm wide-angle lens and focus on the textures and forms of the rocks as the primary subject in this set of images. I also used my Kase circular polariser throughout the afternoon, which helped cut through some of the haze, adding a touch of clarity and a bit more punch to the final shots.

From Bwlch y Ddwy Glyder, I headed west toward Glyder Fawr, and as I climbed toward the summit, I came across this imposing jagged rock formation jutting up into the sky. Trying to capture some of the awe and dominance the structure was projecting as I stood beneath it, I moved in closer, staying low, and manoeuvred around until I landed on the composition you see here.

At just over 1,000 metres, Glyder Fawr is the highest peak in the Glyderau range and photographing the area around its peak was my favourite part of this walk around the Glyders. The rock formations appeared otherworldly and made for some interesting subjects to photograph. According to Sir Ifor Williams (a Welsh scholar), the word "Glyder" derives from the Welsh word "Gludair", meaning a heap of stones, and that’s a pretty accurate description of the landscape up there.

This location provided great views across the Nant Peris valley towards the Snowdon massif, and contrary to the flat, featureless clouds I had around me on the Glyderau massif, the clouds towards the south were a lot more dramatic, and none more so than in this photo below where the clouds seemed to converge directly above Snowdon. Composing so that the fractured stones in the foreground mirrored those interesting cloud formations in the sky, I took the photo below, which turned out to be my favourite of the day, maybe even my favourite of the entire trip to Snowdonia.

As I explored the peak further, I looked for different ways to make interesting compositions of the incredible rock formations. After taking the photos below, I used some dodging and burning in post-processing to enhance the subtle light falling across the landscape. This helped to separate the various layers and added a stronger sense of depth as the rocks stretched out before me.

After spending some time on Glyder Fawr’s summit, it was time to make my way downhill towards Llyn Y Cwm (Lake of the Dogs) and over to Y Garn, the final peak I’d be summiting before making my way back down towards Llyn Idwal. The descent towards the small lake was tricky as it was steep with lots of loose scree, so I had to tread carefully as I made my way down.

After navigating that rather sketchy 250-metre descent, I arrived at the top of the Devil’s Kitchen and from here, I had some great views of Tryfan and the Ogwen valley. It was at this point that I felt “inspired” to take the selfie below. The views were stunning, but I wanted to demonstrate the scale of the landscape and placing myself in the scene was a way I could achieve that.

With the selfie taken, I made my way up to Y Garn and then back down the mountain to Llyn Idwal.

A selfie of Trevor Sherwin taken from the Glyders with Tryfan and the Ogwen Valley in Snowdonia — *Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 43mm | 1/125th Second | f/9 | ISO125*

A small pool of water up on the Glyders in Snowdonia — *Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 20mm | 1/60th Second | f/10 | ISO125*

While passing Llyn Idwal on my way back down, there was some nicely diffused light hitting the steep, rocky face of Glyder Fawr, and I thought it would round the hike off nicely to get a photo from ground level of the peak I’d not long been standing atop just an hour or two before.

This is a popular spot to photograph Cwm Idwal, but instead of trying to get the entire lake and valley in the frame, I decided on a vertical composition, which gave me the room needed to include more of the foreground rocks in the photo. It was a tricky one to compose as achieving a balanced feel depended on how the foreground was arranged, and with a little shuffling left and right, I landed on this composition here, which I think, to my eye at least, works well.

The next and final stop of the day was over on the opposite side of the valley at this popular spot along Afon Lloer. It’s a popular location as this vantage point provides a fantastic view of Tryfan and the Glyderau Massif behind.

It’s a composition I’ve photographed on each of my previous visits to Snowdonia and feel I’ve never quite come away with a picture good enough to put the location to bed. There’s always something I’m not happy with, and with the clouds starting to thin and the sunlight hitting the landscape for the first time that day, maybe this would be the time I get “the shot”.

I mentioned previously that I had just one or two periods of direct sunlight on this entire trip, and this was one of them. Just as the sun was dipping, it illuminated the top half of Tryfan, and I had just enough time to fire off a few photos, with this one below being the best of those I took.

A view of Tryfan and the Glyders across the Ogwen Valley taken from Afon Lloer in Snowdonia — *Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 10mm | 1/10th Second | f/8 | ISO125*

The next morning, I drove along the Nant Gwynant valley to photograph Snowdonia's second most famous lone tree. I like the way this old tree emerges from behind the rock with its branches reaching up into the sky, splitting the valley in the background and having seen it photographed a few times before, I decided to pop down to see what I could make of it.

A lone tree beside the lake in the Nant Gwynant valley, Snowdonia — *Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 12mm | 1/100th Second | f/10 | ISO400*

Compositionally, the two most important factors for me were to ensure the tree was positioned correctly in the centre of the valley’s “V” shape and that my camera was close enough to the ground so that the lowest branch didn’t overlap and get lost in the background. I took a photo in both landscape and portrait orientations and feel the landscape version just about wins as the tree has more space around it, particularly on the right.

Although I had my drone with me throughout the trip, for various reasons I didn’t use it as much as I thought I would, but while standing next to the lake, I was curious to see how the valley would look from up high.

This would be the second and last time I would see the sun hitting the landscape during this trip. As the drone gained some altitude, the clouds briefly parted, illuminating the south-eastern side of the Snowdon Massif. The light didn’t last long, but I managed to take this aerial photo before it disappeared again.

An aerial photo of the Nant Gwynant valley taken with a drone in Snowdonia — *DJI Mini 3 Pro | 24mm (effective) | 1/640th Second | f/1.7 | ISO100*

One thing I wanted to achieve during this visit to Snowdonia was to explore new (to me) areas without researching any particular photo spots, enabling me to come away from the trip having photographed both well-known and lesser-known locations. This was the case on the previous day during my walk around the Glyders as although I had researched the route, I hadn’t researched any photographic compositions. With this in mind and once finished photographing beside the lake, I headed off on a small circular walk around the eastern side of the valley to gain a little elevation and explore this area further.

By this point, there was plenty of ambient light, but it was nicely defused by the clouds and not too long after leaving the side of the lake, I came across this small stone building nestled perfectly in the landscape. I continued past the cottage to get to a bit higher, and with the mountains providing a great backdrop, out came the camera, and I took this photo below.

With the lovely, defused light, this scene, with the traditional stone building set in the landscape, has a timeless, painterly feel, which I like a lot. However, in the spirit of staying transparent to those who read this blog, the building (which is actively used) has a modern solar panel on the side of the roof and it didn’t fit with the look and timeless feel I wanted to achieve with this picture, so I used some artistic license and cloned it out.

Working my way around this small circular walk in the Snowdonia hills, I came across this unassuming cascade of water tumbling down one of the hills. Ordinarily, I might have carried on walking, and I very nearly did, but I decided to stop and spent a few minutes composing this small scene nestled in the landscape. Using a combination of a circular polarising and 3-stop neutral density filters, I was able to slow the shutter speed and take some of the glare out of the scene.

Later that day, I made my way back across to the Ogwen Valley as I had some unfinished business with an elevated scene I’d attempted to photograph on my way back down from Y Garn on the previous day. On that previous attempt, the conditions weren’t great for photography as the light was flat and with so much distance between the camera and the subject, the hazy conditions left a lot to be desired.

Fast forward a day, and the conditions had improved. The sky offered more visual interest, and soft, dappled light was falling on the landscape, highlighting its contours and adding depth. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was certainly good enough to pull the camera out and start composing a few shots.

It’s a composition that unfortunately slices through Llyn Idwal, but necessary if I wanted to keep Tryfan fully in frame as a main focal point and after waiting a short while for some light to fall on Tryfan’s peak, I took the image below, had a snack and then made my way back down the slope.

A view of the Ogwen Valley and Tryfan in Snowdonia — *Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 19mm | 1/60th Second | f/11 | ISO125*

I’m fascinated by the shapes, lines and textures on the rocky face of Glyder Fawr, and while passing by on my way back to the car park, I noticed some subtle light bouncing off it. Out came the camera once more, and composing a square crop to help with the balance, I took this photo below.

The rocky face of Glyder Fawr in Snowdonia — *Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 27mm | 1/80th Second | f/8 | ISO125*

For the last stop of the day and with the clouds starting to clear, I wanted to get a view of the valley looking towards the west. I headed a couple of miles east along the A5 to an elevated spot along the path that takes you up to Ffynnon Llugwy, a mountain lake and the source of Afon Llugwy. I didn’t hike all the way up, just enough to get a better view of Tryfan and the Glyders behind.

I took a few photos with the telephoto lens but wasn’t really happy with what I was seeing. The scene was too busy and the light on the landscape wasn’t particularly great either. So, after some experimentation with focal lengths and with the afterglow of the sun casting some lovely pastel colours across the sky, I took this wider, silhouetted picture of the view in front of me. I like the abstract nature of this photo and feel the strong shapes of the mountains against the softly lit sky behind work well.

A silhouette of Mount Tryfan in the Ogwen Valley in Snowdonia — *Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 32mm | 1/4 Second | f/11 | ISO125*

The forecast for the following morning called for low cloud cover and rain, so I opted against heading to any of the higher elevations where visibility would be severely limited. Instead, I began the day by revisiting the lone tree in the Nant Gwynant valley. With cloud levels expected to drop as low as 100–200 metres, I anticipated near-zero visibility, ideal conditions, I hoped, for capturing the tree as a minimalist subject, standing quietly in the misty, rain-soaked landscape.

As you can see, from this spot at least the rain had yet to start, and the clouds weren’t quite low enough. I took a couple more photos while I was there and headed back to the car.

Before travelling home later the same day, I’d planned a little time around Llanberis and the famous Dinorwig Slate Quarry. With low cloud and rainy conditions expected, I was hoping to use them to my advantage and capture some mist and mood in my photos, but before heading to the quarry, I made a quick stop at Dolbadarn Castle.

It’s a location I’d seen many times from afar but never actually visited, and I was keen to have a good look around, maybe take a picture or two while there. By the time I arrived, the rain was falling quite hard, and after having a look around, reading some of the information boards about the castle’s history, I composed this atmospheric photo below of the castle and partly obscured Snowdon range in the background.

Dolbadarn Castle in Snowdonia photographed in the rain — *Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 14mm | 1/80th Second | f/8 | ISO125*

Leaving Dolbadarn Castle, I made my way up to Dinorwig Quarry. I wanted to have a good explore and photograph what caught my eye, and first up, as I made my way towards the Anglesey Barracks, these old trees grabbed my attention.

A woodland near the Anglesey Barracks in Snowdonia — *Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 23mm | 0.6 Seconds | f/11 | ISO125*

As mentioned before, I don’t subscribe to the notion that there is good and bad light. In my opinion, different subjects work in different light, but if I’m being honest, the light I had to photograph both the trees above and the barracks below was flat and uninspiring. I was struggling a bit.

I don’t mind the composition I found of the Anglesey Barracks below as it provides a useful frame around the subject, and the picture feels a little painterly, which I also like. That being said, I feel that with more interesting sidelight or a little mist, both pictures could have been so much better. A location to return to, I think.

Dotted around the quarry are a few lone trees that seem to be growing out from the hills of slate, and I used this one below as a subject with a distant view of Dolbadarn Castle in the background. The rain in the air had defused the background, allowing the tree to stand out as the main subject, and I opted to zoom in a little to make the tree more of a feature, giving the image a slightly more intimate feel.

A lone tree growing from the slate rubble Dinorwig Slate Quarry, Snowdonia — *Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 84mm | 1/50th Second | f/2.8 | ISO125*

Further up the hill, I found myself standing on the edge of a pool of water called Sinc Harriet. After heavy rain, the volume of water in this pit can rise rapidly, but I guess there hadn’t been too much rain before my visit, as the levels were quite low. So low in fact, the slate rubble beneath was visible, and with the wind creating some ripples on its surface, I spent some time creating some abstract images, all with a slight painterly feel thanks to the texture on the water.

Moving on from Sinc Harriet, and with visibility on the low side, I set off along the path to capture some small, intimate views of the quarry. Although I’ve been a fan of the square crop for a while now, I’ve grown to appreciate how well it suits small scenes like this. With a square crop, I find it easier to achieve balance as no one side is dominant, and it allows me to be more creative with my compositions.

My last stop before driving back to leafy Surrey was at the lone tree in Llanberis. In the photography community at least, it’s quite a popular scene and having visited once before in less than ideal conditions for my style of landscape photography, I decided to pop by to see what I could make of it this time.

Down by the lake, the visibility was better, but like it was up at Sinc Harriet, the water levels here were also low. Not to be deterred, I lowered the camera down, using the exposed rubble to build a bit of a foreground and making sure the tree was positioned correctly, centred in the distant valley, I took the photo.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I processed some of the photos I took on this trip in black and instead of injecting them in-line alongside the other photos, I wanted this collection to stand on its own as a black and white set.

Some of the pictures I’ve shared below are monochrome renderings of the same colour photos from above, but a few of them are unique to this set, consciously taken to be produced as black and white photos.

A black and white photo of a lone tree beside the lake in the Nant Gwynant valley, Snowdonia — *Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 10mm | 1/100th Second | f/10 | ISO400*

A black and white photo of a tree in the woodland in Snowdonia — *Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 35mm | 1/25th Second | f/16 | ISO400*

An aerial photo of the Snowdon Massif taken with a drone in Snowdonia — *DJI Mini 3 Pro | 24mm (effective) | 1/6400th Second | f/1.7 | ISO100*

A black and white photo of Dolbadarn Castle in Snowdonia photographed in the rain — *Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 14mm | 1/80th Second | f/8 | ISO125*

A black and white photo of a lone tree in the Dinorwig Slate Quarry, Snowdonia — *Fujifilm XT5 | XF70-300mm | 300mm | 1/125th Second | f/8 | ISO400*

That’s a wrap for another landscape photography trip to Snowdonia, but if you want to see more photos of this stunning landscape in North Wales, I’ve written some more blog posts and shared many more pictures, which you can find links to below.