Sunshine and bogs

The sun came out today so I jumped in the car and roared off to Rhyd Ddu. My plan was to shoot the train from the rocky outcrop above Fridd Isaf curve just below Rhyd Ddu station and then chase the train back to Port. My plan worked out well for once and I got several long shots of the approaching train with 87 at its head.

Once I had squelched back to the car across the peat bogs I headed for Beddgelert. I managed to be on the move before the train left Rhyd Ddu so had plenty of time to get to Bryn y Felin bridge, park up and cross the river to get a nice shot of the train crossing the bridge. The sunshine was somewhat intermittent so shooting up at the train from the beach got the maximum amount of blue sky into frame.

Next dash was from Aberglaslyn to Pont Croesor where I was just in time to get a couple of shots on the bridge.

Palmerston

Having decided to make a DVD of the England locos I've started rumaging through old footage to see what I was useable and what will need to be shot new for the project. The simple answer was that I have some of Palmerston mostly from the Vintage Shuttle that ran to TYB last summer and virtually nothing of the other three. I have fottage of Prince from before he retired but it was all shot on the old camera and so isn't really up to scratch. Welsh Pony is in a cupboard and Princess is in the bar down stairs, I will go and get some shots of her next week once my new light for the camera arrives.

The upshot of this is that I've re edited the Vintage Shuttle footage which is what you can see here.

Work flow

I've edited the waterfall footage that I shot the other day and combined it with some which I shot last year of the Ceunant Mawr falls on the side of Snowdon. Thought it might be of interest to see how it came out. The opening shot of rain is the view from my back garden, by the way. On a nice day you can see Snowdon, on the day I shot this... you couldn't.

The sun has finally come out today and looks like it might carry on doing so so hopefully I will be able to get out and about the WHR to get the shots I need to complete the DVD postcard.

Another project has started its gestation today and this is a DVD postcard of the Englands to celebrate next years 150th anniversary of steam. I have some nice footage of Palmerston with the vintage shuttle but anything I have of Prince is not HD and certainly Welsh Pony and Princess are not recorded.

All fall down

Despite being on holiday to do some decorating and other joyful jobs around the house, I decided that a trip to Swallow falls and the Miner's bridge at Betws y Coed would be a good idea. It was, the recent torrential rain had left the river very swollen and therefore the falls more impressive than ever. It will make a nice segment in the Year in Snowdonia DVD, I'll start with some footage of torrential rain on tourists and then go on to say how the horrid weather has the side effect of making waterfalls look good.

Round and round

I've been in the office today making DVDs to sell. Printing the labels on the disks, burning the disks, printing the box inserts and the putting them together. Very dull but commercially worthwhile. While I did this I added yesterdays shots to the WHR postcard to good effect and also slug together some of the video I shot in the afternoon of Olympic flame day. It doesn't tell a story but you might enjoy a trip through Moelwyn tunnel.

The sun was shining too which is a nice memory. Maybe it will again one day...

Weather the weather be nice

I went up to TYB to deliver some stock to the shop and took my camera with me, just in case but the weather was grey and dull and the midges were busy eating me so I came back to Port. On the way I noticed that the sky looked clear blue towards Caernarfon so I decided to up sticks and try to get some shots for the WHR postcard.

First location was to be the Aberglaslyn but there were so many cars I couldn't find anywhere to park and abandoned that idea. I looked at the timetable and realised that my best bet was to get the opening shot from the second footbridge over the line in Caernarfon. You can get the castle and the train in one shot and the sun was shining from a blue sky, hopefully 143 will look nice in its green livery. I then hopped in the car and shot over to Betws Garmon station site in time to get a nice long shot of the train on its way.

I won't really know till I see it on the editing screen tomorrow but hopefully I can cross three shots of the long list of those I need for this project.

Postcard work

I've been starting work on constructing the second version WHR DVD postcard as we've nearly sold all 5000 of the V1. This time the journey will be complete whereas previously we had only got as far as Hafod y Llyn.

I started from scratch, all that remains is the music track; I have made this a couple of minutes longer by chopping it up, and looping some sections into repeats. This has left it a bit long in places without variation so I will add some more synthesizer in a couple of places to jolly it along.

This version will use all footage shot on the new camera and so will be very high quality, technically, all I need now is some sunshine to finish shooting where I have gaps. A trip up and down the line on a sunny day in the open coach should get most of it and then a couple of days chasing trains. I will find someone to take me line side in a couple of places as there are some shots that you can't get from public places.

This monday was a busy day with the Olympic flame coming down the FR in the morning and then I accompanied a BBC documentary crew to Moelwyn tunnel where they were shooting interviews for a documentary which will be on BBC4 in the autumn. It is all about the deviation and promises to be very interesting. This is them about to enter tunnel south.

And just to prove I was there, here is the famous flame.