Mastering the Art of Landscape Photography with Ian Asprey ( Landscape Photographer of the Year 2021 )

Join me for this YouTube LIVE Broadcast as we delve into the world of landscape photography with Ian Asprey - Landscape Photographer of the Year 2021.

From breathtaking vistas to the intricate details of composition, Ian will share his insights, techniques, and tales from behind the lens. Watch the recording of this LIVE Broadcast to discover the secrets behind his award-winning shots and be inspired by a Master of the Craft.

Links mentioned during the LIVE Broadcast

Ian Asprey Website: www.ianaspreyphotography.co.uk

Facebook: facebook.com/ian.asprey

Instagram: @landscapes_ianasprey

Mark Andreas Jones: www.markandreasjones.com/

Lightroom Virtual Summit 2024: bit.ly/lvs-2024

( YouTube LIVE ) DRAMATIC Stormy Sea Capture + Retouch: Complete Mobile Workflow

This is the recording of a YouTube LIVE Broadcast from Thursday 20th July 2023 where I go through the entire workflow from capture with an iPhone and all the editing steps in Lightroom and Photoshop Beta also making use Generative Fill A.I.

North Wales Road-Trip 2023

I write this post as a diary entry so that I can look back in it in years to come and remember a great few days away with a great friend, and getting the opportunity to spend some quality time together to chat … and I mean really chat.

• • •

So this past weekend (Friday thru Sunday) I headed out on a Road-Trip around areas in North Wales with my great friend Brian Dukes.

We’d been speaking about doing this for quite a while, and so a few weeks back finally managed to put a date in the diary and before we knew it, we were heading off.

First stop took us from Cardiff where we’d left my car at another friends’ house, Anthony Crothers, then on to Abergavenny for some dinner and finally to Builth Wells for our first stop-over.

We didn’t arrive until around 9.30pm so after an ‘interesting’ greeting from the owner of the B&B (our fault for being so late) we headed out for a quick drink and then it was lights out for an early start the following day.

After breakfast we made our way to Devils Bridge Falls situated in the heart of the Cambrian Mountains, Mid Wales.

A famous location attracting tourists year round, armed with mimimal kit consisting of just our iPhones and Tripods (although I was carrying more kit for filming) we made our way down the seemingly endless steep steps into the depths.

The effort was well worth it though when we got to see the waterfalls which with all the greenery on the surroundings trees and plants, looked stunning.

We followed the route around the base and back up the other side, stopping occasioanlly to take some photographs and grab some video content with my 360 camera.

iPhone 14 Pro Max

10 second long exposure using the ReeXpose App

A great cardio and leg workout and a great first location and a great start to the Road-Trip!

After a spot of lunch at the Hafod Hotel (well worth a visit) which is directly opposite the entrance to Devils Bridge Falls, we then set off towards Bangor, passing through some incredible scenery en-route including the Abergwesyn Pass.

DJI Mini 3 Pro

DJI Mini 3 Pro

Having arrived at the hotel for our 2nd night stop, The Slate, Bangor (which was fabulous) we quickly checked in and then headed the short journey to the Menai Suspension Bridge.

I kept saying it all weekend, but wow, we were so incredibly fortunate with the weather being as good as it was and with there being some incredible clouds too.

We walked across the bridge and made our way down to ground level below the bridge and found a very well positioned grassed area for taking photographs.

It was so good being there with no concern of time or schedule and just hanging out with a friend, taking photographs and capturing video content.

iPhone 14 Pro Max
60 second long exposure using the ReeXpose App

We were both using the ReeXpose and ReeHeld long exposure apps on our iPhones, which definitely contributed to the whole experience being so relaxing not having to carry or think about so much additional kit … just incase.

Having captured all we wanted, it was then back to the hotel for a quick freshen up, a delicious dinner (Brian had Fillet Steak and I had Surf n’ Turf which set off the hotel fire alarm) and then the short drive over Britannia Bridge and onto Anglesey.

I’d been wanting to go here for a few years to photograph the Twr Mawr Lighthouse; a location that has been photographed thousands upon thousands of times … but not by us and certainly not by us with our iPhones.

The walk across the beach to the lighthouse takes about 40 minutes and would be great to do at a steady pace, but we definitely had our marching boots on so we could be sure to get near the lighthouse before sunset which was just over an hour away.

The lighthouse and where its situated is as stunning as I was led to believe. WOW! So incredibly peaceful with only the sound of the sea and the many varied sea birds in the area.

iPhone 14 Pro Max
30 second long exposure using the ReeXpose App

There was unfortuantely a little bit too much low cloud shielding the setting sun from casting warm shafts of light across the landscape, but despite that we were both really pleased with what we saw and captured, and hey … there’s always next time.

Having covered several hundred miles and been to some spectacular scenery along the way, it was time to head back to the hotel and relax, chat, have a cold drink and as we did, enjoy watching Guns n’ Roses LIVE on TV from Glastonbury 😃

The next morning after breakfast we then started making our way slowly back towards Cardiff, but en-route stopping off at a few places so as to take in as much as we could and just enjoy friends spending quality time together.

First stop was to Betws-y-Coed which is somewhere I’d spent quite a bit of time as a child doing activities such as orienteering, rock climbing, canoeing and so on, and being there brought back so many great memories.

The weather, although still fabulous, wasn’t really ideal for photographs so we both just ‘went with the flow’.

After maybe a couple of hours we then headed on to Aberdovey through the outstanding Snowdonia National Park, stopped over in one of my favourite places, Aberaeron to grab a drink and a light snack at the Harbour Master, and then continued making our way back to Cardiff … our final destination where we then met up with friends, Anthony Crothers, Ian Munro and Gerwyn Williams for a meal together celebrating Ian’s recent success in the Natural World Bodybuilding Championships.

So that was it; our 2 ½ / 3 day Road-Trip that was over in flash, or so it seemed.

Great fun. Great memories.

Roll on the next Road-Trip!

iPhone Photography: A Misty Morning at Lyme Regis in Dorset

The misty conditions last Wednesday were nothing short of perfect for some minimalist photography, so I popped out early morning and took the short drive to meet up with my friend Steve Healy down at my favourite of all places, Lyme Regis.

True to the weather apps, the conditions were as predicted; a wonderful misty morning, an incoming tide with the surface of the sea as flat as a sheet of glass, hardly a breeze in the air and looking out across the sea, at times it was almost impossible to see the distant horizon line.

Absolutely Perfect!

I should have sent a memo about dress code 🤣

Taking along minimal kit as I did when photographing the Prince of Wales Bridge a couple of weeks back, I stuck with using my iPhone 14 Pro Max, but this time made use of my new JOBY MagSafe Mount ( LINK )

This worked an absolute treat holding my iPhone rock steady and was so incredibly quick and easy to adjust and rotate from portrait orientation to landscape orientation …

Long Exposure Photography was definitely order of the day to enhance the calm, relaxing feeling of the light and the mist, and of course smooth out the water surface even more.

I’ve a few long exposure apps installed on my iPhone at the moment that I’m testing out to see which I prefer, but on this morning I opted again to use EvenLonger …

For the image above, I used a 60 second long exposure.

We then moved along to The Cobb, which looked incredible amongst the mist and surrounded by a glass flat high tide …

The tide was particularly high this morning, meaning the groin at the far end of The Cobb was much less visible.

In this image and the one above, you can really see how the mist made the horizon barely visible, which when combined with a long exposure worked, I feel, so incredibly well …

In each of these images you will have spotted that there were Gulls flying. To include these, once I had taken the long exposure, I then jumped back to the regular camera on my iPhone and waited for the moment when Gulls flew through the frame.

When they did I pressed the shutter a number of times using a Bluetooth Shutter Release which works a treat and only cost £3.99 off Amazon ( LINK )

99% of these images I edited in Lightroom Mobile and Photoshop on my iPad, but to add the Gulls I used Photoshop CC on my desktop as I needed to use a filter and (at the moment) that filter isn’t available in the mobile version of Photoshop.

That said though, the process was so incredibly easy editing on my iPad, and then because everything I do syncs automatically with every device I have Lightroom installed, I could then finish off on my desktop without having to export anything or import from memory cards.

Everything I do on any device be it my iPhone, iPad or Desktop, syncs across each other making it instantly available everywhere.

Oh and the text and graphics were added using Adobe Express …

So another incredibly relaxing morning out taking photographs with my iPhone.

Minimal kit. No swapping out lenses. No attaching filters. No cables.

All of this for me makes for such a wonderful experience, enabling me to relax and just enjoy being where I am and absorb the sights and sounds.

The experience of taking photographs just doesn’t get better!