The Snowdon Horseshoe

This was an image that I had anticipated capturing for more than twenty five years. I recall seeing this view of The Snowdon Horseshoe from just outside Capel Curig during several of my earliest exploits into the mountains of Snowdonia in the 1970's and I had captured a view from alongside the Llynnau Mymbyr with one of the very first cameras that I owned. However, sadly, the camera did not perform very well and I recall using a very fast and coarse grained film that did not produce very pleasing results.

And so when I purchased the Fuji GX617 panoramic camera in 1998, this was one of the first images that I was minded to capture. However I was soon to find that the standard 90mm lens that accompanied the GX617 had far too wide an angle of view for the composition that I was planning; only the 300mm lens would give me the result that I wanted. That lack of planning resulted in a missed opportunity and a delay of a further year in capturing this image whilst I obtained and assessed the suitability of the longer focus lens.

When I arrived at Royal Bridge, Capel Curig beside the Llynnau Mymbyr early one morning in early April following a very mild winter, the waters were still, the air was warm and the mountains were completely clear of snow. It was an ideal, gentle if slightly hazy scene, but one so typical of the Snowdon Horseshoe at this time of year.