a ghostly mishap maybe

Aaaahh - Craig y Nos Country Park.

Such a tranquil and peaceful place, and one I cherish visiting whenever I go there.

On one such visit last month though, the air was shattered by my screams.  I'd gone there with my family to take some photographs, and while they headed back to the car, carrying my camera bag for me, I lagged behind with just my camera on its tripod.

I stopped from time to time to take some images, but the one I really wanted of a rhododendron petal carpeted path was not to be.

Anyway, I'd been there for well over an hour and taken numerous other photos so I was quite happy.  I joked with my daughter that the castle and the grounds of the park are reputedly haunted by its creator, Dame Adelina Patti - a true global superstar opera singer who's ghost is also reputed to haunt the Grand Theatre in Swansea.

Bethan warned me about making jokes about the paranormal.  But as a staunch sceptic I ignored her.

Until that is I got back to the car and for no reason my camera fell off the tripod and straight onto the hard surface of the car park.  Luckily there was no damage to it or the lens on it, but there was no reason for it to have fallen.  It had been securely fastened and jigged around for over an hour.  And when later that evening I tried to  recreate the incident at home, even with the locking mechanism loosened off I could not dislodge the camera easily.

Truly bizarre.

Anyway, here are a couple of images from our evening out.

Fujifilm GFX100, Fujinon GF23mm f4
1/8th of a second at f16, ISO 640
tripod, self-timer release

Fujifilm GFX100, Fujinon GF23mm f4
1/10th of a second at f16, ISO 640
tripod, self-timer release

One thing I can't blame on any ghostly interference is forgetting to reset the ISO back to 100 from the 640 I'd used while shooting indoors the previous day!

You can see the beauty of the park by watching this week's video.  It's a really beautiful park and the video deserves a watch, so go on…