North Wales in Film
2020 was a strange year as it was the first since I can remember that I didn’t spend time in Wales. So, it was great in 2021 to be able go back to South Wales (as I talked about in a previous blog) and then the month following going back to North Wales where I spent four years studying at Bangor University. Back then I couldn’t drive let alone own a car which meant there was a fair few things I never got around to exploring. I only had a few days up there, but it was great to visit places old and new whilst taking photos with my Nikon F100 (expired Fuji Acros 100) and Bronica SQ-A (Portra 800).
One of the things I was most keen on doing was revisiting Treborth Botanical Garden where I spent time volunteering (moth trapping) and Bangor itself. Treborth is well worth visiting whether it’s just walking the grounds or having the opportunity to poke your head into the tropical house. There’s also a great coastal path that runs from it and down the Menai Strait, which gives great views of the coast and takes you underneath Britannia Bridge.
The last time I was at either was when I graduated from my Masters in 2016, but upon arriving in Bangor I didn’t feel as I expected I would. This city played an important part of my life and I had been itching to get back and see it again. What was different? What had stayed the same? But once I spent time there my feelings about it changed. I’m not sure what I was really expecting but I was left with the feeling of a strange sense of closure. Bangor was much the same with a few shops having come and gone (and that damned Pontio building finally being completed) but being there made me appreciate how much I had changed. Having accrued much more experience and perspective whilst working first for a company and now myself, I am different person now to who I was then, and it really did feel like I had outgrown the place. What further enhanced this feeling was visiting my first year Halls of Residence, all boarded up having been closed for several years.
That’s not to say I look back on by time there with regret or anything, it just made it clear that that chapter of my life has closed, and this was the final epilogue to sign it all off. I didn’t have to wonder anymore, and I don’t now have any strong feelings about going back again. There’s plenty of other places in North Wales to visit and I’d rather spend my time exploring those in the future.
For the rest of the trip I whizzed around Snowdonia, visiting Swallow Falls (which I hadn’t been to before), Llyn Ogwen (which I had many times before) and a few things inbetween. I wrapped up on the final day with Synchant Pass, which I was never even aware of previously, and which made a great location for that day’s photoshoot for Rolls-Royce & Bentley Driver. I did also manage to squeeze a quick trip over the bridge to Anglesey, but I ran out of time to go any further than Menai itself. Still, November isn’t exactly beach season so perhaps next time I ought to be back in Summer.
I really enjoyed taking all my trip photos on film. It was a bit of an experiment but slowing down completely gave myself a lot more time to think. Not just about the images but also the places I was going to as well. With all that has gone in over the past two years it was a rather pleasant thing to have done.
I hope you enjoy the photos I took and let me know if you have done any trips recently that you have shot mostly or entirely on film. Also have you felt the same way about a place you went to university or used to live as I did? Let me know in the comments down below.
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