The Elan valley and its series of dams is one of mid Wales most visited areas of natural beauty. An area frequented by ramblers and picnickers alike. These dams which were first built at the end of the 19th century, and the surrounding country side, make for some stunning vistas. Barren hill sides and ghostly ancient trees, growing out of the rocks. For this reason celtic retro physche band "Celtic Vagabond" decided to use this architectural backdrop to do a promotional photo shoot for their much awaited second album, "We Come In Peace".

One cold but sunny sunday afternoon in Febuary they took to the road with photographer, Rory "Blind Eye" Chapman in the direction of the Elan Valley. Camera loaded with rolls of celluloid for a real old school black and white photo shoot.

"I prefer shooting on film because there’s a texture to the image and there’s always anticipation from not knowing what the photo will look like once it’s developed."

They first stopped at the Craig Goch dam, that spans magestically across the Elan river. Its massive 36 meter high and 156 meter long structure holds back over 9000 megalitres of fresh Welsh water. It truly is the gem of the Elan valley.

At the end of the afternoon, treated to a beautiful Ceredigion sunset they all went home and that was the end of that. A successful days shoot. Now all that remained was to wait for the films to be developed.

Alien, Ghost or passer by ?

The following weekend Rory put to the task of developing the reels of 35mm Fomapan 100. Much to his surprise, in the background of one of the shots was a strange figure standing on top of the dam. A figure that had not been there when he took the photo. At first he assumed it was a double exposure but closer examination disproved this idea and the only conclusion left, was that this ghostly alien like figure had actually appeared at the time the photo was taken.



Photographs by Rory"Blind Eye"Chapman