The now abdanoned Cwm Coke works site is an impressive, historical reminder of the hard, dirty work that was carried out through much of the Welsh valleys in its proud coal mining heyday.

The large Cwm Coking Works complex first opened in 1958. Coal was originally supplied from the adjacent Cwm Colliery until its closure in 1986 since when coal was brought to the site by road and rail from various sources. The works supplied coke to the four sites of the British Sugar Corporation and Britannia Zinc at Avonmouth, and produced by-products of gas (which it supplied to a local hospital), tar and ammonium sulphate. The works closed in 2003.

After watching a photography video on youtube that focussed on a visit to the site by an Canadian photographer, I felt compelled to give the Cwm site a visit for myself, and although no longer accessible through legal means, the exterior provides some great photo opportunities especially when explored with a lens with a decent reach.

I was lucky enough to test out the Canon R6 during this weekend and pair it with a number of different RF glass, including the RF 24-105mm f4 L IS USM lens, the RF 50mm 1.8 STM lens and perhaps most interestingly the RF 600mm f11 IS STM lens coupled with an RF 1.4 extender.

A number of the close up images featured here of the chimney stack and exposed staircases below were captured using this 600mm lens, and for it’s lightness, price and portability, it is an interesting alternative to some of the extremely expensive super reach Canon L lenses. Image quality is in my opinion very useable when taken in good light, being that it’s a 600mm prime lens with a fixed f11 aperture, this might start alarm bells ringing to many photographers, but when coupled with the R6 or R5, and by upping the ISO rating, this doesn’t prove to be a problem in capturing sharp well balanced images in most situations other than very low light. It also does a decent job of providing some defined isolation of the subject from it’s background in many instances.

The Canon R6 is a fantastic full frame mirrorless proposition only currently superseded by the R5 in the Canon stable, with the eagerly awaited R3 coming soon. But the R5 comes in at a budget breaking price tag, so if you don’t require 8K video and 45 megapixels then I would definitely recommend the Canon R6 as serious proposition for any Canon user looking to upgrade from their DSLR camera.

All photographs captured on Sunday 1st August 2021 at the old Cwm coke works in Tynant on a Canon R6 with paired with multiple RF lenses including a RF 24-105mm f4 L IS USM lens for some wide shots, a RF 50mm f1.8 STM prime lens, and the aforementioned RF 600mm f11 IS STM prime lens. © Hall Photographic 2021 - All Rights Reserved.