My walk this week at sundown in Llanelli Bay on the Loughor Estuary allowed me to look out across the mudflats and listen to the gentle ambience of the place as well as enjoy the colours and reflections of the golden sunlight.
Like the background sound of a light aircraft on my walk last week in Swansea Bay, there was the almost constant sound of vehicles on the mud and sand doing an unknown but seemingly specific task. However, it did not spoil the soundscape and the calls of various birds mingled with those of children and excited dogsContinue reading→
My walk this week is from another bay not far from where I was walking last week and though it is quite different, it is just as expansive as the last one. Llanelli Bay on the Loughor Estuary in Wales provides just about as long a walk as you would like but I stuck to the eastern end of it thinking there might be fewer people there.
Please understand that I am not desperate to get away from people (I like people really) but I also like my solitary walks. You will be ale to hear in my soundscape for this week (to be posted as usual on Friday) that if there were not crowds of people, the sounds of those that were there, particularly children and dogs, carried easily in across the mud flats and sand. Continue reading→
Earlier this week I posted the images on the left of those below straight from my iPhone without any post-production adjustments. I hope you will agree with me that the adjusted versions are an improvement.
The photos were taken pretty much as snapshots. I did not spend any time in setting up the shots and next to no time looking at different angles or alternative compositions. The best work you’ll ever do in post-production will always be with those images that need least doing to them. It is useful, however, to be able to make some improvements to shots taken on the fly.
The photos were taken with the iPhone app ProCamera. Initial adjustments were made on the phone using the same app and further adjustments made in Adobe Lightroom followed by some sharpening and noise removal with Google’s Nik software.
Yesterday we felt the last remaining vestiges of Hurricane Bertha in the form of a brief sandblasting on the Millennium Park footpath on the seafront at Llanelli.
We were not long out of the car before we changed our minds about a place to go for a walk and headed for the woodland walk up to the reservoir in Swiss Valley instead.
The sand being blown off the beach felt like needles on the skin and although it wasn’t raining at the time, the locals clearly knew not to venture on the seafront when the wind is up as the place was empty of people. Swiss Valley on the other hand was relatively busy!
Why the area is called Swiss Valley, I do not know! It is clearly not in Switzerland but a beautiful area in South West Wales. The photos were taken on my iPhone – I love the snaking shape of the reservoir overflow but that particular image needed some work on it.
Behind the new apartments and Discovery Centre in the Millennium Coastal Park at Llanelli, there is another discovery to be made. Llanelli has recently been seeing some significant developments and they are good to see.
However, just because something is old and unused does not mean it has no interest. Walking back towards the Discovery Centre, the remains of industry in the area can be seen and I was drawn over to take a closer look. All photos taken on my iPhone.
This last shot is of one of the old hydraulic rams used with the dock gates in the old Llanelli dock yard.
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These thistles are naturally designed for this environment. More than that, they look as if they have been designed full stop! Their colour, pattern, shape, form, texture – all fit perfectly with other aspects of the area, particularly the spikiness of the grass and, of course, the contrast of the soft sand.
You wouldn’t want to sit down on one! Those spikes are mighty sharp and I guess this may be a hazard to be aware of during the Summer months in the Millennium Coastal Park at Llanelli. All photos taken on my iPhone.
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It seems evident from these photos, that the buildings along Llanelli sea front were not built using the material that can be found on the beach. The worn brick in the foreground of the first image is one example of the wide array of fascinating stone like materials that can be found (see yesterday’s post).
The apartments beside the Millennium Coastal Park Discovery Centre seem to me to be out on a bit of a limb from the rest of the town but the residents have an excellent view of the wider part of the Loughor Estuary and across to the Gower Peninsula and the old Victorian cast iron attraction of Whitford Lighthouse.
The Millennium Coastal Park is a popular place at the weekend and in fact, you will see people enjoying the walks there on any day of the week. People do not generally feature in the StillWalks videos I produce but that is not always the case and more coincidental than deliberate. However, if I am to produce a StillWalk of this area, I think I will need to include both sound and images of people if it is to reflect what the place honestly. That said, there will be fewer people there on a blustery Autumn day than on a beautiful Summers day but it is strange that the photos below have not one person in them as it was relatively busy on the day. All photos were taken on my iPhone.
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