mini shells

My Walk this Week 131 – Swansea Bay Shells

The shells have it in my walk this week on the beach in Swansea Bay – big ones, little ones and multiply connected ones. A beautiful day and some much needed space – there would have been peace as well if it hadn’t been for a light aircraft performing aerobatics overhead. But that was quite an interesting sound, and anyway, as I walked down the beach the sound of the waves masked that in the sky. I’ll post the soundscape on Friday as usual.

multiple shells

One of the best things about Swansea Bay is the expanse of beach when the tide is out and that space was just what I wanted on this morning. There were plenty of other people about enjoying the sunshine and sand (and indeed the blue sky above), but none of that hemmed in any individual and everyone was able to wander the shore in relative solitude and enjoy it in their own way.Continue reading

sand surface

My Walk this Week and the Influence of Angle

My walk this week is one I have taken many times but as always, the conditions are different every time. On this occasion it was the angle from which I was viewing things that had a strong the influence on my photography of the walk.

beach love

For instance, it may be obvious to many of you what the image above shows, but as I passed by on Swansea Bay’s wonderful expansive beach, for some reason I thought to myself, “That’s a funny thing to draw in shells on the beach” – I thought it looked like a boot! (I know, don’t ask! Lol). Continue reading

Taste of Gower Oxwich 5 – Breaking the Rules of Photography

couple on beach

During this Taste of Gower walk at Oxwich I had conversations with a couple of people about photography and the “rule” of not taking photographs into the sun or keeping the light behind you.  It’s not a bad rule in general and particularly useful for holiday snapshots. Apart from any tricks of the trade which can be used when you need to shoot into the light, deliberately taking a shot against the light can give some very interesting results and indeed, if you want silhouettes this is the way to get them.

Continue reading

Beach Finds

All sorts of stuff had been washed up on the beach to entertain me on my Swansea Bay walk this week. Everything from a colourful tree stump to a limbless doll. The sand, too, gets washed up into some interesting drifts – I can only imagine the state of the windows of the apartments on the promenade. Having lived on a seafront in the past, I know how quickly the salt and sand builds up in the Winter months.

Beached Wood

A Comparison of Stones and Shells in Time

A couple of weeks ago I posted photos from a similar position to the image you see below – Keeping Things in Perspective

Now, following the crazy weather and high tides that we have had in the south and west of the UK (to say nothing of the rest of the country), the landscape has been changed. The coast has seen massive stacks and arches disappear. Here in Swansea, the scene on the beach perhaps bears no comparison to those fallen stacks, but it is still notably different to that which I photographed a fortnight ago.

Hundreds of tons of stones now sit at the bottom of these steps where before there was a water filled trench. The solitary shell I photographed in the sand two weeks ago now has hundreds of companions.

Swansea Bay Stones

Swansea Bay ShellsSorry to those who expect it but there is no featured StillWalks video this week. It will be back next week.