Tag Archives: stillwalks

Seeing Snippets with a Photographic Blinker

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I like to think that I would spot different details or snippets of my surroundings regardless of the photographic blinker provided by a camera. But I also think that using a camera over the years has helped me to put a mental frame around aspects of my local environment that has allowed me more easily to focus on certain details.

On my walk this week along Aberavon seafront I took many photos, both detail shots and wide angle. Thinking of using them and my field recordings for a StillWalks video of this time and place, it was important for me to view the bigger picture as well as the details. The “bigger picture” shots below reveal that the sea fret that had lifted a little for a while, had descended again to mask the details in the distance.

sea wall snippet

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My Walk this Week – Autumn Circuit

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My walk this week is a local circular walk and anyone  living in the area should recognise just from the glimpse of the road sign in the first image, exactly where it is. The walk is a very enjoyable one that provides both exertion on the climb uphill and peace and tranquility in the valley return.

As with my StillWalks videos I have not identified where the walk is to anyone who doesn’t already know it because the location is not relevant. It is the sights and sounds and the signs of the season that I enjoy on my walks and in that respect this first post for my walk this week are the walls alongside the footpath that were of particular interest to me.

road sign and railing

Avian Profiles in Roath Park

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Nearing the end of my walk this week and one of the eastern exits to Roath Park in Cardiff, I am struck by the classic pose set by this cormorant. There are many, many birds of many different species in Roath Park but determining the variety of any specific bird is somewhat of a challenge to me. So I think this is a cormorant and the other avian profile in the images below I think is a Yellow Legged Gull in its first year . . . but don’t quote me on it. The swans I know are swans but what variety of swan I could not say.

Not being able to identify many of the creatures, avian or otherwise, or much of the plant life I see around me in any given environment, does not reduce or hamper my enjoyment and appreciation of that environment, either natural or urban. The naming and labelling of things has its advantages when it comes to communication and understanding but for the purposes of StillWalks and my own personal enjoyment of my surroundings and the benefits I get from it, it is not necessary to name everything. Indeed, considering that StillWalks videos have no voiceovers (or music), it is not necessary to name anything! It is only in my blog posts that you will “hear my voice” so to speak.

cormorant

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Reflecting
cormorant concentrating

Waves of Stone

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Having first visited Nash Point Lighthouse on my walk this week, we actually started our circular walk at site of the StillWalks production “Breakers Walk”. From there we walked along the cliff tops back towards the Nash Point. The tide was out and the view over the wave platforms of this stretch of the South Wales coast were incredible. The patterns of those waves of stone were so clear – it was as though time had frozen still and allowed the structures to form in an instant.

Waves of Stone

Waves of Stone

wave platform

 

Nash Point footpath

Descent to Nash Point

Simple Peace

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At the foot of the hill on my walk this week, I parted ways with the other walkers on our geology walk up Cefn Drum. They had arrived for the walk by car whereas I had walked. The route by car is beautiful but the walking route is better still if only for the simple peace on a quiet day.

I only had the sheep and the river, the Afon Dulais, for company and looking at these images and listening to the sound clip takes me back to that peace.

I sometimes use my StillWalks videos as a means of relaxation at the end of the day but if I find myself unable to sleep through the night the most effective means of calming my mind is to relive one of my walks in my imagination. Photos such as those below describe a simple everyday aspect of the landscape but they still work as an effective trigger for my memory and when accompanied by the field recording, the sense of being there (at least in mind) is greatly strengthened.

Walking Home

sheep in the way

sheep in the way

Afon Dulais

Afon Dulais

Buttercups

Buttercups

My Walk this Week – Woodland Wander

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My walk this week takes me back to Penllergare Valley Woods. I have produced StillWalks videos of all four seasons here but that is no reason not to take another look. In this walk the conditions are inevitably different and as well as that, further work has been done in the park by The Penllergare Trust volunteers.

I don’t remember this arbour and arch being here perviously and of course, the next time I visit, it will have grown more and changed again.

willow arbour in the making

I wil  be posting just one or two sound clips from the woods through this week, but I have a soundscape for the walk to post on Sunday with the walk review.

Penllergare Woodland Sounds

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Reviewing the Walk – Snowdonia Recce

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This was one of my last views on my recce walk through the Lledr Valley in Snowdonia, North Wales. I didn’t manage to do any field recording on this walk so I am afraid there is no soundscape again this week, but a sequence of selected photos from through the week can be viewed below.

Lledr Valley Mist

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Downhill Through the Woods

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Returning to the car on my recce walk this week took me through a section of pinewoods and is not the planned return route for the production walk I hope to do next week. See the event on the website for details of the walk if you are going to be in the area.

Lledr Valley Forest

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