I said yesterday that my walk along Swansea Bay had changeable weather. I promise it does change – by that, I mean it stops raining! I suspect from the evidence of discarded bottles that it was not raining the previous night.
Tag Archives: Swansea Bay
My Walk this Week 20 – Bay Walk
My walk this week sees more changeable weather. There were plenty of other people walking and running in spite of the wintry wet conditions which says something for the attraction of Swansea Bay. Fortunately, from the point of view of photography, what can feel like miserable weather for walking, can produce some “atmospheric” images.
Looking out for those shots can also help with the mental attitude to walking in this weather and as it didn’t continue raining for too long, the walk was in fact very refreshing and entertaining.
It wasn’t just the able bodied who were using the promenade – having said that, take a close look and you will see that the runner below is clearly very able bodied!
If you listen carefully to the sound clip below, you should hear the intermittent tone of Mumbles lighthouse in the distance as well as footsteps and an intrepid cyclist.
Windy Seafront
If viewing this in an email, to see the sound player you will need to visit the blog – please click the post title to view the full post.
Mist, Murk and Reviewing the Week 10
The Meridian Tower is the main structure that can be identified in this misty, murky shot across Swansea Bay from Mumbles. So ends a week of photos taken in dull, damp weather – I hope you have enjoyed them in spite of the weather.
A gallery of all the images I have posted this week can be seen below.
Intention and Interpretation
I didn’t have to pick out these photos from the shoot I did on that dreary day in Mumbles – for that matter, I didn’t have to take the photos in the first place. The images were processed and uploaded a week ago and now that I come to write this post, I wonder what my reasoning may have been. What was my intention and what might be my, or your interpretation of them?
I find I am reading things into them now that may have been sub-conscious at the time of production or even post production – but that time to reflect is very valuable. All of the work I have produced as an artist over the years was made over greater or lesser amounts of time, naturally, but just as the meaning of a piece of art can be different for each individual, so it can also change for the artist.
Some of my other art work can be seen here.
Monochrome Mumbles
For some reason I had the impulse to process this image in sepia tone. Adding a bit of grain, it is given an aged look (as sepia does), as if it were a shot of Swansea Bay from Mumbles taken a century ago. Of course there are a number of tell tale signs that this could not be the case. The most obvious is perhaps the wind turbine.
The image can also be seen on Leanne Cole’s Photography blog and Monochrome Madness 46.
A Visit to Mumbles
Last week I had to visit Mumbles – a very popular place at the western end of Swansea Bay and at the gateway to the Gower Peninsula. It is a major tourist attraction and I enjoyed my short visit despite the dreary weather. Unfortunately my reason for visiting was to collect some videos from the Tourist Information Centre or TIC which had just closed.
It seems illogical to me to do this. I imagine it is partly because it is so much cheaper to deliver these services online. However, a balance of digital and “hard copy” is what I have always believed to be the best and most cost effective means of delivering a service or resource. I suspect that both visitors and town will loose out as a result of this change and I hope that the centre is able to set up afresh in a new premises.
The structures in the first image are Mumbles Pier and the new RNLI Lifeboat Station.
Focusing on Perspective
Walking out on Swansea harbour wall or pier, I had forgotten just how long it is – deceptively so. The tidal range in Swansea Bay is big in so far as the sea goes out a long way and I guess a tidal harbour in a location like this needs those long walls.
The distance and scale of the structure can play havoc with your sense of perspective and space.
