Early Morning Sounds

I am currently working on the photography and sound from a production day in mid Summer at Troserch Woodland, Carmarthenshire, South Wales.

The unique field recording of the walk is absolutely essential if a sense of the location is to be conveyed. This sound clip near the start of the walk has a time stamp of 4:43 on the morning of 20th July and whilst the the images remind me of what the sky looked like and that there was a horse in the field, the recorded sounds take me (and you too, I hope) straight to the time and place and give me so much more information.

Sunrise at Troserch

Sunrise at Troserch

Good Morning!

Good Morning, you’re up early!

French Evening Walk – The StillWalks Video

Finally, here is the French Evening Walk StillWalks video I previewed on this blog a few weeks ago. It’s only taken a year to finish it off but I am pleased with the results. I hope you enjoy it.

Take the opportunity to watch and listen to it while you can because this 480p video is full length, but only for a while. The StillWalks videos on the website are now all sample length low resolution versions which are available to buy in a range of formats.

The walk takes place in the Indre et Loire region of France – specifically along the tiny road from the medieval village of Faye La Vineuse to St Christophe. It is a beautiful and peaceful part of the French countryside which lies a few miles south of Richelieu, the town designed and built by Cardinal Richelieu (think the Three Musketeers).

If you are seeing this in an email, click the image below to go to the blog and play the video.

Visit the StillWalks website for more videos

Selected images from the shoot are available on the StillWalks Photography site.

Planning a Walk – Walking on the Gower

Please visit the StillWalks website

A few weeks ago I was asked if I would be interested in writing a regular article about my walks in the Swansea and South Wales area for the online version of the South Wales Evening Post. So, with the interests of StillWalks in mind and what they are all about, I will be posting up my sixth article today – My Walk this Week – from Parc-Le-Breos House.

I have recently been planning StillWalks Sights and Sounds Tag Along Days and this has necessitated exploring possible walk routes in suitable places. This not only serves the intended  purpose of setting up these events / workshops, but also provides me with good material for the Evening Post article.

My first exploration was to Parc-Le-Breos House. The reason for selecting this as a starting point is the number of already planned walks that start from the Bed and Breakfast and include some beautiful areas on the Gower Peninsula. Also, there is the option for refreshments and facilities and the use of a room for review of photography and sound clips produced on the Tag Along walk.

Below are a couple of the photos I got on my recce walk. I will talk more about this and post more photos over the next couple of days and a selection of the images are available at the StillWalks Photography website on PhotoShelter.

Park Le Bruce Burial Chamber

Giant’s Grave, Green Cwm

Flowers along the wayside

Flowers along the wayside

Long Oaks Woodland

Long Oaks Woodland at Parc-le-Breos

Walking Through the Gates

A recce walk through recently discovered woodland revealed a number of elements that can be very useful in the production of a StillWalk.

Gates, both the images and the sounds can, in the sequence of a StillWalk, provide a visual and aural way marker and in doing so, give a sense of progression. If the gates are of different design or in different states of repair, this too can be recognised as a way marker if the walk is circular, sending a message to the viewer that they are on the return journey.

There were several gates along the River Morlais leading into Troserch Woods. All were either of different design, at different angles, more or less rusted . . .

The sounds of the gates are also unique, though this is as much because of the surrounding conditions as the type of gate – here is an example from StillWalks on SoundCloud.

World Listening Day

I posted these sounds to all my other social media platforms this morning but held back until now to post it here.

The sounds were recorded during my recce walk for a new StillWalk video along a stretch of recently discovered river and woodland near where I live.

The video will obviously not include the Lancaster Bomber as it won’t be around when I do the actual production walk but it was good to hear on its way home from the annual air show at Swansea.

Click here or above to listen.