Similarities or Differences – Moss Wood, Gnoll Park

Posted on 03/11/201303/11/2013 by Alastair

Next week’s featured StillWalks video is another wood in Autumn. Today is your last opportunity to see the current featured video from Penllergare Woods in Swansea.

Moss Wood is not just another wood in Autumn! Every woodland features trees but when you start looking at the detail and listening to the sounds, you will soon discover that the fact that a wood contains trees, is just about the only thing about them that can be said to be similar.

The trees of a deciduous wood will drop their leaves in the same season and grow new ones similarly. However, considering last week’s posts about how the seasons roll out at different rates according to location, each wood will look and sound different at any point in time.

Both Penllergare Woods and Moss Wood in Gnoll Park, Neath, have a mixture of deciduous and coniferous trees. Both have lakes and running water. In each, the leaves are turning and falling just now, and so you see similar colours. And so the similarities continue . . . and yet they are completely different.

The arrangement and prevalence of types of tree, the position and lay out of the streams, rivers and lakes – all are different. And so, inevitably, the atmosphere and sense of the two places are quite different. The weather conditions are similar in both woods as they are no more than 15 or 20 miles apart, but as the topography is different, so the sound of each place is different, and completely unique to the time and place from moment to moment.

You can use the new Donate button below to help StillWalks. Pay how much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “Woodland Walk” which is from Penllergaer Woods near Swansea, South wales. Click the image below to watch the video.

Footpath Through the Woods – The Changing Season

Posted on 02/11/201302/11/2013 by Alastair

The end of my walk through Cwm Green Woods brought me back to the clearing and car park where I heard so many pheasants earlier in the morning.

I started this week’s posts writing about the rolling out of Autumn across different areas. The leaves on the ground in the last photo of this post show the difference of change between one kind of tree and another, and the conditions of their immediate surroundings. Even within quite a small area, there can be significant difference.

The trees shown at the start of this series were just beginning to change colour whilst these ones, just a few hundred yards away, are well on their way through the season.

The Grain of Woodland Details

Posted on 01/11/201301/11/2013 by Alastair

Starting with a close up, this first photograph is a very close crop of the second shot. I particularly liked the grain effect of the exposure with a very high ISO. It seemed to suit the atmosphere of the dark place in those ancient woods by Cwm Green on the Gower Peninsula.

Most of my photography in these woods needed a high ISO as much of this environment was quite dark. Whilst I have both a monopod and a tripod, when carrying the field recorder and mic as well as kit bag and two cameras, it is just not practical to take a tripod as well and on this occasion I had not included the monopod.

However, as I say above, I think the graininess of some of the shots I took are very appropriate for the subject matter and I would be happy, as with this first shot, to emphasise it.

Light and Shade Amongst the Trees

Posted on 31/10/201331/10/2013 by Alastair

On my walk through the woods at Cwm Green on the Gower in South Wales, I felt like I was walking through ancient woodland. I cannot say how long the trees have been there but I know, from the evidence, that they are managed – there was even a footpath, thought not very well defined in places.

The woods are on hilly ground and so there were times when I was deep in the shadowy depths, and others when the effect of the sunlight making its way between the trunks or shining on autumn leaves in the canopy was . . . (searching for a word here) . . . emotional!

The first image I have posted today is one of those few occasions when I felt that a black and white panoramic crop was the best representation of the scene. The last photo is looking out of the woods and across the fields to Parc-Le-Breos House, a fantastic bed and breakfast hotel in whose grounds the woods are situated.

Interesting Objects in the Woods

Posted on 30/10/201330/10/2013 by Alastair

The sound of many pheasants in yesterday’s post was not accidental. There are many pheasants on the Gower Peninsula, but I had not seen or heard such a concentrated number of them before.

When I went into the woods at Cwm Green, I discovered various objects that seemed to have a specific purpose that appeared to relate to the rearing of pheasants, presumably for the shooting season. Not being an expert on these matters, I was only guessing at their use but the fact that there was an enclosure protected by an electric fence suggested something along these lines. In fact, I wasn’t sure that it was still in use as it looked as though it had not been tended for some time but I wasn’t going to touch the fence to find out.

What I liked was the way the other objects around the area were clearly settling nicely into their natural home and becoming a part of the woodland undergrowth. How ever much we think we can influence or control nature, in the long term, we are only a danger to ourselves if we do not respect the natural environment.

The Rolling Out of Autumn

Posted on 29/10/201329/10/2013 by Alastair

Autumn comes at different times in different places, even within a relatively small geographic radius. A few weeks ago I was at Cwm Green on the Gower Peninsula, South Wales and, as you can see in the second photo, the trees are just starting to change colour.

I am hoping that the recent strong winds we have been getting here will not shorten the process of falling leaves too much as there are a couple of places I would like to catch for a StillWalks production during this process.

This week’s photos and sounds (lots of pheasants) are from my early morning walk at Cwm Green although the featured StillWalks video this week is from another nearby woodland.

The pheasants and many other sounds can be heard below.

Pink – Botanic Gardens, Swansea

Posted on 27/10/201327/10/2013 by Alastair

More questions of identity – I knew the yellow flowers in yesterday’s post from the Botanic Gardens in Swansea, but I do not know any of these. I am sure I have seen them all before but do not know their names. Somebody help, please!

You can use the new Donate button below to help StillWalks. Pay how much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “Autumn Lakeside Walk” from Gnoll Park, Neath, South Wales. Click the image below to watch the video.

Yellow – Botanic Gardens, Swansea

Posted on 26/10/201326/10/2013 by Alastair

These are for my daughter who is 22 today! Happy Birthday Ellen 🙂

Identity – Unlike yesterday’s post, I know these flowers in the Botanic Gardens in Swansea, at least generally if not specifically! The first is a Day Lily, the third, a Rose and the last a Japanese Anemone.

And the second? An Aster I think! Can anyone confirm that and / or identify the Rose or the Lily?