Category Archives: Travel

The Sound of Snow – “Forest Walk – Winter”

Posted on by

This last post on my StillWalks video from a previous winter features a sound that we don’t often hear in the part of South Wales where I live. The sound of footsteps in deep, dry snow is quite different to that which is made by footsteps in wet snow which is slightly more common here.

I cannot vouch for the accuracy of that old adage about the Inuits having fifty words for snow but I do know that whatever the state of the snow under your feet, the sound your footsteps make in it will be different, and I suspect this range extends at least as far as fifty!

Click the image below to play the video.

Seasonal Shift

Posted on by

I know I am skipping a season by posting these photos now, but they are from a completed StillWalk of the same forest in Fforest, Carmarthenshire, Wales. It is a prompt to myself to produce a new video of the same place this Autumn.

Unlike the Fforest walk I am producing from recordings and photography on my iPhone (see this past week’s posts), “Forest Walk – Winter” is  a StillWalks video properly produced albeit with my Edirol RO9 recorder rather than the Fostex FR-2LE and the RODE NTG3 Shotgun mic I normally use these days.

Forest Walk 1

Forest Walk 2

Forest Walk 3

 

Photos of Ferns

Posted on by

More confusing “F” spelling again today – phone photos from the forest at Fforest!

I am not sure I would use either of these photos in a StillWalks video. Even if it is produced specifically for mobile devices, they are far from satisfactory images. I would like to find that a StillWalks video can be produced well enough with only a mobile device – my iPhone, but at the moment it is looking unlikely.

They look better on my phone but I am not keen on producing something that is not the best that I can do. That is why I always try to remember to specify that an image has been taken on my phone when uploading to this blog. Mostly, I reserve the phone photos for Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr and Pinterest.

Fern

Fern 2

Phone Photography From Fforest

Posted on by

Fforest – for those of you unfamiliar with the Welsh language, the name of the place, Fforest, is only pronounced with an “F” sound rather than a “V” because there are two “F”s in the spelling. There seems more logic to this than spelling phone or photography with a “ph” but then that’s the English language for you!

I have picked out these two scenic views from the area I live because I intend them to take their places at the beginning and end of the StillWalks video I am working on using only my phone. The field recording that will be used was done on my phone as well.

I know that I cannot expect to achieve the same quality as with my DSLR cameras and lenses or the sound kit I normally use, but considering so much web content is viewed on mobile devices these days, I thought it would be worth testing this mobile kit in the context of StillWalks production and make a comparison. So I will be reporting back on this project with my conclusions.

The photos below are the HDR versions from my iPhone 4S. They have also had some adjustments made in Adobe Lightroom.

Phone Fforest Walk - Start

Phone Fforest Walk - End