The dawn walk I have been posting about this week took me through woods I have often posted about on this blog. Unlike yesterday’s underexposed images this first photo is much more like the reality of the place. The second, however, is again underexposed – the effect of the morning sunlight and shade of the trees on the footpath highlighted the forms and patterns of the leaves and the warmth of colour from the just risen sun produced a real sense of the place at that time.
I don’t think this can be described as an event horizon, but it is definitely an event taking place on the horizon! Of course the actual light in the sky at this point (as in the previous post) is greater than is shown here but the photographs being somewhat underexposed represent more accurately the sense of drama, the emotion of the event as it happens in real life.
The horizon is that of Cefn Drum, one side of Cwmdulais, the small river valley just to the east and a tributary of the river Loughor. Cefn Drum and its neighbour Graig Fawr are two more walks I would count among my favourites in this area.
Looking over my local South Wales landscape during my morning walk to the woods, the dawn light gradually brightens and the mist lying along the river Loughor gives the trees a ghostly appearance.
During the nice weather at the end of September I made a point of going for a morning walk slightly earlier than usual in order to catch the rising sun. The sky was just beginning to lighten when I arrived at my viewing point and the atmosphere with the clouds and mist lying along the valley floor and amongst the trees was almost eerie.
Looking north up the river Loughor valley the distant Betws wind farm could be seen through a gap in the clouds while looking east across the valley the sun is clearly on its way as proven by the vapour trail glinting in the lightening sky.
You will also be able to see the second photo in monotone on Wednesday at Leanne Cole’s Photography blog post – Monochrome Madness 2-28
Looking at the photos in this week’s morning walk posts, I note the haze as well as the morning sunlight. Yet again in this shot, you cannot see anything of the Gower Peninsula in the background. Taken at the end of the first week of September, perhaps we were due for some rain at the time, just to clear the air a bit.
If yesterday’s post was about the context of landscape and the subject matter (a red shed roof), this photo is about the framing of the landscape. The view looking south west from Goppa hill is framed by trees as you leave the area of the phone mast and ruins and it was this framing of the view that interested me.
It’s good to see so many trees in the middle ground but the distant Gower Peninsula is largely hidden by a haze. The framing effect would perhaps have been stronger if I had stepped back a few feet and caught a little more of the foreground trees.
The context may be the landscape but the subject is . . .
I have taken a couple of other photos of this shed but as its red tin roof stood out amongst the trees as seen from Goppa hill (yes, next to the mobile phone mast! – see previous posts), I found this less obvious shot the more pleasing one.
The trees are next to the old ruins and the mobile phone mast on Goppa Hill (see previous posts this week) and the valley is Cwm Dulais down which the river Dulais flows. The sun is high enough on this morning walk to leach the colour from the background landscape and create the beginnings of silhouettes in the foreground trees.
Considering what August was like here, it was good to get some better weather during September and even now in October.
