Category Archives: Walks

Three Cliffs Bay – Step 4, Pennard Castle

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It was a hot and bright day when I went to Three Cliffs Bay and Pennard Castle on the Gower Peninsula in South Wales and this can sometimes pose problems for the photographer. I hope I have managed to deal with the issues of light and shade reasonable effectively in these shots. There was some adjustment needed in Lightroom, particularly in the last shot, but not too much.

A sense of scale – These photos are, more than anything else, an attempt to describe the different scales of the surroundings and features. Don’t miss the figure in the first image, which, more than anything else, proves the actual size of the castle ruins.

The three other shots give a good sense of how difficult the castle would have been to attack at least from the seaward side but for me,  I like the framing of the different elements of the landscape with the castle windows and entrance.

Pennard Castle Pennard Castle Pennard Castle Three Cliffs Bay

All photos are available for sale on the StillWalks Photography website.

Three Cliffs Bay – Step 2, People and Beach

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Part two of this series of images from Three Cliffs Bay on the Gower Peninsula in South Wales.

It was a hot and bright day and there were various activities going in different parts of the bay. I particularly like the middle one of these three photos because it seems to me to show the blinding heat of the day so clearly. Virtually the only way to differentiate the sea from the sky is the change in texture.

It is similar in the third shot but I was more intent on bringing in the foreground and the subsequent pattern layers in the scene.

All photos are available for sale on the StillWalks Photography website.

Three Cliffs Bay Three Cliffs Bay Three Cliffs Bay

Three Cliffs Bay – Step 1, Stepping Stones

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This week I am going to be posting a range of photos from a recent walk at Three Cliffs Bay on the Gower Peninsula in South Wales.

The photos are not for a StillWalk video in that the photos are not necessarily in sequence but feature different aspects of the area such as those in todays post featuring the stepping stones across the river in the bay.

Other features over the next seven days will be people and the beach, patterns and rocks, Pennard Castle, footpaths, views and finally woodland.

All photos are available for sale on the StillWalks Photography website.

Stepping Stones Stepping Stones Stepping Stones Stepping Stones

A Countryside Connections Walk

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Swansea Countryside Connections Team, through which StillWalks ran the Sights and Sounds of the Countryside project, put on a number of events throughout the year for those living in eligible rural wards in Swansea. It was one of their dawn chorus walks where I first met Helen Grey and it was she, along with Tim Orrell, who was leading the Nature Detective Walk along the Gower Way from Felindre to Lower Lliw Reservoir last Wednesday evening. See the photos below.

As this was the route taken by the Sights and Sounds project on the production day for the Felindre Families group, I thought it would be good to go along – and indeed it was! I discovered what the funny lumps and bumps are in the first field we crossed. We found a very old ash tree with branches twisting and twining round each other, reflecting its age. We saw Deadly Nightshade amongst other plants and flowers, a badger set, mole holes, young Hazelnuts, whin, thistles, ducks, etc., etc.

“Helen, you will have to remind me of that last little yellow flower I asked you about. I cannot remember it it now!”

Click here (Countryside Connections Events) to see what other Countryside Connections events are coming up.

French Evening Walk – The StillWalks Video

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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.

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

Completing the Circuit

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Returning to the start of my recce for a StillWalks Sights and Sounds Tag Along Walk (see previous posts) brought me back to Parc-Le-Breos House via their pony trekking centre.

It sure is set in a beautiful part of the country!

Click on the photos to enlarge. More are available on the StillWalks Photography website at PhotoShelter.

Parc-Le-Breos Horses

Parc-Le-Breos Horses

Parc-Le-Breos House

Parc-Le-Breos House

Parc-Le-Breos Grounds

Parc-Le-Breos Grounds

Parc-Le-Breos

Parc-Le-Breos hanging basket and arch way