New StillWalks – I have just completed a new StillWalk, for Summer, of my parents garden in France, “Garden Walk, France”. It is a beautiful garden and the sounds of the birds and bees, the church bells and the peace take me straight back there.
There is also a StillWalk house tour produced to help sell the house. Anyone interested should check it out and if you know of anyone who may be interested, please pass this on.
French House
Busy Bees
Looking at things from another angle is important – you always gain a new perspective.
The first shot could have been taken on a different day to the others, but no, just a different angle.
Balancing Act
Different Angles
Different Angles
The shot above looks as though it could have been “Photoshopped”, but I swear it hasn’t – it’s just the angle!
All images are from the StillWalk “Coastal Walk”.
It seems to me that these stones are an audience in the circle watching the tide –
Watching
– but really it is their balancing act that is the attraction!
Balancing Act
With each StillWalk I produce, I select nine or ten images as stand alone shots and make them available for purchase. These are two more from the “Coastal Walk” in Spring in South West Scotland. The photos are available to buy at PhotoBox.
Looking out to sea and waiting – that is what these “standing stones” appear to be doing!
My StillWalk, “Coastal Walk“, in Scotland in the Spring features these shots. The balanced stones looked as though they were just biding their time and waiting for some spectacular event – or perhaps they were just soaking up the sun while they could.
Sculpture on the Beach
Patterns in the Sand
The mornings are still cold but it’s not going to be long now – the evidence is out there.
These photos are from one of my Spring StillWalks – “Coastal Walk” in Galloway, South West Scotland. You can watch it here.
Chaffinch
Looking at a recent post about London on a blog I follow, I was reminded by a photo showing the Shard in the distance, of a visit to London I made when that structure was still being built.
Half the tube stations were out of action in preparation for the 2012 Olympics but the StillWalk I produced from the photos and sound recording I did on the day does not reflect my frustration with this. Watch the video below.
StillWalks – London Tate Walk from Alastair Duncan on Vimeo.
My StillWalks often use the natural environment as the location, but not always. StillWalks are primarily about relaxation and stress relief but they are also about seeing and hearing all that is around us and I am as interested in the sounds of the city as those of the countryside.
Here is one of the images from that walk.
Sunlight or cloud, rain or mist – the weather conditions influence, no, create the available light for photography.
A few weeks ago I was at Lliw Valley Reservoirs in the rain and took some photos on my iPhone 4s of what I described as “fence post gardens”. I posted them on the Moss Appreciation Society Facebook page with the comment that I would have to go back on a dry day to photograph them properly. The response from one group member was that moss likes, and is perhaps, at its best in the rain.
The sun was shining when I was up there last week and following my interview with BBC Radio Wales I proceeded to take some photos of the same “fence post gardens” with my Canon 550D. It was difficult to say the least! Sunlight can be very dramatic – usually in the early morning or evening, but it can also be a major problem depending on the subject matter.
I have picked out four photos that I think are not too bad from those I took on the day but it seems I am going to have to wait for a more overcast day or go there at sunrise to get some decent shots of this subject.
Getting to know the subject is also important whatever medium you are working with, and I think that it was not just the light conditions that gave me a problem. It was also time and the need to figure out the best angles. Next time I will go better informed.
Update (22/03/2013) According to a friend of my sister –
“The second photo has some lichens in as well as moss- the silvery flattish ones at the front which may be a Paramelia – and probably the red and silvey grey one – also a brown cupped one in the middle- these last 2 will be Cladonia species.”
Moss Garden
Peristomes
Ghostly Tree
Upper Lliw Reservoir was catching the light last week when I enjoyed a walk up there as part of an interview for BBC Radio Wales about StillWalks.
