My walk this week follows part of the South Gower coastal footpath along which we found so many different wildflowers. The day was bright and breezy and the sea twinkled in the sunlight as it crashed against the rugged rocks of the cliffs below us.
Proof of the prevailing wind can be seen in the sculpted and stunted hawthorn tree standing on its own. The hillside was a forest of gorse growing thickly and although it wasn’t in bloom, the wildflowers along the edge of the path were very much in evidence with their blues, mauves, yellows, creams and reds. I haven’t shown them all in the images below as it was not an easy job to capture them blowing in the wind, but I did the best I could with my iPhone.
Cliff Path Soundscape
As my phone was the only kit I had with me, I also had to record with this and again the wind proved a bit of a problem. The true effect of the wind can be heard in the short video clip below – for the soundscape, I think I have managed to filter out the crashing rumble effect on the unprotected microphone.
You can judge for yourself if you click the play button above and then the first thumbnail image below and you will see the full images in sequence (not available like this on the mobile WordPress Reader in which case click the Visit button via the … menu or open in your mobile’s internet browser).
Lovely
Thank you weirdly, in all the years we have been in Wales, I had never visited Rotherslade!
It’s amazing how well iPhone mics can do, even in challenging circumstances. I occasionally even find them advantageous, particularly if I don’t want to call attention to myself.
I certainly agree with you as to being discreet but that recording took quite a bit of patience and work to clean it up to my satisfaction and I still don’t think it is ideal. It is definitely a very useful fallback though, which I always have with me. Thank you
I believe it! I’ve had iPhone recordings that ended up being useless. They can be prone to a lot of hissing.
I can’t say hiss has been a problem for me on the phone but it was certainly an issue with the little Edirol R-09 I used to use for handiness. Now I use the Zoom H5-N for convenience but my RODE NTG shot gun mic with a Fostex FR-2LE for field recording for production and an NT2-A for voice recording in my studio. I’m not recording music though and that’s a whole different ball game!
Really enjoyed being up on the ridge for this walk, Alastair–very refreshing. I appreciate all the work that went into the soundscape, especially with such a fierce ocean wind. Pleasant to hear the powerful waters, and also the accents of the voices. I detected no birds this time, which is not surprising in this wind. I liked seeing the windy clip at the end, too. Photos are great, gave us a good since of this coastal footpath and that windblown tree says it all! This is a wonderful stretch of coast, rugged and picturesque. Thanks so much for taking us there.
Thank you Jet. The Gower Peninsula is one of the most popular holiday locations in Wales and is also very popular with the locals who are very proud of it. We don’t go very often in the Summer months because it can get quite crowded in places. Glad you enjoyed it