Angular Starting Points

Posted on 19/10/201519/10/2015 by Alastair

The starting point for a recent walk around Cardiff Bay can be seen below in some of the angular architecture of the area. The architecture may be one of the things that Cardiff Bay is known for but my walk this week, which took us across the barrage, will be taking an alternative look at the area and some of the features that caught my attention.

The materials of the building in the background of the second photo prove it to be the same one as is in the first shot. You may be able to tell that the first image was taken at a different time to the second as is shown by the change in weather. It’s the bird I particularly like in this photo, and the red triangle of the footbridge in the second one, or perhaps I should say the context of these elements of the images.

Sitting on Top of Swansea Castle

Posted on 02/07/201402/07/2014 by Alastair

A giant mechanical insect sits atop the ruins of Swansea Castle while the nonchalant seagull looks down on the world and I look up.

Architectural Patterns

Posted on 16/04/201416/04/2014 by Alastair

Vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines, circles, squares, rectangles – these are the elements that make up the structures of so much, if not all architecture. Add in a bit of colour and some more angles and curves and the combinations of pattern are endless.

Symmetry seems sometimes to be a prerequisite in architectural design but it is when asymmetry is used that things get really exciting and no doubt, from the architects point of view, prohibitively expensive.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with the look of these buildings in Swansea’s maritime Quarter – there are plenty of those pattern combinations to be discovered. I do, however, think that it is a shame that imagination seems to come at a price.

Architecture – Cardiff ATRiuM

Posted on 14/02/201414/02/2014 by Alastair

A wide range of places – The various meetings, seminars and workshops I go to take place in a wide range of places. Yesterday’s post showed the venue for some first aid training. Today’s shows the ATRiuM building in Cardiff. It is part of University of South Wales and I was on the top floor there last week for a workshop run by the Creative Exchange Wales Network (CEWN).

Contrasts of architecture – The architecture here is quite different to that of the Guildhall in Swansea (see previous pos). Quite recently built, it has elements of the abstract about it and a lot of glass! The spiral staircase was one feature pointed out to me and liked its viewpoint as well as using it. Despite the vague reference to the Guggenheim Museum, the angle I viewed it from on the ground floor could have been more interesting.

Just like New York? – Over coffee, before the start of the workshop, a couple of people suggested that the view from the top floor resembled New York! I made a point of getting a quick photo on my phone at the end of the day and although I have not been to New York, I could not honestly say that I could see the resemblance. I may well be wrong of course – you tell me (anyone that knows New York).

Featured SillWalks Videos – I’m afraid this is going to be another week without a featured StillWalks video. I have a number of productions to complete and I look forward to adding these to the StillWalks collection. For now there is, as always, access to sample length videos is available through the Walks menus and you can always buy them at anytime for as little as £1.50.

Sea of Sand – Low Level iPhonography

Posted on 26/12/201326/12/2013 by Alastair

Changing the angle at which you look at things may be an essential rule of life (at least in my life) – see Monday’s post – but it is also invaluable when it comes to photography and perhaps even more so when it come to iPhonography.

Justin Balog of the iPhone Photography School spoke about this recently via Instagram. It was one of his most important tips in my opinion but he has many others. I’m pleased to say that when I discovered the website, I was already incorporating much of his advice and many of his tips. There is always room to learn more though, and even if you already know stuff, the occasional reminder never goes amiss.

So if anyone got a new smart phone for Christmas and you want to learn a bit about using it for photography, the iPhone Photography School wouldn’t be a bad place to start 🙂

Photos taken and adjusted on my iPhone 5c. Check out StillWalks on Instagram for more of my iPhonography.

This week’s featured StillWalks video is the introductory welcome video to the StillWalks website. On this you will meet me and see just a little of what goes into making a StillWalks video.

You can use the Donate button below to help StillWalks. Pay how much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video. DVD Collections are available to order in the StillWalks Shop.

White Balance in Phone Photography

Posted on 12/09/201312/09/2013 by Alastair

Continuing with the idea of producing a StillWalks video entirely from photos and sound recorded on my iPhone, one of the difficulties with doing this is the lack of control you have of white balance with the phone camera.

It is possible to get some degree of balance of light by trying different angles for a shot and avoiding, where possible, extreme differences of light. Other than that, you have to take pretty much what you get and do what you can in post processing. Zooming can help in some circumstances but I try not to use this much as it loses what crispness there is in a shot as the zoom is digital rather than optical.

You can buy all sorts of add-ons for phone cameras these days, such as zoom or macro lenses, tripods, etc., but my aim is to find out how, if at all practical it is to produce a StillWalks video with the basic iPhone and free apps.

Having said that, I am using Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop to make the adjustments necessary for video production. The images below are the same shot but with different adjustments made but I am not going to go into the details of this now – I am keeping that for another day (or blog).

Suffice it to say that there is more work involved in the post processing of images taken on my phone than there is for those taken on my camera, so what I have saved in not having to lug heavy kit around with me, I have lost in the time needed afterwards in preparing the images for use. Hopefully this may be less the case with the sound recording!