Night Lights and Reviewing the Week 9

Recently we had a clear but dark night amongst a lot of wet weather and  I was tempted to stop on my way home and catch a shot of the lights of the Carmarthenshire side of the Loughor Estuary.

lights at night

Urban Nature

Even without the colours of Spring, Summer or Autumn, trees and architecture or nature in urban areas is a very attractive mixture. It was pretty miserable weather when I took these photos but I still found the blend of man-made and natural pleasing to the eye.

Trees and Buildings

Trees and Buildings

Patterns and Textures, Control and Freedom

Can you see the eye in the strange mixture of pattern, colour and texture in the underside of this bridge? Even without the structural repairs, I find this common bridge structure has an interesting and attractive mixture of these things. The plant may not be a part of the original design, but it brings an added element of freedom to the control needed in the architecture of such a structure.

wall patterns

bridge and plant

One Point of View – Multiple Options

Which structure to focus on? That was the question for me with this view over the lake at Llyn Llech Owain in Carmarthenshire. The portrait view could only include one tower. My choice was less about the scale of the architecture and more about the fact that the larger structure was partly hidden by the small trees in the middle distance. With the lake being partly hidden by the trees, there seems to me to be a greater sense of mystery about the scene.

lake

lake

Reviewing the Week 2

The last of my images for this week is a final view of Penarth Pier against the rising sun on a grey day. Also featured is a slideshow of the images I have posted through the week. I would also like to connect to another blog this week – that of Lightscapes Nature Photography. I get frustrated when I see overworked photography with that slickly unreal appearance and no texture – it seems to be used a lot commercially. However, that is not the case with Kerry Mark Leibowitz’s photography of landscapes and on top of that, there is good reading and advice to had as well.

Penarth Pier against the morning sun

Higgledy Piggledy Patterns

Here is that concertina effect again in the structure and pattern of stanchions underneath Penarth Pier (see Monday’s post). The pattern of uprights is in contrast to the seemingly higgledy piggledy pattern of the cross bars and linkages of the rest of the structure.

Penarth Pier structure

Penarth Pier structure

Underneath the Pier

Exploring underneath Penarth Pier at high tide is not necessarily a good idea. Capturing these alternative views of the pier structure meant I had to leap out of the way of the water at the last moment. As has happened on other occasions, when taking photographs, I forgot about the time I was taking.

Underneath the pier

Underneath the pier

Fountain in the Old Docks

Cardiff Bay as it is now, is so different to what it was when we first moved to Wales in 1983. It was later in the ’80s that the development began – I wish I had taken photographs back then. There are plenty images to be seen in the galleries (past and present) on the bay website along with the history of the development, but they are not mine and I cannot compare them to the photos I take of the place nowadays.

The fountain in the image below is set into one of the old dock walls.

Fountain