100,000 sculptures

My Walk this Week 255 – Calm Day at the Beach

My walk this week is from Swansea Bay – it wasn’t the brightest or warmest of days but it was definitely a calm day at the beach. You can see from the sea that it was flat calm and the incoming tide featured not so much waves as ripples – it was very peaceful.

Fortunately Swansea Bay is quite expansive and this meant that all the people taking advantage of being allowed out (lockdowns and all that) still had plenty of space between them. I’m not sure how much the birds appreciated the calm weather – certainly the gulls seemed a bit irritable, bickering between each other as they do. It always appears to me that when the wind is up, if anything enjoys the blusters and gusts by the sea, it is the gulls more than anything else.

The colours in the images below show a darker day than it felt, but they are calm. The textures and perspective seen on the beach from thousands of worm casts really excited me but I did not get a satisfactory close up.

Across the sands

My Walk this Week 242 – Sound Memories

My walk this week is from August  2020 when I was taking part in a Sound Memories project called Walk 19. I and three other sound recordists were invited to record the sounds of places described by elders in care homes to Cheryl Beer, project Lead Artist funded by The Arts Council of Wales National Lottery Good Causes and Founder and Director of Sound Memories Dementia Friendly Radio Station.

Burry Port 2

One of the places I visited was Burry Port on the Burry Inlet in Carmarthenshire. Some of the photos I took are below and the project soundscape that Cheryl produced from my audio clips can be found on the Walk 19 page of her website (see link above) along with all the others she made for the care homes she was working with.

Three Cliffs

My Walk this Week 223 – An Early Start

My walk this week returns to Three Cliffs Bay on the Gower Peninsula and a production walk for VR video – this is just a snippet of the sights and sounds we recorded.

early morning light

Some of the images below are my own while a number of them were taken by my Co-Director at StillWalks®, Paul Allen.

NB I may not post for a couple of weeks after this as I will be away . . . but you never know!

Three Cliffs Early Soundscape

My Walk this Week 220 – Recce in the Sun

My walk this week was a recce in the sun for a VR walk that we will be producing at the earliest opportunity.

The walk was at Three Cliffs Bay on The Gower and it was hot! The “three cliffs” can be seen in the background of the image above but to see their real scale, please look through the images below.

I’m sorry I don’t have a soundscape for this walk, although the sound in a VR (virtual reality) walk will be very important and we will be paying close attention to it.

If this post looks different to usual, that is because it has been entirely produced on my phone using the WordPress app. All photos were also taken on my iPhone.

Running into the wind

My Walk this Week 205 – Memories of North Wales

My walk this week is from the archives with memories of North Wales and a windy visit to Colwyn Bay.

Paraglider and rainbow

Some were taking advantage of the wind in a colourful way and the sky just wanted to join in by throwing out a rainbow to accompany the wind surfing paraglider, while other like myself were getting rather more battered by it. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable walk and thrilling to be entertained by those men and their “flying machines”.

The patterns and colours of sand and wind, rust and fencing, waves and water effects in what appears to have been a changeable day are a good reminder of the experience. The soundscape also serves as an excellent transportation device to take me back there with the images – I can almost feel and smell the sea spray!

Colwyn Bay Soundscape

The soundscape media player does not show on the WordPress Reader, please visit the website to listen to the soundscape and look at the images at the same time.

 

repetition

My Walk this Week 192 – Maritime Reflections

My walk this week is from Swansea Bay and Maritime Quarter and, yet again, followed meetings, one of which was on my phone as I stood at the side of the marina and watched the still water reflecting the yacht masts and a blue sky with just one or two white clouds.

wobbly light

As I stood there the reflections were almost as straight as the masts themselves as the water was so still. Later on, after visiting the beach and listing to the rhythm of the waves, I returned to find the marina water rippled with activityContinue reading

oystercatchers

My Walk this Week 183 – Revisitation

My walk this week is a revisitation to Aberavon seafront at this current time of year but from 2016 – the weather is much the same today (as I write) as it was then! But that does not make it any less interesting to me and I remember the walk well, though I admit the images and soundscape are a good memory trigger for the atmosphere.

seafront walkers

It was a dark, wet day with a heavy sea fret coming off the bay, but it wasn’t actually raining and people were walking and running as they always are on this wonderful expansive seafront.Continue reading

edge land

My Walk this Week 176 – Edging Along Land and Sea

My walk this week comes from the break I had last month and explores the edge of land and sea with rough rocks and calm waters along with the sounds of coastal and mud-loving birds.

rocks and water

I set out along the country lanes of the south west Scottish coast, enjoying the backdrop of the Galloway hills and the textural details of the verges. From a broad beach, empty except for myself and a solitary crow, Continue reading