Such as it is, the colour in the sky on this night walk round Hemlington Lake is a reflection of the urban lights in Middlesbrough. Despite travelling north east for the new year, the weather didn’t improve much for us and so the street lamps had plenty of cloud cover to reflect their yellow-orange glow.
It didn’t actually rain much on me during this walk and I really enjoyed the subdued colours, the silhouettes of trees and the night sounds of coots on the water.
During the nice weather at the end of September I made a point of going for a morning walk slightly earlier than usual in order to catch the rising sun. The sky was just beginning to lighten when I arrived at my viewing point and the atmosphere with the clouds and mist lying along the valley floor and amongst the trees was almost eerie.
Looking north up the river Loughor valley the distant Betws wind farm could be seen through a gap in the clouds while looking east across the valley the sun is clearly on its way as proven by the vapour trail glinting in the lightening sky.
You will also be able to see the second photo in monotone on Wednesday at Leanne Cole’s Photography blog post – Monochrome Madness 2-28
This final photo of the week was again taken with my iPhone but shows the view looking north east up the valley before I enter the woods to climb up to the top of the hill and look south towards the Gower Peninsula in the distance.
Click on any image in the gallery to view them in a carousel. The sound clips posted this week can also be found below. These will not be visible in an email – you will have to listen to them on the blog.
Overhead the sun and clouds were yet again proving the changeableness of the Welsh weather. This morning’s skyscape / landscape is another shot taken using the pano mode of my iPhone camera. I use this most often to widen the lens rather than give a long panoramic view which with this app results in bendy beaches and horizon lines.
Under foot the extent of moss growth also proves the level of dampness in this environment – a rotting fallen tree shows just a tiny bit of it.
The sound today comes courtesy of a Mistlethrush I think. I couldn’t get a good enough sight of it to prove its identity but from what I could see, I would say it was a Mistlethrush rather than a Songthrush.
The walks I have been taking each morning recently, include a range of environments – urban, coniferous forest, deciduous woods and open farm land.
Although I prefer the natural woodland environments on these walks, I also enjoy the faster, more even pace of walking through the (semi) urban area. Even in the woods there is still the background sound of traffic on the motorway – except at one point along the footpath where the sound from the motorway (see last photo) almost completely disappears and there is only the sound of individual vehicles occasionally passing on the road below.
The sounds as well as the plants and animals of these places are many and varied. The field recording I have posted below and in previous posts this week illustrate something of that variety.
There is an intrusion into the sound clip below. I was recording on my Edirol R09 and had forgotten to switch off my phone! So there is another element of the urban environment unintentionally included.
The conditions on this morning’s walk were darker than on the previous day. This did not stop me enjoying the walk just as much and the darker sky meant that this panorama shot taken on my iPhone needed very little adjustment in order to accurately represent the scene over the hill at the highest point of my walk.
Contrasting light can be one of the greatest challenges in photography, so if the purpose is to represent the scene as it was rather than creating a more dramatic view, then it is quite convenient to have more even light.
And so the drama today comes not from the scene but from a detail of the landscape. The scribbled twigs of the tree in the second image could represent a snapshot from a stormy, windy day. That is what the angles, textures and movement say to me in this picture, but in fact the weather was completely still without a breath of wind.
I have only ever made one New Years Resolution and I have always kept to it – never to make a New Years Resolution. However, I have recently been thinking that despite much of my work being focused on walking, too much of my time is spent sitting at a computer. Production and post production, image and sound processing, writing and administering projects and seemingly interminable fund raising.
I have decided (resolved!) to make my health and fitness a higher priority and have been taking a decent walk every morning. I have taken the same walk with minor variations almost every morning for the last ten days or so, and only once have I taken my camera. The purpose is to walk, not to stop and take photos every other step. That said, I cannot go about the place without looking and listening to the things around me and so my iPhone comes in very handy both for images and sound.
Most of the photos I will be posting this week were taken on my iPhone and some of the sounds clips were also recorded using the RODE app on the phone. My Edirol sound recorder also fits easily into my pocket and so I have used this too.
These photos were taken at the highest point of my walk where I can catch the sun rise behind the trees.
And you can listen to some of the forest birds below as well.
During my second visit to Kidwelly, I took a walk upriver and in doing so disturbed a flock of Jackdaws on the slopes underneath the castle. As can be seen from the dark clouds, it was typical weather for the time of year but this suited the appearance of the birds very well.
The position of the bird in silhouette in the first shot makes it look as though it is about to go in for an attack. In the second shot it could be in stealth mode, swooping low across the ground, ready to wrap its cloak-like wings around its prey!
