While the day was calm for our memorial for walk leader Mike Aspland and to raise funds for the Old Mill Foundation cancer hospice, there was enough lift for the soaring of hang gliders to take place in this popular spot for the activity – Rhossili Down at the end of the Gower Peninsula. If you would like to donate to the Old Mill Foundation, please visit their website and click the “Donate” button.Continue reading
My walk this week is a walk in memory of Mike Aspland, a walk leader who died of cancer at the end of last year and had benefitted from the services provided by the Old Mill Foundation cancer hospice in Penclawdd on North Gower. The walk took place Rhossili and aimed to raise funds for the hospice – if anyone would like to donate to the the Old Mill Foundation, please visit their website and click the “Donate” button.Continue reading
I like to think that I would spot different details or snippets of my surroundings regardless of the photographic blinker provided by a camera. But I also think that using a camera over the years has helped me to put a mental frame around aspects of my local environment that has allowed me more easily to focus on certain details.
On my walk this week along Aberavon seafront I took many photos, both detail shots and wide angle. Thinking of using them and my field recordings for a StillWalks video of this time and place, it was important for me to view the bigger picture as well as the details. The “bigger picture” shots below reveal that the sea fret that had lifted a little for a while, had descended again to mask the details in the distance.
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!
I am currently working on the photography and sound from a production day in mid Summer at Troserch Woodland, Carmarthenshire, South Wales.
The unique field recording of the walk is absolutely essential if a sense of the location is to be conveyed. This sound clip near the start of the walk has a time stamp of 4:43 on the morning of 20th July and whilst the the images remind me of what the sky looked like and that there was a horse in the field, the recorded sounds take me (and you too, I hope) straight to the time and place and give me so much more information.
Sunrise at Troserch
Good Morning, you’re up early!
Please visit the StillWalks website
In planning the first StillWalks Sights and Sounds Tag Along Walk (see yesterday’s post), I did not go right down to Three Cliffs Bay. This is certainly an option for a Tag Along Walk but when I was there, the sun was way too hot and so I stopped at an excellent viewing point just off the footpath above the bay.
It is a fantastic place and must be popular at the height of the season but I don’t think any of the Gower beaches ever get really crowded.
Dates and times – If anyone is interested in doing one of the Tag Along Walks, I suggest you keep an eye on the StillWalks website for dates and times. These should be announced next week and numbers are restricted. If you are interested, please contact StillWalks so that we can contact you as and when walks are being organised and places become available.
Click on the photos to enlarge. More are available on the StillWalks Photography website at PhotoShelter (some day I will get the the two sites integrated).
Three Cliffs Bay, Gower
Pennard Castle, Gower
Contemplating Crossing, Three Cliffs Bay, Gower