Patterns in Rock

Having included this week’s featured video on yesterday’s post, I thought I would post some of the images from it.

The full video can be seen on this post if anyone cares to look – it’s one for the Autumn.

Coastal Walk Rhosilli-1 Coastal Walk Rhosilli-2 Coastal Walk Rhosilli-3

You can use the new Donate button below to help StillWalks, pay what you want and receive a download of this week’s featured StillWalks video. Sticking with the Gower, this weeks featured video is from Rhosilli by the Worm’s Head right at the end of the Gower Peninsula. Click the image below to watch the sample.

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Seed Collecting in Bishops Wood

Following my photo session and field recording (see yesterday’s post) at Cwm Green on the Gower where I heard so many small and large aircraft enjoying a sunny Saturday morning, I went along to Bishops Wood to pay a visit to the seed collecting group which had been organised by Swansea’s Countryside Connections team.

Bishops Wood is just above Caswell Bay on the South Gower coast. I used to walk there regularly but had not been for some time. Both the woods and the bay are beautiful and popular spots on the Gower and as I was in the area, it was no hardship to call by.

On Sunday morning I went on the mushroom and toadstool hunt arranged by the Friends of Coedbach Park in Pontarddulais and in the afternoon we went for a walk along the Millennium Coastal park footpath at Llanelli in Carmarthenshire.

An active weekend all in all and one that has provided me with plenty of material for both blog and StillWalks production!

Bishops Wood Seed Head

Bishops Wood Seed Head

Caswell Bay, Gower

You can use the new Donate button below to help StillWalks, pay what you want and receive a download of this week’s featured StillWalks video. Sticking with the Gower, this weeks featured video is from Rhosilli by the Worm’s Head right at the end of the Gower Peninsula. Click the image below to watch the sample.

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Planes and Birds and Beautiful Weather

A beautiful saturday morning is not the best time to choose to go sound recording on the Gower Peninsula. Swansea airport may be small but when the weather is good at the weekend, it would seem there are plenty of aviators who want to get into their airplanes.

It wasn’t just the small planes that were out – the vapour trails in this photo prove the number of inbound flights to the UK first thing on a Saturday morning. They weren’t the only ones enjoying the sunshine. The sound clip below proves that the birds were out in force as well. Click to play or listen to it on SoundCloud.

Vapour Trails

Dragonflies and Damselflies

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Yesterday I went on a Dragonfly and Damselfly hunt organised by Swansea’s Countryside Connections Team at Three Crosses on the Gower. Unfortunately I missed the workshop in the morning and so I am not in a position to identify the particular make and model of those we saw. Perhaps others on the walk can do that for me as comments.

These creatures were incredibly difficult to photograph as they rarely stayed still for more than a split second, if that! This may be partly due to the fact that there were a number of people there as part of the group (proving the success of these events).

I did the best I could and got a range of shots at both of two sites which were new to me and which I will be visiting again for a walk and exploration for StillWalks. Today, however, I’ll concentrate on the Dragonflies.

Please click on the images to enlarge. These and others are available on the StillWalks Photography website.

Three Cliffs Bay – Step 4, Pennard Castle

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It was a hot and bright day when I went to Three Cliffs Bay and Pennard Castle on the Gower Peninsula in South Wales and this can sometimes pose problems for the photographer. I hope I have managed to deal with the issues of light and shade reasonable effectively in these shots. There was some adjustment needed in Lightroom, particularly in the last shot, but not too much.

A sense of scale – These photos are, more than anything else, an attempt to describe the different scales of the surroundings and features. Don’t miss the figure in the first image, which, more than anything else, proves the actual size of the castle ruins.

The three other shots give a good sense of how difficult the castle would have been to attack at least from the seaward side but for me,  I like the framing of the different elements of the landscape with the castle windows and entrance.

Pennard Castle Pennard Castle Pennard Castle Three Cliffs Bay

All photos are available for sale on the StillWalks Photography website.

Three Cliffs Bay – Step 2, People and Beach

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Part two of this series of images from Three Cliffs Bay on the Gower Peninsula in South Wales.

It was a hot and bright day and there were various activities going in different parts of the bay. I particularly like the middle one of these three photos because it seems to me to show the blinding heat of the day so clearly. Virtually the only way to differentiate the sea from the sky is the change in texture.

It is similar in the third shot but I was more intent on bringing in the foreground and the subsequent pattern layers in the scene.

All photos are available for sale on the StillWalks Photography website.

Three Cliffs Bay Three Cliffs Bay Three Cliffs Bay

Three Cliffs Bay – Step 1, Stepping Stones

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This week I am going to be posting a range of photos from a recent walk at Three Cliffs Bay on the Gower Peninsula in South Wales.

The photos are not for a StillWalk video in that the photos are not necessarily in sequence but feature different aspects of the area such as those in todays post featuring the stepping stones across the river in the bay.

Other features over the next seven days will be people and the beach, patterns and rocks, Pennard Castle, footpaths, views and finally woodland.

All photos are available for sale on the StillWalks Photography website.

Stepping Stones Stepping Stones Stepping Stones Stepping Stones