My walk this week at Port Eynon with the Taste of Gower walkers revealed some smiling faces . . . or perhaps I should say stony faces!
Looking directly into the light on from the beach at Port Eynon produced a smile on my own face. We are told not to face into the sun when taking photos because the light will be behind the subject and so they will appear as a silhouette. But if the subject is the light itself and the effect of being dazzled by it, then go for it (not directly at the the sun of course – that can be dangerous).
I have posted a total of 14 images of The Kelpies as part of my walk this week and that may well be too many for most of you. However, I have reviewed them sequentially on a number of occasions in posting to this blog and found that they serve me with a good memory. There are aspects of our visit to The Helix, specifically to see these sculptural installations in the Scottish landscape, that I am pleased to have enhanced by the images. The fall of changing light as the sun began to set, the details of pattern and reflection in the structures and a hint at the true scale of the work in relation to myself and the surrounding landscape.
So for those who read these posts as well as those who only look at the images, I make no excuses for the number of photos of these magnificent horses and recommend that if you get the chance, they are worth a visit.
At the entrance to the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art – Modern 1, we were met by this figure emerging from the pavement! This work is by Anthony Gormley and although one of the main exhibitions in gallery at the time was by Bridget Riley, as with Modern 2, there were other interesting things to be seen as well, including the building and its grounds.
Both Modern 1 and Modern 2 have mural projects in their stairwells – in Modern 1 it is a Douglas Gordan piece which lists all the people he could remember ever having met. The list stretches from the ground floor to the roof and looking over the banister gave me quite a woozy feeling.
We were lucky with the weather on our visit to Edinburgh and the light played a part in the art of this building just as it did in Modern 2.
Anthony Gormley sculpture
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 1
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 1 – Henry Moore sculpture
The sculpted grounds of Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 1
Returning from the wildflower garden to the children garden on my walk this week at Kunsthuis Gallery I explored one of its features. The willow tunnel entrance to this natural / man-made “dwelling” was too enticing not to do so. Bending down to child height I entered the dome shaped structure and enjoyed the changed and semi-secretive space with its growing willow walls and willow roof creating patterns and textures as it changed the sunlight from above.
If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see other photos in this post, thank you.
So on my walk this week the Welsh mountains were revealed to me, but not all of a sudden. It took time for the cloud to clear but gradually, bit by bit, the details of the mountains could be seen
My walk this week takes me back a couple of months to a working visit to Colwyn Bay on the north coast of Wales. It was a fresh Spring day and the wind was blowing strong. I think the image below describes the conditions perfectly.
Whether or not I develop a StillWalks video from all the material I recorded on this short walk along the beach remains to be seen. If I do, it will not be one of the relaxing ones – more invigorating I think!
The off shore wind farm seen on the horizon of the first shot below is an interesting feature, sometimes there and sometimes not! Depending on the light (constantly changing on this particular day), the turbines can become almost completely invisible or present complex repeating patterns as they shine with reflected sunlight.
Running into the wind
Windy Day in Colwyn Bay
If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see other photos in this post, thank you.
My walk this week around the lake at The Waterside revealed some truly beautiful patterns of sunlight. That’s not to say these effects of light have not been seen before, I’m sure they have – however, that does not make them any less remarkable. I don’t think I could ever get tired of the wonders of nature, however small or common they may be, they still connect with my brain and spark my synapses to produce a sense of wonder.
A Sparkle of Sunlight
After climbing the lakeside steps and shooting a mother duck and her single duckling (photographically speaking of course), I came upon the footbridge seen the background of one of yesterday’s images.
Crossing the Footbridge
Looking closely at the water flowing into the lake the sun glinting off the ripples made me pause and shoot again. My first shot was underexposed but just like the overexposed photo I posted during my walk last week, the effect was quite powerful.
The correctly exposed image is the first of the flowing water shots in the gallery below and this presented an interesting phenomenon – a bubble on the surface of the water appears not to be affected by the fast flow. I guess it was only there for the split second I took the shot. The underexposed image is the last in this sequence and I further enhanced the effect of light and dark, but only a little.
If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see other photos in this post, thank you.
As I approached the first, (or smaller) source of the River Taff, Blaen Taf Fechan (correction – Taf Fechan, see comments on previous post), on my walk this week with the Living Taff group, I took yet another of my frequent stops to look at the view. Looking south from the slopes of Pen y Fan in the Brecon Beacons, I could see all the way to the Bristol Channel, Flat Holm island and beyond to Somerset in England.
England can’t be seen in the shot above which concentrates on the patterns and textures on the slopes of Craig Gwaun Taf which leads up to Corn Du, but the first of the shots below gives a pretty good wider view of the scene, even though the distant atmosphere was quite hazy. In the closer surroundings of the mountains the colours and patterns of light and shade kept changing with the passing clouds.
The Blaen Taf Fechan (below) joins the Blaen Taf Fawr (correction – Taf Fawr, see comments on previous post) at Merthyr Tydfil to become the Afon Taf or River Taff which then flows on down to Wales’ capital city, Cardiff.
These photos are devoid of humans but they were there and there was the constant murmur of voices all around us. It wasn’t disturbing or even annoying really, just present.
