Dorset Wind – Reviewing the Walk

Dorset walk

My walk this week has been from June 2012 and features the Dorset wind. I don’t know to what extent the wind has been apparent to anyone viewing the photos for this walk that I have posted through the week, but the soundscape below should give a sense of time as well as place. Continue reading

My Walk this Week – Swansea Bay 360

My walk this weak is in Swansea Bay on the beach in front of Crymlin Burrows and Swansea Uni Bay Campus will reveal what may be turning into an obsession with sand.

The tide was as far out as I have ever seen it and as I stood in the middle of its seemingly vast expanse and turned around the full 360 degrees I could see that the sand in this part of the bay is much more sculpted by the tide than it is in front of the city itself. This is not revealed much in these panoramic shots but I will post some of the patterns created in the sand through the week.

Swansea Bay

The soundscape of the beach is quite different to the wild blast of wind blowing on Colwyn Bay in my walk last week. Listen below to the ambience with the occasional distant sound of birds or voices from a small group of people and the faint backdrop of traffic.

Swansea Bay Ambience

If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see other photos in this post, thank you.

Landscape and Light

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.

Morning Walk Weather

Winter Twigs

Is This The Last Day of Summer?

A couple of days ago we went to meet some friends for a picnic on Broughton Beach at the end of the Gower Peninsula. The weather was not as good as it had been but good enough for us to brave the odd mini shower.

One of the nicest things about a large beach is that it never seems crowded however many people are there, but in fact there were not many people around on that day, so we almost had the whole place to ourselves.

I love the space in places like this and if there is a bit of wind as well, that just adds to it!

The panorama shot below was taken on my iPhone and worked out pretty well. The video clips were also done on my phone and prove at least two things. First, there were children there obviously enjoying themselves. Second, the lack of sound on the other clip is because the phone mic didn’t like the wind, so I just took it out altogether. I love the patterns in the water though I miss the audio.

Click the image to view larger.

Broughton Bay, Gower

Broughton Bay, Gower

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