If yesterday’s post was about the context of landscape and the subject matter (a red shed roof), this photo is about the framing of the landscape. The view looking south west from Goppa hill is framed by trees as you leave the area of the phone mast and ruins and it was this framing of the view that interested me.
It’s good to see so many trees in the middle ground but the distant Gower Peninsula is largely hidden by a haze. The framing effect would perhaps have been stronger if I had stepped back a few feet and caught a little more of the foreground trees.
The context may be the landscape but the subject is . . .
I have taken a couple of other photos of this shed but as its red tin roof stood out amongst the trees as seen from Goppa hill (yes, next to the mobile phone mast! – see previous posts), I found this less obvious shot the more pleasing one.
The trees are next to the old ruins and the mobile phone mast on Goppa Hill (see previous posts this week) and the valley is Cwm Dulais down which the river Dulais flows. The sun is high enough on this morning walk to leach the colour from the background landscape and create the beginnings of silhouettes in the foreground trees.
Considering what August was like here, it was good to get some better weather during September and even now in October.
The local goats living in the fields near the top of the Goppa hollow way footpath have a great view over the landscape around Pontarddulais to the 11 arched railway bridge and the Louchor estuary. The bridge is a feature of the area which I have been trying to photograph for some time. Getting the best angle at the right time of day and in suitable weather conditions is a challenge. It appears distant in the middle ground of this shot and of course, another factor that I must consider is equipment. I don’t want to take my tripod and zoom lens with me on every time I walk up this hill and so there will always be an element of chance when it comes to getting a photo I feel does the bridge justice.
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.
If these photos tell a story, it is one of fiction in one sense and of reality in another. The first two shots present the sense I had of this morning’s walk through the woods to the top of the hill where the sun was fighting its way through the clouds. There was a lot more light on the land, the fields and tress, than is apparent in the photos but I decided to direct my iPhone to reveal the atmosphere in the sky rather than the details and colours of the trees or field. The result of course, is a much darker foreground in the images than it was in reality – unless you consider the sense of the scene I had in my mind. Taking that into consideration, the photos are much closer to reality.
The third image is technically more accurate in its presentation of the light seen at a fire break in the forest. If this is not such a dramatic shot, it is still a point on this walk at which I always stop and take in the scene.
More of the atmosphere of the forest can be heard in this sound clip – click the play button or the file name to hear the sounds of my walk through the woods.
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.
