Yesterday I went through gates, today I am crossing bridges.
Foot bridges can serve a similar role to gates in a StillWalk. Useful as way markers both visually and aurally, the design, materials, condition, sounds – all play a part in identifying a stage in the walk.
Here are two of the foot bridges I encountered on my recce walk of the River Morlais and Troserch woodland with a view to producing a new Summer time StillWalk.
A recce walk through recently discovered woodland revealed a number of elements that can be very useful in the production of a StillWalk.
Gates, both the images and the sounds can, in the sequence of a StillWalk, provide a visual and aural way marker and in doing so, give a sense of progression. If the gates are of different design or in different states of repair, this too can be recognised as a way marker if the walk is circular, sending a message to the viewer that they are on the return journey.
There were several gates along the River Morlais leading into Troserch Woods. All were either of different design, at different angles, more or less rusted . . .
The sounds of the gates are also unique, though this is as much because of the surrounding conditions as the type of gate – here is an example from StillWalks on SoundCloud.
Coming down from the hills at the end of the day and heading into the sunlight can provide some remarkable views of the landscape – dependant, of course, on the weather conditions and time of year.
The end of my journey home from Felindre brought me down from the hills towards Pontarddulais in South Wales where there is a vast network of metal giants criss-crossing the land as part of the National Grid.
Electricity pylons seen against the light and the land need not be a blot, but rather a fascinating part of the composition, creating patterns and networks of lines that may not be natural, but are something we are happy to live with in order to have the power we need for modern life.
These and more photos can be seen and purchased at StillWalks PhotoShelter.
Still enjoying the short journey home over the hills from Felindre, the local Welsh landscape is beautiful and it’s got nothing to do with the current good weather, honest!
My work over the years has taken me all over South Wales and although this has meant a lot of driving, it has also given me the opportunity to see different aspects of the landscape in all sorts of conditions. Whether it is local or more distant, you have to be there to really appreciate it. Photography can do only so much. Artists can capture moods of a scene with which you can best identify if you have been there or somewhere like it.
I do not describe the photography I do as landscape photography. Although much of it involves the landscape, the photography I do for StillWalks, I describe as environmental – natural and man-made. If you google landscape photography, you will be presented with any amount of spectacular photographs produced by a range of more or less well known photographers who have done all the “right” things in terms of framing the shot and finding the right angle, waiting for the light, etc.
Some of the scenes from around the world (both near and far) are truly amazing . . . yes, there is a but coming . . . but, some of the shots I see seem to me to be almost unreal or super-real, a bit like photo-realism in painting – it’s almost beyond belief. It seems as though there is no texture in the scenes and texture is something I am interested in, no doubt due to my other life as a tapestry weaver. It may be that in these textureless images, there has been some over-use of pixel smoothing techniques but I know of one photographer who does not make this mistake, if it can be called that.
Victor Rakmil is a photographer whose work I greatly admire and he writes an excellent blog much of which I would entirely agree with and learn from regarding technique. Take a look to see the texture that remains in his landscape scenes as well as the other photographic genres he covers.
I took the shots below on my way home over some of the lower lying Welsh hills. It was a hot a hazy day and for me, give a true (photographic) representation of the landscape as it was at that time in those conditions. Tomorrow I’ll have some more!
These and more photos can be seen and purchased at StillWalks PhotoShelter.
I tried taking photos of our Honesty plants some weeks ago but was not happy with the results – the evening light gave a colour cast that, when seen in the images, did not look natural. Now the plants have been moved to a more suitable spot in the garden and the dry seed heads were laid out on a table.
Why Seed of Memory? Because Honesty is a plant that always brings back memories for me of our garden in Northern Ireland when I was young. My mother must have talked about it and the name, being an easy one to remember, has stuck in my mind and is now associated with a time in my life when it was not only in the garden, but also in the house as decorative dry seed heads.
Thinking of this association with memory, I immediately think of one of my all time favourite albums – Seed of Memory by Terry Reid. This too, brings back some strong memories of people and places for me. I’m not sure what the copyright restrictions are for the file below but it is on YouTube and available to buy on that web page.
My French evening walk took me so far along the road to St Christophe and then I did an about turn and headed back to Faye la Vineuse the way I had come.
It was getting quite late by this time and the light was going fast but what an evening! And the sounds I recorded . . . you will just have to wait for me to complete the StillWalk.
St Christophe Road
Woodland Reflections
Night time in the fields
Faye la Vineuse
More from the road to St Christophe in the Indre et Loire region of France.
French Poppies
French Wild Flowers
French Sunset
