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.
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!
Following the recent StillWalks project exhibition, “Sights and Sounds of the Countryside”, I was delivering some the display screens back to Felindre Primary School who had generously loaned them for the purpose.
Being a beautiful, sunny day and quite different to the weather we had on the project production days, I was tempted to walk some way along the footpath we had taken up to Lliw Reservoir. It is a part of the Gower Way and the photo below shows the start of the walk.
I would love, over time, to produce more StillWalks along here and at Lliw Reservoirs in different seasons. All I have to do is find the time or someone to pay for it!
A few weeks ago I started writing a short blog style article for the online version of our local newspaper, the South Wales Evening Post. The articles are about some of the walks I take in the Swansea area and many of them are a little off the beaten track.
My contribution to the paper today (read here) features the River Tawe at Ynystawe but here, on this blog I want to present another part of the river. The StillWalks, “Abertawe Walk”, takes you along the cycle path between the Liberty Stadium and the bridges at SA1 and the Maritime Quarter in Swansea.
The production for this walk was done in the Autumn and the walk takes you through the woods along side the river as well as the cycle path.
The video can be seen here and the photos below are taken from that production.
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.
This post is pretty much just what it says on the tin!
Using the excellent RODE recording app for iPhone (though not their iPhone mic) I got, precisely, the sound of the wind in the marsh grass when out walking in the evening recently. I held the iPhone right in amongst the grasses which had the added advantage of muffling the sound of traffic on the motorway as well as stopping the rumble effect of the wind directly on the mic.
These field recordings on their own are not going to be for everyone but I enjoyed listening to the changing sounds of the grasses as the wind strength changed and find, as with the recording I do for StillWalks videos, that the sound does so much to help visualize the memory.
Swansea may be the wettest city in the UK, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth visiting.
It may be that you can find scenes similar to this in many different places around the world but as with any image (or sound), each one is, in fact, unique to the time and place according to the conditions at the time the photograph is taken or the sound recorded.
Understanding that what we experience of our surroundings is interdependent on these unique conditions from moment to moment is a major part of what StillWalks is about.
More important than that, however, is simply the enjoyment of what we see and hear around us – rain it may be, but I hope you enjoy these images.
