red shattered rock

Coastal Curiosities 1 – Arranged and Sculpted Naturally

This week I am focusing on some of the coastal curiosities I found along my walks in Scotland last month. The wind and sea had been sculpting, as they naturally do, but people were also evident in the arrangements they left behind in the form of what appeared to me like a miniature straggling sea defence. A sea defence that was set higher on the beach than the highest tide level, at least for a few days, thus ensuring they would stay there for a while and allow me to photograph them in different lights.

miniature defences

The low sun in the evening also sculpted the appearance of the beach into a Martian landscape and the my daughter pointed me towards the Martian colours revealed in a rock formation split by erosion. This revealed a measure of timeContinue reading

Fun and Games on the Beach

The sky may still be murky on this Swansea Bay walk, but the dogs are having great fun playing games on the beach. Walking along the tide line, it was great to watch them and see how much they enjoyed it. The patterns of tracks they left in the sand were mostly chaotic, but now and then there would be clear arc of paw prints showing a dog’s direction as it chased a stick or ball.

Other fascinating patterns were also to be seen in the black sand or coal dust covering part of this eastern end of the beach.

dog tracks

Playing Fetch

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My Walk this Week 18 – First Snow

This winter has been so mild it came as a bit of surprise to find myself driving carefully through snow on my way to a meeting in Carmarthenshire. The meeting was at Blaenige, the home of MLR UK with whom I have been working for a while now to develop a StillWalks business package. The meeting finished in good time, and as I had brought most of my kit with me, I took the opportunity to go for a short walk down one of the steep hillside tracks through the farmland and woods.

There wasn’t a lot of snow and it was already melting during my walk but considering I hadn’t expected to see any this year, it wasn’t unwelcome and as the sky was partially blue, my walk this week, though short, was quite exhilarating.

Blaenige, Carmarthenshire

One aspect of the walk which is changed with the snow is the environmental sound. Below I have included three sound clips of my footsteps in the changing snow. How much difference can you hear in them.

Crunchy Snow

Deeper Snow

Wet Snow

If viewing this in an email, to see the sound player you will need to visit the blog – please click the post title to view the full post.

Proportion, Perspective and Atmosphere

Talking about images rather than roads, it is up to you whether or not you stick to the “rules”, but it is so often said that “rules are made to be broken”, it is almost a rule in itself that you shouldn’t stick to them!

I have used the “rule” of thirds (approximately) in the first two images below and each presents to me a different atmosphere and perspective. My personal preference is for the second shot but “to each his own”. Do you have a preference?

The “thirds” rule is broken in the third shot but the focus is on (or at least my attention was drawn to) the arc of a dog’s paw prints across the beach. I hope I have managed to frame the shot successfully. The eye follows the arc of prints and is brought neatly to a stop with the change in direction of the horizontal structure on the beach and the punctuation mark of the man – who presumably owns the invisible dog! The small proportion of land and sky simply to give the scene some geographical context.

Swansea Beach

Swansea Beach

Swansea Beach