This is the kind of magical scene I would expect to see only in fantasy film. There are times in the real world when you’re in the right place at the right time and the real magic of the world is revealed. I have done virtually nothing to these photos other than take them!
I am currently working on the post-production for a StillWalks video in Cwmdonkin Park in Swansea. It is a while since I was able to look at the photos and I was surprised to come across the image below. It is not one that I am likely to use in the video but I love the abstract nature of this tree bark.
The colour and texture make it a painting for me, one which makes me feel a little uneasy! Is that a face in there? Can you see it?
During our walk through Cwm Nash woodland, I spotted what looked like the entrance to a tunnel. It clearly wasn’t, but the growth pattern and arrangement of the trees growing at the side of the footpath appeared shortly before an actual tree tunnel that would take us out of the woods and towards the sea.
The ruined stone wall hidden in amongst the trees of Cwm Nash Woods was a surprise find – for me at least. The wall belongs to an old mill beside the Ffynnon Marl river. The StillWalks production walk I did with Dr Cathy Treadaway as part of the “Walk and Draw for Health and Wellbeing” research project, was done without a recce walk beforehand.
I had been asked to go along with a completely fresh eye (and ear). I don’t normally do this because there are distinct production advantages to checking out the lie of the land beforehand. However, whether the walk is done as a recce or as a production, new surroundings are always exciting to explore and Cwm Nash absolutely “came up to the mark” for me as a new discovery.
These photos are from a woodland on Bristol Channel coast of South Wales. I know the area in the Vale of Glamorgan from working there on a project a few years ago, but I had not been to this particular spot before.
The images form part of a new StillWalks video I was asked to produce as part of a research project being run by Dr Cathy Treadaway for CARIAD at Cardiff Metropolitan University. The project – “Walk and Draw for Health and Wellbeing” – is very much in keeping with my StillWalks philosophy and the video will be available to view at the end of this week.
. . . you’ll find some strange wooden serpents slithering through the undergrowth. This Loch Ness monster like fallen branch is classic shape from the crooked oak trees of the woods in Coedbach Park.
It is not the first time I have photographed this particular piece of wood, but it is in a different position in the woods now, so it is obviously on the move!
Flowers come in all shapes and sizes, colours and combinations – every plant has its own form. To my mind, the less flamboyant flowers of a pine are no less attractive than those with beautifully coloured petals.
I reckon that trees around or near any building enhances our visual perception of the urban environment. More than this, they also provide an invaluable means of protecting us from some of the pollution we put into the air. Particulates get trapped by the leaves and are then washed off to ground level by rain. And, of course, they absorb carbon dioxide provide us with oxygen.
Trees on the street in front of your house can make a significant difference to the quality of air you breath inside your home.
The trees in the first photo will not make a significant difference to the air that the inhabitants of the new buildings near Park Tawe in Swansea because, as can be seen from the depth of field in the image, the trees are not all that close to the buildings. The trees around BT’s tower block will be more effective in that respect.
City planners and architects should to take all the benefits that trees can bring into consideration when designing any and all new urban developments.
