Waterside and Woodland

Posted on 13/06/201813/06/2018 by Alastair

Just realised I put the wrong date in on this post so it’s a little later in the day than usual – hope you all missed it!

Following the lakeside on my walk this week at The Waterside – Felindre, where we also enjoyed Welsh Valley Alpacas, we spotted some of the other fauna to be found there, namely a host of little tadpoles and fish.

From the waterside we climbed up into the woods where we enjoyed the bluebells still covering the sun-dappled glades and the alley-ways of trees. The carpet of needles was soft underfoot and, away from the crowd of people visiting the alpacas,Continue reading→

My Walk this Week – Old Copperopolis Part 1a and an Argument For Nature

Posted on 21/05/201818/05/2018 by Alastair

My walk this week is the first stage of my visual exploration of local nature and an old and world renown aspect of Swansea’s history – Copperopolis. Click the link if you would like to know more about that history. In the past I have only photographed elements of this industrial history and the nature overtaking it from across the River Tawe and it was good to take the opportunity to look a bit closer at how nature takes over all that we leave behind.

It is good to see how little impact we have on the the natural world, at least in the longer term of our lifespans – even multiple generations of our lives are only a snippet of time in the life of the planet or universe. It is also excitingContinue reading→

The Temptation of Bluebells

Posted on 09/05/201807/05/2018 by Alastair

One reason for my walk this week through the woodland of my local park was to see the Bluebells that have grown up profusely in the past few years since the park has been managed by the Friends of Coedbach with the support of the council’s Parks Department. The temptation with bluebells when photographing them is to exaggerate the saturation of colour in an effort to replicate the impact a carpet of blue in woodland has on our senses as we walk amongst the trees.

They are amazing but however anyone processes or presents a photograph of them, the reality is that, at best, the image will provide a good memory of the last time you saw bluebells in the real world. I have tried to avoid exaggerating the colour in my photography of this phenomenon but looked instead for anglesContinue reading→

My Walk this Week – Spring Walk in A Woodland Park

Posted on 07/05/201805/05/2018 by Alastair

My walk this week is in my local park – it’s a beautiful place and in recent years has been managed and developed by a volunteer group. I am ashamed to say I have not contributed my time to this group unless you include the promotion of the place via this blog.

The management and development of the woodland and other areas is a good thing in many respects, certainly it is if it gets more people using and benefiting from it. For myself, I love it now and I loved it before just as much. I suspect the birdsContinue reading→

Shadows On a Spring day

Posted on 27/04/201820/04/2018 by Alastair

My walk this week has looked at art, craft, design and now, having come back outside on a beautiful Spring day in Leeds city centre, I am looking at shadows. Standing on the steps of the Leeds Art Gallery and looking down on Victoria Square the subject matter of my photography (iPhonography) was obvious. The patterns of light and shade created by such a bright day stood out in strong contrast against both the warm coloured paving stones and the strong blue of the sky.

The shot I took of the pattern of tree branches on the pavement confused me at first. I thought it was out of focus, until I saw on closer inspection that while the tree trunk shape close to the ground and cracks between the paving slabs were in focus,Continue reading→

My Walk this Week – Architecture of An Urban Triangle

Posted on 26/03/201824/03/2018 by Alastair

My walk this week takes a look at and listen to a small urban triangle in Swansea, South Wales. I had been looked at the patterns of tower block scaffolding on a number of occasions in passing and thought it would be good to find the opportunity to take a closer look. So, duly prepared with my kit on a dry day I set out to explore both the scaffolding and other features of a small area that includes both the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery and on the opposite side of the road, UWTSD Swansea College of Art.

There are three different eras of architectural design in this first stage (or side of the triangle) of my walk – the classical style of the Glynn Vivian and the College of Art, the more functional style of the early ’70s in the Oldway House tower block and the mixture of block and glass in the new entrance to the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery.Continue reading→

Frozen!

Posted on 07/03/201803/03/2018 by Alastair

The rest of the UK had snow but our little pocket of the country somehow managed to avoid it and so my walk this week was freezing but no more than that. The images of frozen water below may not be as dramatic as some of those to be found in countries closer to the arctic circle, but they are different to our normal situation here in South West Wales where, since taking these photos, we have returned to rain!

My walk this week was, however, one I had not taken before and although short, allowed me to view an area that combinesContinue reading→

My Walk this Week – Freezing Over

Posted on 05/03/201803/03/2018 by Alastair

My walk this week braves the bitter wind blowing across Britain from Siberia. I have never seen ice like this on our local river, the Afon Dulais, but despite this and the fact that the rest of the country was under thick snow, we had next to none of it! The “beast from the east” and Storm Emma brought high winds and bitter cold but we were disappointed not to get any snow when seemingly all around us a colour, texture and acoustic change was taking place across the land.

Never mind, despite the ice feeling like it was inside my fingers, I still enjoyed my walk and the sights and sounds were still different to normal, but more of that later in the week. There was still someContinue reading→

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