Flying An Urban Flag

This flock of birds epitomise the freedom of flight across this urban lake in Middlesbrough as the evening approaches and the silhouetted tree against the sunset reveals its majesty and the bicycle tyre hanging from a branch appears as an iconic urban flag.

Late Afternoon Lake

Tree Silhouette

Tyre in tree

Solitary Reflection

The context for these images can be seen in the second photo. The surface of the lake was frozen but by the end of the day the ice had melted enough for large areas of it to appear completely liquid. Some of the birds seemed a little confused, which made my late afternoon walk around this urban lake in Middlesbrough all the more entertaining.

bird on water

Lake surface

Frost and Ice – Surface Texture

I was amazed by the patterns and textures created by the embedded Autumn leaves in the frost and ice formed on the surface of the urban lake I walked around over New Year.

Click the image for a more detailed look.

frost and Ice

Celebrating Dylan Thomas

In celebration of the centenary of the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, I thought I would post a second time today with a link to my StillWalks video “Cwmdonkin Walk – Autumn”. The park in Swansea was a significant feature in Dylan’s life and has seen some notable improvements in the last year to celebrate his centenary.

I have upgraded the normal sample version of the video to the full length at a higher resolution and hope that you will enjoy it as much as those people using it on a daily basis.

Click here or the image below to watch the full video (8 minutes).

Cwmdonkin Park

Columns and Context

I like the arrangement of these lighting columns in Cardiff Bay but to put them properly in context you need to look at the wider picture at the bottom of this post.

I thought the dark lump on the glass discs in the second image was something nasty but on closer inspection, it looks like it is a lump of moss . . . so that’s one for the Moss Appreciation Society!

Cardiff Columns

Cardiff Bay Architecture-14

Cardiff Columns

Patterns in Water – Slo-Mo Flow

The patterns in the water flowing down the steel monolith structure in Cardiff Bay look like they could be parts of an abstract jigsaw. The slow exposure shot below was not an easy one to get as I didn’t have a tripod with me. I did my best though and like the combination of textures and the patterns that show up as a result of the (apparently) faster flowing water.

water flow patterns

slo mo flow

Urban Flow – Water on Steel

The architecture of art or the art of architecture? Which is it? Water flows on the steel monolith structure in Cardiff Bay. The people living in the apartments behind must have a different view to most of us to wake up to in the morning!

flowing water on steel

water flow on steel