This week’s featured StillWalks video is a sample of one from a new set of videos I have produced featuring Lower Lliw Reservoir.
The full set of four walks (one for each season) will be available soon on DVD and this will include an introductory video. The HD videos will be available to purchase online at a later date.
The walk round the lower reservoir is beautiful at all times of the year and I hope that you will enjoy this short sample. When the DVD is published in a few weeks, it will be available through the cafe at Lliw Reservoir and also via the StillWalks website.
Firstly I must thank everyone for the likes and comments made while we have been away. If I have not done much liking or commenting on my first day back from our Easter break, I can only apologise. Things will gradually get back to normal over the coming days and weeks.
The thickening carpet of Cherry blossom petals in our garden confirms what we expected – i.e. we would miss a large part of the tree’s Springtime display while we were away in Scotland.
But we are not sad because we had a great time with mostly excellent weather and some very enjoyable walks. I will be posting some of my photography from our trip to NE England and SW Scotland as soon as I get the chance to process it.
This and yesterday’s photo were actually taken two weeks ago just before we went away for a break. We were hoping that they would still be here for us when we got back. The Cherry and the Amelanchier have got to be two of our favourites in the garden!
More images that didn’t quite make it into a recently produced StillWalks Autumn video fro Lower Lliw Reservoir near Swansea, Wales. More to follow through this week.
Which of these three colour adjustments do you prefer?
I have photographed this building in Swansea on a number of occasions and every time, as you would expect, it is different. Whether it be the time of day, the angle viewed, the weather conditions or the camera settings, the appearance of the photos taken will always produce dramatically different images.
All of these things combined are what makes the difference of course. On this occasion the tower viewed from this angle in the early evening light of a semi overcast hazy day was what gave me this image.
However, there is one other point that can severely affect how you see an image – the calibration of your computer screen. The first image here is a compromise necessitated by the differences between my two ageing monitors which have become impossible to match in calibration. I have become familiar with these monitors and am able to make adjustments to give me images I am happy with when seen on other people’s computers (most of the time). There are so many variables with this that I make a point of collaborating closely with the printer whenever I am not printing the image myself.
My final check for colour adjustment at the moment is my iPhone – if it look alright on that (colour wise), then the chances are it will look OK on other screens.
Concrete, glass and pebble dash – the outer materials of the Civic Centre building in Swansea. It is in a beautiful position on the seafront in Swansea bay and those working there may sometimes find the view somewhat distracting.
These are photos I have posted on Instagram recently and although, on this occasion, the quality of the photos leaves something to be desired, the images themselves are ones I find interesting – that’s why I took them I guess!
One reason for my interest is the effect the different surfaces have on the light that hits them. Whilst the the glass reflects the light and colour in a very direct way, the (originally) white surface of the walls deflects the direct sunlight from dazzling the eye too much because it has been textured with pebble dash. In the second shot the walls have also been given a vertical line pattern which further deflects the light.
Vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines, circles, squares, rectangles – these are the elements that make up the structures of so much, if not all architecture. Add in a bit of colour and some more angles and curves and the combinations of pattern are endless.
Symmetry seems sometimes to be a prerequisite in architectural design but it is when asymmetry is used that things get really exciting and no doubt, from the architects point of view, prohibitively expensive.
Personally, I don’t have a problem with the look of these buildings in Swansea’s maritime Quarter – there are plenty of those pattern combinations to be discovered. I do, however, think that it is a shame that imagination seems to come at a price.
