This week I am showing some views of groynes on the beach.These photos, all taken within a few hours of each other, were all taken on the same beach on north Norfolk in the UK - the beach actually faces north. I had previously tried capturing groynes on the beach in Aberystwyth, Wales but was not very successful. This time I feel the images are much better.The first photograph shown above is not too bright. Although there was sun shining. there was a fair bit of cloud about leading to images that are bit dull. I do like this photo though, because of the position of the boat being in line with the direction of the groyne.In the next 2 photos, I used a wider angle lens that I borrowed from a friend - also the sun was shining brighter by this time. In this second image, I was able to get...
The photograph below is a view just a short stroll from where I live in Norfolk, in the UK.This shows one of the fields that had recently been cropped, cultivated and seeded. The crop, which I think is something like Winter Wheat, has started to grow and the shoots are a few inches high which gives a mottled green effect on the rich brown soil. This view leads down to the river Waveney and its adjacent marshes. This river forms part of the 'Norfolk Broads' which is one of the National parks in the UK.This group of photographs were taken on a fine Autumn (Fall) morning, not long after sunrise just a couple of weeks ago. Although the first 2 views do not show it, due to the position of the sun relative to the camera, there was a brilliant clear blue sky - this had caused a little frost to...
The summer this year in the UK has bee characterised by being somewhat wetter and duller than is normal. This has meant that the farmers are behind their usual schedule - some of their harvesting did not occur until late September. This means that the other activities, such as collecting the bales of straw and ploughing, has occurred later as well.On a fine morning in early October I went for a short walk with my camera to the fields across the road from where I live. In this posting I am showing a few results of this early morning walk.The first photograph shown above is showing a field that has been recently ploughed - or at least the edge has. The centre of the field has, I think, been turned with a disk harrow. I love the bright blue sky in this image, along with the low shadows...
This is a decidedly difficult sculpture. An imposing steel rocket-like structure on the edge of Merthyr town.
When the late Charles Sansbury created this massive installation way back in 1975, little did he realise how unloved his gangly child would become.
Logic and reason suggest that it is difficult not to notice this work at a height of approximately 20 feet. On the other hand most people don’t notice it.
The sculpture was installed at the edge of Merthyr main car park, in front of Merthyr College, and at the entrance of the main footbridge leading into St Tydfil’s shopping centre.
Although it was guaranteed a daily audience of thousands of passers-by, few noticed when it was recently moved to the Caegarw roundabout as part of a town landscaping project.
And the colour...
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The Aberdare Blog Met Office is warning that severe weather is forecast in the next fortnight causing scenes of extreme beauty.
Local trees will be transformed into bright and eye-catching colours.
Several millimeters of leaves could accumulate in many parks and other public places.
Photographers are advised to take extra care.
In the photograph : Aberdare Park after extreme weather last......
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This week I am showing photographs of the Broad-leaved Willowherb - at least that's what I think it is. Some of the information in my field guides seemed to conflict, so it may be another Willowherb such as the Great Willowherb. I would be grateful if anyone can positively identify this plant for me.These photos were taken of plants growing in some waste ground of my previous smallholding in Wales. The 'studio' shots had to be taken quite quickly as the plants soon started to wilt once cut and brought inside. As before, my 'studio' is a cardboard box with a black card background.In the first photo, I am trying to show the main parts of the plant (flowers, leaves and stem) to give an overall view of the plant. In the second image below, I am concentrating on a couple of flowers. I do like...
It’s been three years since we first started blogging about Aberdare and now there are three thousand photos in the Gallery.
Put one foot in front of the other and repeat, and repeat, and repeat. Before you know it, you’ve trod your way so far down a path, it becomes easier to continue forward, than re-trace your steps backwards.
The photographic ‘themes’ in the Gallery started in Aberdare… honest guv! In a town rich with Chapels and Churches it was inevitable we would start taking photographs across the Valley, then across the Valleys, then farther afield.
And so the pattern is repeated with our other photographic themes. First Aberdare, then out there!
The word we are looking for here is serendipity. We have trod this path as accidental photographer...
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St Mary’s Church, Welshpool gives a splendid vantage point over the town of Welshpool. You can see the lush green rolling hills beyond the town from the Church.
Welshpool War Memorial is situated within the grounds of St Mary’s Church, a 20ft memorial built of sandstone.
See the Full Set of Photographs here (on Flickr)...
These photographs of Red Campion (Silene dioica) were taken at my previous smallholding in Wales. It is small, somewhat spindly plant that grows in the meadows and hedgerows. It does have an attractive red-pink flower. I find that I prefer the wild flowers over the highly hybridised modern garden plants that are, for me, too 'showy'.This first photo shows the complete flower head of two adjacent flowers. This, and the other photographs were taken in my cardboard box studio that has black card as a background.The purpose of the second image was to show leaf and stem detail, as well as the side view of the flower heads. Like many of the wild flower plants I have photographed, the stems are slightly hairy which show up quite will in the flash lighting used.In this third photo, I am showing...
This week I am featuring a wild flower that I believe to be Herb Robert - Geranium robertianum. This is a plant that was growing in my previous smallholding in Wales. If my identification is correct, it is an annual or biennial plant with, as you can see, small, pink flowers with 5 petals. It grows from spring through to the autumn.The first photograph shown above is a close-up showing the whole of the flower head. The background is the foliage of the plant. Like many of my close-up photographs, this was taken in a home-made studio made from a cardboard box and some black card.This second photo shows the whole plant. I like this image due to the lighting on the foliage. I feel there is jut the right balance of light and shadow on the leaves.This third image is a different view from that...
This week I am showing some photographs of the berries of the Guelder Rose. Although this is a native plant, is is often used as an ornamental tree or shrub in gardens. What attracted me to this tree is the brilliant red berries that brighten up an otherwise ordinary shrub.In the first photo, I am showing a close-up view of the berries against a background of the green leaves. Being primary colours, the red contrasts quite well with the green of the leaves but, as you can see, the leaves are rather dull and marked.In this second image, I show the whole tree in a large domestic garden - my wife's flower garden in our former smallholding in Wales. You can see from the size of the rusty antique seed drill to the left, and the trees in the background, that it is quite a small tree, but...
This week I am continuing the theme of trees in the hedgerows with another selection of photographs. When I lived on my previous smallholding in Wales, I liked to wander over the fields at different times of the year and day to take photographs of the trees and hedgerows. I tended to take most photographs of the same few trees as I considered them photogenic although other trees looked good at different times.The first image shown above is a group of 4 trees in a single hedgeline. This is one of the few photographs of the 4 trees together although I had previously taken photos of the trees inpairs or singly. I like this image for the sense of space and tranquility it presents.The second image is one of my favourite trees. This is a single specimen growing in an old hedgeline along with...
This week I have opened a new section in my Environment/Natural History Gallery for trees. The first album that I have created in this section is for trees that are in the hedgerows and fields. Currently, these photos are all taken at our previous smallholding in Wales.The first photo, shown above, is a single tree growing in the hedge line at the eastern boundary of the smallholding. This tree is growing amongst a lot of gorse bushes which is quite common on the smallholding and in the locality. The local village (or rather hamlet) is Tynreithin which translates from the Welsh to Gorse Cottage. This view is roughly to the east towards the Cambrian Mountains which are just discernible in the distance (about 2 miles away).The second photograph shows a small hawthorn amongst the gorse...
This week I am featuring some photographs taken a few months ago of gorse growing in the hedgerow. These photos were taken quite early in the morning when there was a light frost, but on a bright day with a clear blue sky.The first picture shown is a close-up of some gorse flowers against the blue sky. In this photo you can just see the frost on the flowers. The sun was starting to warm up and the frost did not last long.In the second image below, the photo was taken looking down on the flower stems into the bush. In this you can see the frost on the flowers, buds and the spiny leaves.One thing that was noticeable was the gorse was a different shade of yellow to the previous year. In that year the gorse flowers where a lovely lemon-yellow colour. This year they have a more orangey hue....
Tufted Vetch (Vicia cracca) was a common plant in the fields and hedgerows of our previous smallholding in Wales. It is an important plant as, being a member of the pea family, it fixes nitrogen into the ground which helps the fertility of the soil.The first photo, shown above, is of some flower heads and leaves of a plant that was growing along a wire fence. The fence was quite overgrown with different grasses and wild flowers and herbs. This plant was hanging away from most of the growth. You can see the pea-like tendrils that it uses to support itself.The second photograph shown below shows one of the seed pods. If it wasn't for the size (it is quite small), you could easily believe it was a pea pod.The third image shows an old flower head. The top has the remains of the old flowers as...
This week I have chosen to show some photos of the Lesser Butterfly Orchid, Platanthera bifolia. Identification of this is quite difficult as it is very similar to the Greater Butterfly Orchid. However, by using some of the excellent resources available on the web, I am reasonably confident of the identification.The first photo is an enlargement of a single orchid in a meadow of our smallholding in Wales. In the background you can see the purple of a spotted orchid. The butterfly orchid was quite rare in our meadows - we only had a few specimens. The spotted orchid was quite common, there were hundreds in just this one meadow.The second photo shown below is of a single plant in the meadow. This was taken on a late summer evening with the sun low down in the sky. As you can see, it is...
Last month, just a couple of days before we moved away, we had second light fall of snow on our smallholding in Wales. It was less than an inch, but there was enough snow to transform the landscape. Luckily, it did not last nor was it deep enough to upset our moving plans.The first photograph, shown above, shows the whiteness of the snow amongst the deep, brown grass. The two trees also have some snow sticking to their sides. I like this photo for both the composition and detail of the snow.The second image below shows the snow covering the branches of a tree. I like the composition of this photo with the branches making diagonal lines from the corner. In the background you can see all the small branches in the distance are similarly covered in snow.I am not so sure about this third...
I have visited Talley Abbey a couple of times now. It is one of the three that I have visited in Wales - the others were Strata Florida and Tintern. Of the three, Talley is my favourite.Next to the ruins of the abbey is an old church and graveyard - I think this has a wonderful setting, as I have tried to show here. Adjacent to the church and abbey is a quite picturesque lake. This first photo shows the lake in a tranquil setting, surrounded by hills with sheep grazing peacefully by its edges.This second photograph was taken from the churchyard showing the view across some of the gravestones to the lake. What a magnificent final resting place this makes.This third image shows more of the graves with the lake forming a backdrop. This is a lovely, quiet rural location. The monks that built...
Unusually, we have had no snow to speak of this past winter, just a light powdering on a couple of occasions. From a distance it looks like a heavy hoar frost. However, it is still quite picturesque which (I hope) you can see from this selection of photographs. They were all taken at the same time, fairly early in the morning - an hour later the sun had melted most of it.The first photo above is a view from my smallholding in Wales looking northwards over neighbouring farmland. The snow is just enough to lighten the green grass without becoming completely white.In the second image below, this was taken from the same viewpoint but looking further to the east. In the distance, you can see that the higher hills (the Cambrian Mountains) are more white where they got a slightly deep covering...
This week I made a visit to Tintern Abbey. This, like many monastic establishments in the UK, is in ruins due to the "Dissolution of the Monasteries" instituted by Henry VIII in the 1530s. This one is in better condition than many others. Tintern is situated in the southern part of the Wye Valley (itself an extremely attractive part of the country) on the Wales-England border.As the weather has been rather poor lately, I chose a day when the forecast looked quite bright for that part of the country. As it is some 2½ hours drive away, I relied on the forecast. However, it was a very dull, cold blustery day.I must admit that, for some reason, I did not feel very inspired on the day. But when I got home and started reviewing the photos, they turned out better than I expected, although I...
I am fortunate that I live in a beautiful part of the country. The front of our house overlooks a shallow valley (carved by glaciers in the last ice age) and onto the Cambrian Mountains. These mountains are not high (they have been worn away by countless ice ages), nor rugged, but are gentle, rounded, accessible hills.On a fine day with the right cloud they give spectacular sunrises. This week I am showing some images that I have just loaded into the gallery. They were all taken within minutes of each other from our front garden one November morning. I like the way the yellow turns to gold that turns to red. This is then complemented by the sky and clouds that have soft blue-grey tones.This second image was taken in a different part of the garden. The cloud pattern is different although...
I am having a 'thing' about sunrises and sunsets at the moment. This week I am showing some more images that have been loaded into the gallery. The first photo is a similar shot as one I showed in the previous post, but without the birds but with more foreground and dark clouds. For this shot, I was standing on a hedge bank, leaning on a telephone pole, overlooking a neighbours property. This was taken in May.The second photograph was taken from just a few yards away on a different evening, but pointing to the right in a north-easterly direction. The colour of the sky was totally different - pale pinks and lilacs.This third image was taken from the same point as the first but a few months later in August. This has the same yellow and golds, but different cloud patterns give a different...
I have just made a start going through a number of photographs taken at dawn or dusk. Today I am featuring a few photographs taken at sunset or dusk from my smallholding in mid Wales.The first photo, shown above, is the sun low in the sky taken on an August evening. I like the pinkish-yellow tone - it is almost monochromatic. This photo was taken from one of the lower fields looking roughly west towards slightly higher ground.This second photograph was taken from a neighbour's field adjacent to out smallholding. It shows the sky after the sun has dipped below the horizon. I think the two birds flying past add interest to the shot.The view is roughly north-west and was taken in late May.The third image, below, was taken early one November. I like it for the almost symmetrical aspect with...
This week I am featuring the ruins of Strata Florida Abbey in Mid-Wales. It is thought that the Abbey was founded around 1164 A.D. and was due to the patronage of the Lord Rhys (many of his descendants were buried there). This monastery increased in power and authority across Wales with farms belonging to it being spread out across the Welsh countryside. Its influence was felt throughout Wales and it sought influence over other monasteries such as that at Talley (which I have featured before).The first photograph above shows the entrance doorway. It must have been quite impressive when the abbey was complete. The second image below shows the entrance door from inside the abbey. You can get an idea of the thickness of the walls from the window to the left.This third photo shows what...
This week I feature some more photographs taken on a second visit to Talley Abbey. This time is was a brighter day with blue sky and fluffy white clouds. This meant that at times the sun was bright with hard shadows; at other times, more subdued with indistinct shadows.The first photo shows the main structure of the remains of the Abbey with a background of the rolling Welsh Countryside. I like this for the contrast between the blue sky and green countryside, with the building bridging the two.In this second photograph, I try to give some impression of the size and majesty of the building. It is impressive enough to modern eyes, it must have been awe-inspiring to the peasants of the time.This third photograph was an attempt, only partially successful, to capture a view through the 3...
This week I have selected some photographs of Talley Abbey to show and discuss. This initial set was taken a couple of years ago when I first had my digital SLR when I was trying out its capabilities.Talley Abbey is the ruins of an abbey built between 1184 and 1189. It was founded for the monastic order of the Premonstratensians, or White Canons, by the Lord Rhys . The monastery was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1536 (when he had a bust-up with the church and dissolved many monasteries and took their lands). Subsequently, most of the buildings were destroyed and their materials used in other buildings or homes.The first image above shows the ruins from the entrance gateway. This is about 15-20 ft above the monastery ground level (you go down some wooden stairs to approach the Abbey) and...
This week we went for another walk over Tregaron Bog (Cors Caron) which is an ancient peat bog that is now run as a nature reserve. We were lucky with the weather as it was quite a clear sunny day with a bright, but low, autumn sun.The first picture is a view through some trees across the width of the bog. I like this image because of the contrast between the blue sky and orange-brown grasses. The bare trees give a feeling of the isolation possible in this part of Wales.The second photograph was taken moments later when a line of horses galloped by in the middle distance. Some of the local farms have grazing rights on the bog and horses are often overwintered on the bog. Often the horses are Welsh Cobs - a hardy breed that can stand the conditions.I like this third image more due to the...
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Last week I wrote about my recent visit to the mine workings near Cwm Ystwyth. Whilst there, I did not concentrate just on the mine workings, I looked around for other photgraphic opportunities.The photo above was taken by the river adjacent to the mine workings. The river flows down one side of the valley with the bulk of the mine workings on the other side. As you can see, at this point the river is little more than a stream, especially during a drier spell as it had been. At this location we are not far from the high boggy moors in the Cambrian mountains where this, and other, rivers originate.The photo above is taken looking downstream, partially into the light. You can just see some old mine buildings and spoil heaps to the right of the Vally in the distance.The second photograph...
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A couple of weeks ago, it turned out to be a fine autumn day with a clear blue sky. So I decided to visit the old mine workings near Cwm Ystwyth. Cwm is Welsh for a shallow valley and Ystwyth is the name of the river. The location is well into the Cambrian Mountains.My initial researches indicate that the mine ceased working in about 1922, but I have yet to discover what was mined. I did find one reference that indicated that copper was mined here in the bronze age. A number of mines in the area can trace their origins back to the Roman times. I recall reading that one motivation the Romans had for invading Britain 2000 years ago was for the metal from the mines (gold, silver and lead has been mined in the area).By the time we got to the mine, there was some light cloud which, at times,...
We have been blessed this week with some fine weather, it being mostly sunny or with light patchy cloud. This has given me the opportunity to wander around our smallholding looking for photographic opportunities.I liked the picture shown above because it shows two fungi in their setting: this was the north-eastern edge of a small meadow that gently slopes to the south-west - quite a suntrap at times. This view looks in a south-easterly direction.To get this photo I had to get the camera down low - it is only a couple of inches off the ground. I used a wide angle setting (the widest possible with my lens) for two reasons: 1) to show as much of the location as possible, and 2) to maximise the 'depth of field' - this is the range of sharpness from closer-up to further-out. For the...
