Autumn in the Clyne Valley, Swansea

Video of an Autumn walk in a local woodland in Swansea, Wales:

Singleton Park, Swansea, in Spring

A video of my local park - Singleton Park in Swansea, Wales - filmed this Spring. The music accompanying the visuals is: Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 11 in B Flat Major, Opus 22 - 1. Allegro con brio:

Welsh Churches Website

I've become quite enamoured of the architecture of traditional British churches of late, and have been photographing a few recently, as well as looking through my archives to search for any I may have already photographed. Here's a photo of the beautiful St. Paul's Church - in Sketty, Swansea - pictured during a rare snowfall on December 17th, 2010:

Rather than post any more church pictures here, I'm in the process of gathering some pictures together at my new website, Welsh Churches.

Do take a look and click the link if you're interested in this kind of thing!

Some video footage of a rare snowfall in Swansea, back on January 23rd, 2013:

Swansea Bay in Time-Lapse

Some time-lapse footage shot over several months here in Swansea Bay, just using the time-lapse function on my cheap JVC Everio camcorder:

Wild Waves in Swansea

We've been battered by some wild waves and strong winds here in south and west Wales for the last few days, with some towns, like Aberystwyth, coming off far worse than we have here in Swansea.

Anyway, here's a video of some of the waves near the civic centre at high tide yesterday morning, January 6th:

Swansea Fireworks

Some video of the annual November 5th fireworks here in Swansea, filmed with my Canon 7D with a 17-40mm lens and a Rode Videomic Pro:

Previously, I'd only photographed this spectacle, so it was nice to get some film footage for a change.

Last Night's Sunset

Just to show I'm still alive (just about), here's a shot from Monday evening. It was taken on the hill above my house, looking west. The sliver of water in the distance is the Burry Inlet, which separates the Gower Peninsula in the South from Carmarthenshire to the North:

Whilst I was up there, I noticed a half-dozen Swifts and a couple of Swallows flying around, which reminded me that I've hardly seen any of these birds this year. Anyone else noticed a shortage of Swifts and hirundines this Summer?

The River Clyne

I've been a bit 'under-the-weather' lately, and this evening was the first time I've been out with my camera in seemingly ages. I've got an almost-permanent pain in my lower back, no doubt caused by lugging this heavy gear around for so long, so I just wandered down to the beach with my Canon 40D and newly-repaired 17-40mm lens, hoping a nice sunset might develop.

These were the best shots I could come up with - some pics of the River Clyne, a small stream which flows into Swansea Bay here at Blackpill, with the sun going down in the background:

While I'm on the subject, here's a little video of the same river I took about a mile upstream last Summer:

Today was the first day, after a long, cold Winter (by our standards) that felt truly Springlike round here, and it was appropriate that I should finally get to see (and hear) my first Swallows of the year, as a small group twittered overhead on my walk down to the shore.

Sunday's Snaps

After not much sleep on Saturday night, a sunny Sunday lured me out into the great blue yonder. I was too tired to lug my DSLR with me, so took my little Olympus Pen Mini EPM-1 with me on my walk along Swansea seafront. Gale-force winds soon blew over some dramatic clouds and squally showers, resulting in some dramatic cloudscapes over Mumbles Head:

Thunder and lightning made occasional appearances on what was a dream day for landscape photography. The combination of heavy rain and sunshine resulted in the inevitable spectacular rainbows over the bay:

Unfortunately, just after taking this shot, the battery in my camera ran out, and I realised to my horror I had neglected to bring a spare with me. There's a moral in there somewhere!

Pied Wagtail and an Eagle

After photographing the crows in my previous post, I came upon this little Pied Wagtail perched nearby in the dim blue light of dusk:

If you're wondering what it's standing upon, it's this sculpture of an eagle (or osprey), photographed at sunrise way back in 2005:

Yesterday's Sunset

A few shots taken on a walk along Swansea beach on Saturday evening. Unlike all previous photos on here, which were taken with various DSLRs, these were taken with a little Olympus Pen E-PL1 camera:

After a sunny Saturday, it was back to the usual rain today. And now that the clocks have gone back, the evenings are going to be longer and darker than ever. Uh oh!

Moonrise Over Swansea Bay

A few shots taken yesterday on an evening walk along Swansea Bay. As the sun set over the houses behind me, this moon rose over the sea in front:

I scouted around looking for some foreground interest:

I found this Teasel growing in the sand dunes (in fact, I planted it as food for Goldfinches):

The sky's colour had gradually turned from orange to pink:

Not exactly Ansel Adams, perhaps, but thought I had better make at least one blog post this month!

Sunday's Sunrise

As penance for wasting a sunny Saturday by catching up on sleep and watching the rugby, I kicked myself out of bed before dawn on Sunday, and headed down to the beach. There was just enough time for a twenty-odd-minute exposure of this tree, capturing a few star-trails, before it got too light:

The same tree with the developing sunrise behind:

I put my 500mm lens into action for this shot of the Port Talbot steelworks across the bay:

I used the same lens for this pan-blur shot:

                        this shot of the Meridian Tower near the city centre:

and this picture of the dawn sky over Mumbles Lighthouse:

The colours became more intense:

That tree again:

A couple of my patented pan-blur shots, the aim being to reduce the scene to its essentials and remove distracting details (or something pretentious like that!):

The sun rising near the steelworks:

More-subtle light looking south-westwards towards Mumbles:

A final shot looking back across the rising tide towards the town:

and then it was off for some bird photography.

It was definitely worth getting up early for!

Swansea Bay Sunset

A few shots from this evening, taken from the beach near the city centre, and looking back towards Mumbles:

A shot of the town, with the tall building on the right being the Meridian Tower: