Stuart’s Photography

This is a view across the River Taff that I get to enjoy several mornings a week; steam rising from the Brains Brewery just outside Cardiff Central railway station.

A non-HDR shot for a change

The morning is, without doubt, the best time of day to try and snap the houses of Trefforest. Snuggling on the western bank of the River Taff, the former market town of Trefforest is today dominated by the University of Glamorgan. Most of the housing is now let to students, making the place a bit of a ghost town out of term time.

Taken from the same spot as Watching Over The A470.

If you can get out of bed early enough, this time of year offers fantastic light when the weather isn’t against you. And yet, look at the photography going on this time of year, and you’ll see that so few people ever look up to see – and photograph – what’s above them.

Mind you, you have to look up a long way to see this bad boy. This is one of the ridiculously tall lights that rises up from the Treforrest / Glyntaff turnoff to look down onto the elevated section of the A470. To have any chance at all of capturing this shot, I had to wander into the car park of the new University of Glamorgan campus (many thanks to the security team for their permission), and even from that elevated position I had a fair job getting the whole lamp into the shot.

Can you imagine having the job of changing the bulbs in this thing when they blow?

It might not look like much today, and the bare trees and cold tarmac of the A470 might make this picture seem extremely unremarkable, but sixty years ago you’d have been looking at the canal bridge at Trallwn as it crossed the Glamorganshire Canal.

Sadly, although I’m sure I’ve seen a photo online of the bridge taken from about this spot, I’ve been unable to find it so far. If you know of one, please let me know in the comments below!

I was walking home this afternoon from an as-yet unpublished shoot [a follow-up on the further decline of Pontypridd - Ed] when the low winter sun drew my eye to this rusting, vandalised junction box sat underneath the A470 by Ynysangharad Park.

I just love the way the curve of the road and the path draw the eye towards the rusting box itself. That’s exactly what happened when I was walking, and I’m pleased that it came out so well in this photograph.