Last Saturday, Kristi and I headed down to Margam Country Park near Port Talbot to meet up with quite a few folks from the Welsh Flickr Cymru group on Flickr. We had a great time, took loads of photos, and even got to see a few deer 
Thoughts On The Day
After a summer of wet and dull weekends, it was a real joy to be out and about once more with the camera. For what I think was the first time this year, instead of heading out with just the 18-135mm lens, I packed up the full kit - Sigma 10-20mm lens, Nikkor 18-135mm lens, Sigma 50mm macro lens, and the long-reaching Sigma 80-400mm uber-lens.
As always on a Saturday, we headed down to the Knapp first to play some Tai Chi, wolf down some lovely Segafredo coffee, and then pottered down the M4 to Margam Country Park. We all met up in the car park first, which was very handy, as neither Kristi nor I really know anyone from the Welsh Flickr Cymru group. We said hello to everyone, posed for the group photo, and then buggered off on our own for the day. I’d seen the old chapel up on the hill plenty of times driving past on the M4 and with the glorious weather was determined that this was the day I was finally going to make it up there
On the way to the chapel, we ran what I think was a volunteer group, who were working on rebuilding the old path up the hill. They’re currently making it safer than it was, and they hope to have it finished in about six months or so. Until they’ve finished, to get to the chapel its a short walk up the road and then take the first left by the footpath sign. The footpath is a little muddy, but it wasn’t overgrown at the time.
It’s well worth the trek up the hill just for the view:
We headed back down to enjoy lunch outside the house, watching the deer running through the trees behind. Sandwiches downed, we set on in search of deer! I shot a good 30-40 shots of two deer under the trees. Another photographer (not part of the meet I believe) wandered by partway through, and made the comment that surely we’d both taken enough shots of the deer by then. I’m glad we ignored him, because out of those 40 shots, I only ended up with 4 that I was happy with. Even with the 400mm lens, it was difficult to get close shots of the deer eating under the trees. Might be time to trade up to a 500mm lens next
Further along, the path climbs up to the top of another hill overlooking the country park. The top of the hill features a lovely little copse of trees, and a very strange brick-lined pit. Kristi reckons it must have been a swimming pool, but if you can shed any light on it, please leave a comment below!
My favourite memory of the whole day has to be the gum tree near the Orangery. As you approach it, all you can hear is the humming of all the bees drinking nectar from the tree. There’s a lovely bench underneath where you can sit, relax, and just enjoy the sheer sense of life all around you.
The Photos
Post Production
Since March this year, I’ve been working on improving my HDR post-production technique, trying to find the right settings in both Photomatix Pro 2 and Aperture 2 to tone down the unrealistic colours to match the ‘faded’ look I’ve been developing since my Taff Vale Eastern Ridge Walk set last year. Although it adds a lot of time to the post-production work, the results are photos that hopefully are starting to take on a distinctive style not just in composition but also in colour and appearance.
Found On Flickr
Don’t forget to check out all of the other excellent photos taken by members of Welsh Flickr Cymru during this meet.
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Last summer, I hiked up the Little Garth to take some shots of the remains of Walnut Junction Viaduct. It’s normally a very easy walk (provided the ground is dry!), but this time the rains had brought more than just mud down onto the path … just don’t tell the missus that I scrambled over this thing both on the way up and on the way down
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With the car in the garage for its M.OT., the quickest way on foot for me get to and from the garage is down Merthyr Road, through Treforest, and then up the A473 to Power Station Hill. It’s a fair walk, but it’s worth it for those times of the year when the leaves are green and this stretch of the A473 is empty.
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Mmm … Malvern. Nice and hilly, tranquil, good places to stay, and close to friends - the perfect place to escape to for a short break.
Kristi and I went up to Malvern for a week’s holiday this Easter. We didn’t have the best of the weather, but that was fine - we were both too knackered and too stressed to do anything much other than laze around. But we did get lucky with the light on a couple of days
If you want to follow in our footsteps and holiday in Malvern, and you’re looking for a holiday cottage, I can’t recommend Rickyard Cottage enough. We’ve been there a couple of times now, and each time it’s been a fantastic base for us. We’ll be going back there again in the future.
Thoughts On The Photography
There are some places, such as the South Wales Valleys, where you can comfortably get away with taking photos in less than stunning light. Not so Malvern. If you’re going to take photos in and around Malvern, this Victorian spa town demands the very best light you have the patience to wait for.
I had the best luck taking photos in the town in the early morning, before 10am. Malvern doesn’t seem to wake up before then, making it easy to get shots without having to wait too long for traffic and pedestrians to transit out of frame.
As for the hills themselves … I know all the professional landscape photographers would never consider plying their trade under the midday sun, but I believe that there’s a lot more to landscape photography than purple dawns and dusks. The winter sun stays low throughout the day, ensuring plentiful shadows to break up the landscape and add both depth and interest. A circular polariser and careful choice of direction really helps bring the best out of the washed-out skies. And HDR adds depth and definition and ensures photos that bring an equal focus to both landscape and sky.
One of the highlights of the photography for me was visiting Little Malvern Priory. I’ve lost count over how many times I’ve driven past it over the years, and I always said I’d come back one day with a camera. I’ve finally notched that one up
The Photos
Here are the best photos from the week. As always, click on each thumbnail to be taken to the larger version up on Flickr.
Post Production
I think that the MacBook Pro has a great screen, but compared to the quality of my Dell 24″ monitor, it’s crap - and that’s especially true when trying to master photographs. I’m looking at the images now that I’m back at home, and I’m glad that I did. There’s a subtlety of colour and definition that needs to be brought out of these photos before they are uploaded.
Despite my by now almost routine use of HDR photography, I think that the best looking photo of this set is actually the non-HDR image of the fountain. I think the colours and detail are spot on. I’ve always found that the very best images, when they come out of the camera, just can’t be improved on in post (not with my limited skills, anyway!)
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One of the reasons that things have been a bit quiet here is that I spent November - February on secondment to the Ordnance Survey down in Southampton. I’m not really one for working away like that, so to make things easier, one weekend Kristi came down to join me and we travelled on to Brighton and lunch at Moshi Moshi, one of our favourite Japanese restaurants.
We finished the day with a walk along the beach. This was our first time down at the west end of Brighton, and I certainly enjoyed seeing new sights such as the remains of the old Brighton West Pier.
Thoughts On The Day
It’s been a bit weird for me, to go from being out and about with the camera pretty much every weekend to not seeing the camera for weeks at a time. So it was a great feeling to be out and about with the GPS unit around my neck and my camera in my hand (I hate camera straps).
Whenever anyone says the word “beach” to me, I imagine (and expect) sand; lots and lots of preferably white or golden sand. Brighton Beach has no sand that I’ve ever seen, just lots and lots of stones worn smooth by the action of the English Channel. (This is a beach with no sand, and no sea either. Go figure). But I discovered that this pebbly beach provides a wonderful texture for the late afternoon winter sun, and was very pleased with the shots I snagged.
Of course, the highlight for me was the gutted remains of the world-famous Brighton West Pier. Destroyed by fire in 2003 after decades of neglect, all that remains today are some of the original supporting structures. They’re a fascinating subject to study with a camera, and I would have loved to have had a longer zoom lens with me.
Photos From The Shoot
Here are the photos I took on the day, shared on Flickr.
Post Production
Look Ma - no HDR! Well, almost
The last two shots in the sequence are both HDR. My shot of the sorry remains of Brighton West Pier really benefited from the HDR treatment, although it would have also benefited from the use of a tripod too! It was Kristi who noticed all of the rescued (or is that stripped?) parts of the pier hidden underneath the beach front. With such a contrast of light and dark, HDR was the only way an SLR could hope to capture everything. I’m not as happy with this shot as I’d like; I’ll probably come back to it at some point and try again. It’s too dark - dark enough that a lot of the detail can’t be seen on my MacBook Pro 
Closing Thoughts
I’m not into street photography - I’m not comfortable pointing a lens at people, especially without their knowledge - but if street photography is your thing, then the seafront down at Brighton has plenty going on for you.
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Last December, Kristi and I headed down the M5 to Cornwall, and the modern wonder of the world that is the Eden Project.
Created out of a reclaimed clay quarry by sheer bloody mindedness and a vision that just would not die, the Eden Project is many things to many people. A remarkable botanical garden to some, dominated by the two huge biodomes (with a third in the planning stage). To others, a fantastic educational centre. And to music lovers, a superb outdoor venue that’s home to the Eden Sessions.
What makes all of this possible, and what makes the Eden Project stand head and shoulders above other botantical gardens in England and Wales, is that the Eden Project is a fusion of art, science and technology. It’s impossible to come away from the Eden Project having not been touched by its unique approach.
Thoughts On The Day
This was our first visit to the Eden Project, but it will not be our last. The Eden Project is run by the Eden Trust charity. When you pay your entrance fee, if you sign up for gift aid, you get a membership card that entitles you to return to visit again for up to twelve months.
The first sight that greeted us as we stepped through the doors and out into the gardens was the massive rainforest biodome. There’s a very popular observation platform right outside the shop’s doors, and there’s no shortage of shots on Flickr taken from here. Yours truly duly had a go too, and I got very lucky with the way that the low winter sun reflected off the biodome.
From there, we worked our way down to the Core, which is the education building. Walking in, you can’t help but be drawn to The Nutcracker, a fantastic moving sculpture exploring the idea of just how overcomplicated can you get when trying to crack a nut. It had my complete attention, so much so that I couldn’t tell you what else was in the room with it that day.
At the heart of the Core stands the Seed, a huge granite sculpture in a very small room, lit from above through a curious skylight. It’s almost as if they created this space just to challenge every would-be photographer who comes through. Next time, I want a Nikon D300 (or a D3!) and a Sigma 10-20mm lens to try my hand at this.
From there, we made our way into the biodomes. There are two indoor biodomes - the Mediterranian Biodome and the Rainforest Biodome - plus one more in planning (the Edge). On top of that, don’t overlook the Outdoor Biodome - everywhere outside under the sky! That sort of viewpoint is typical of the Eden Project, and a great example of how different thinking makes the place unique.
Unfortunately, my camera succumbed to the humidity in the Rainforest Biodome. Either the Nikon D200’s weather seals aren’t up to that particular challenge, or my Nikon 18-135mm lens is the weak point there. I did snag a shot of the back of a leaf not far inside the Rainforest Biodome, but unfortunately that was it for a few hours.
Dusk brings with it another phase in the Eden Project experience. The place lights up in a wonderful display. My personal favourite is the play area outside where the colours are never constant. There’s a bench nearby that also changes colour in sync. I found it very calming indeed.
It’s a long journey (4 hours+) each way to visit the Eden Project from here in South Wales, but it was well worth it. We barely scratched the surface of what there is to see, and we’re looking forward to seeing how Eden looks at the height of the summer.
Photos From The Shoot
Here are my best photos from the day.
Post Production
I had intended to HDR all of the night-time shots, but they really didn’t work out at all well. Whatever the technique is for HDR at night, I definitely don’t have it yet!
But I am really pleased with the HDR results for the photos taken during the day. Unusually for me, I remembered my tripod, which is a big help when shooting individual frames over a distance. Photomatix Pro does a great job of aligning individual frames - even the ones I take hand-held - but I don’t have the technique to keep the camera steady in my hands to shoot five frames and have them align perfectly back at the computer. Heck, even with the tripod, the shake from the camera shutter makes a difference.
When I go back again, I’m going to need more than just a solitary 2GB memory card, that’s for sure!
Found On Flickr
The Eden Project is an incredibly popular place for photographers; there are over 30,000 photos on Flickr alone taken there. I’ve only scratched the surface in compiling this list of personal favourites.
I would have liked to show thumbnails of all of these photos, but unfortunately many of them do not have thumbnails available; I don’t know why.
Shots of the biodomes:
Shots inside the biodomes:
Shots of the sculptures and other art:
What are your favourite photos of the Eden Project that are up on Flickr? Share yours in the comments below.
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View all the photos from this shoot as part of my Merthyr Road project on Flickr.
South Wales is blessed with some of the most peaceful places around, partly thanks to the River Taff that flows down from Merthyr Tydfil to the old docks at Cardiff Bay. Perhaps the most tranquil of all of this route is the Taff Trail stretch running north out of Pontypridd. Just moments away from the busy market town, the river wanders through a wide (and largely unspoilt) flood plain. It’s the perfect place to get away from it all and to take time out to wind down a bit.
Thoughts On The Day
In between running the cats to the vets for their annual booster jabs, and the gas board turning up for the annual service of the boiler, I had a couple of hours spare to wander along the Taff Trail north of Pontypridd. With the light holding the promise of some excellent colours in the cold November air, it was an invitation that I couldn’t turn down
I’m going to come back when I’ve more time and do a more comprehensive photoshoot of this stretch of the Taff Trail, and to discover more about the history of this particular area. For this outing, my aim was to try and snag the best shot or two I could of the river and hills beyond. I’ve tried this before - most notably back in 2003 when I first got my Nikon D100 - but with four more years experience, a fantastic 10 megapixel camera, and the benefit of HDR, I was hoping to do quite a bit better this time around!
For a change, I remembered to bring the tripod, because I wanted to try improving the sharpness of my photos by using the mirror up feature of the D200 (big thanks to my friend and work colleague Gareth Newns for showing me how that works). I’ve been having more and more success with the HDR shots, but if you zoom in on them, they don’t look anywhere near as good as they should - because I’ve been combining 5 separate shots that were all taken handheld. By using the tripod to ensure the camera stays in the same spot for each frame, and then using the mirror up feature to further reduce camera vibration, the result should be five frames that are exactly the same view.
There’s been a lot of interest in the office in how I create HDR shots. I’m thinking of creating a ‘5 steps for HDR photos’-type post about it soon. Let me know if you’re interested in reading such an article by leaving a comment below.
The Photos
Here are the photos from today’s shoot.
Post Processing
All of today’s final photos have been built by combining five separate frames into a single shot. Each of the five frames was taken with a different exposure, so that the range of shots together cover a wider range of light and shadow than the Nikon D200’s sensor can cope with in a single shot. It takes a few goes to find the right settings for each of photos, to preserve the right level of contrast whilst still bringing through the rich colour and detail that HDR photography is great for.
After generating each photo using Photomatix, the JPEG is imported back into Aperture, where I do the final adjustments of brightness, contrast, and sharpening. Although it’s sold as a professional photography tool, Aperture is perfect for novice and amateur photographers like myself. It provides adjustment tools rather than editing tools, so it feels more like photography and a lot less like the fantasy work that sometimes comes from Photoshop.
The final step before uploading the photos to Flickr is to decide which photos to upload. My wife is always reminding me to try and publish less quantity and more quality! That’s easier on shoots like this - where I’ve gone out to get the best photos I can - but I still find it difficult on the more photo-journalism-type shoots
Found On Flickr
It looks like there aren’t many folks posting photos of this stretch of the Taff Trail to Flickr, but one chap who has is Areopagus. His photo of the Taff Trail in Late March shows the stretch where I took most of today’s photos from, and his shot of the footbridge gives you a good idea of the northern-most spot that I went to today. Look out for more information about this stretch of the Taff Trail in a later article in my Merthyr Road series
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View all the photos taken at Dawn on Caerphilly Mountain as part of my Merthyr Road project on Flickr.
It was the first night of clear skies after an unusually warm week - perfect conditions for a sunrise shoot. With the Taff Gap and Taff Vale filled with fog, the best place to enjoy the dawn was up on nearby Caerphilly Mountain.
Thoughts On The Day
Looking at the pictures I took, I’m pretty pleased with the results, but all I could think about that morning was just how sick I felt. I’ve been unwell all week, and my mind was definitely not on the job as we headed up to the summit of Caerphilly Mountain having forgotten the tripod in the boot of the car - or the tripod quick-release head left back in the house!
But wow - what a view from the top of Caerphilly Mountain.
In days of old, standing on top of the mountain, I imagine the view would have included the steam rising from the trains making their way from Walnut Tree Junction up Nantgarw along the Rhymney Railway. The trains would also have been coming up from Nantgarw along the Pontypridd, Caerphilly and Newport Railway, crossing Caerphilly on their way via Machen to the docks at Newport.
Industry still dominates at Nantgarw, but steam has given way to the jet turbines of the General Electric factory. The fog was creeping up from Nantgarw, cloaking the General Electric factory in the most spectacular way. The next time you wake up in Pontypridd, Trefforest or any of the Taff Vale villages, take a look outside to see if it’s foggy. If it is, head on up to the top of Caerphilly Mountain - you’ll be in for quite the treat.
Photos From The Shoot
Click on any of the individual photos to see a larger version.
Post Production
After the successful trip to Scotland this summer, it’s become clear that my audience has a strong preference for photos that are rich in colour. HDR is a great technique to use at dawn and dusk to squeeze the maximum amount of colour out of a DSLR without ending up with photos that are over-saturated. Just remember to take a tripod! You can take handheld HDR shots if your technique is good enough and your camera body can shoot fast enough, but you’ll always get much better results if the camera is in exactly the same position for each frame for your HDR masterpiece.
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View all the photos from this shoot as part of my Merthyr Road series on Flickr.
Needing to get out of the house after a stressful week for us both, my wife and I jumped in the car and headed up the road to the Pontygwaith Nature Reserve. I’ve been here before, but this was the first time that my wife has enjoyed a walk in this beautiful place beside the River Taff.
Thoughts On The Day
The last time I came up the old tramroad, the path from the south to the overbridge at Pontygwaith was somewhat overgrown. Since then, the path has been completely cleared, and fresh gravel laid. It looks much better now, although I can’t help but wonder how many cyclists head north under the overbridge without realising that the Taff Trail actually cuts left at this point to go over Pontygwaith itself.
We were very lucky with the weather, especially towards the end of the walk when the skies really cleared. Every year, we normally get a couple of weeks of excellent light in October, and I fear Sunday was the tail end of this year’s band. But I have to say that I can’t think of a more beautiful spot along the Methyr Road to enjoy such rich and golden colours. I’m always amazed at how few people I see enjoying this local treasure, but at the same time I’m secretly pleased to have the place to myself
The Photos
Here are the photos from Sunday’s walk. Click on the thumbnail to see a larger version of the photo that interests you.
Post Production
I toyed with the idea of desaturating the colours from this shoot (to match the style I used in the Unofficial Taff Vale Eastern Ridge Walk), but to be honest I’m so pleased with the colours captured by the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX33 that I decided to limit my adjustments to edge sharpening. I’m not completely convinced by the FX33’s colours in dull light (such as the colours captured in this shot), but in brighter light, the camera did very well.
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I wasn’t around in the South Wales valleys when the mines were still here, but fellow Flickr user trelewis was. She’s posted a set of photos of the Abercynon Colliery before it was closed and cleared (the Navigation Park business park sits on the site today). Good historical photos that might interest anyone who enjoys my Merthyr Road series of photographs.
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