Pembrokeshire Holiday Co - Interiors

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Just before this lockdown period kicked in I was taking pictures for The Pembrokeshire Holiday Co who had been busy preparing a portfolio of hand picked properties to offer visitors to North Pembrokeshire. Unfortunately it’s all on hold for now but if you’re after a place to stay, I’d suggest checking them out when normality returns. These little getaways at Foxhill Farm near St Dogmaels are lovely spaces to spend some time and had me wondering about spending a holiday an hour from my home!

Info on my interior photography.

It’s a strange time to be living through but one of the advantages seems to have been the appreciation for the little things and the sense of looking forward to the people and places in our local area that we’d always taken for granted. A trip to the Meadow for a coffee with friends in St Davids or slurping a Pointzcastle ice cream seem like heavenly propositions at the moment. Small businesses (and the people that run them) in the UK and around the world are going to be relying on us to spend our money with them and it’d be nice to think that people will want to seek out these small places and do just that. Here’s a selection of images to whet the appetite.

Geology and multiple images

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As you’ve probably already guessed, I have something of a love affair with the rocks of Pembrokeshire. The textures and colours that can be found in all the different and wonderfully named types of rock mean that no trip to the coast is complete without a look at what lies there. Ordovician shales, silurian volcanics, carboniferous limestones and many more can be seen here. In fact, Pembrokeshire is a popular site for geological field trips and yellow helmeted groups of students can often be seen poking around at the most interesting and accessible areas. I’m no geologist so couldn’t tell you which ones are which, but I can point out which ones I like.

I’ve often tried to make images of sections that are particularly attractive to me but the results have never quite pleased me. After a bit of time on photoshop this morning I thought I’d share this with you. I took three different images and combined elements I liked to create an image that was a bit more abstract. Something I might pursue or might leave as a project that didn’t quite work. Some parts of the image are out of focus because of the angle I was shooting the rock so I have to have another go and get that right at least. All of the images are taken in various places around the cliffs at Abereiddy.

Arborist and Kacy & Clayton

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Arborist are a band I was keen to see since 6Music have been playing a couple of their tracks recently. Fortunately they came to St Davids on Friday night as support for the returning Kacy & Clayton who this time brought a full band and really rocked the City Hall. Both acts were fantastic but Kacy & Clayton are a band I really enjoy for their great melodies and lovely twangy guitar sound and harmonies. Jeff Tweedy of Wilco produced their 2017 album The Siren’s Song so well, you know, they’re top quality. If you’ve a few minutes spare, the Arborist video for taxi is worth a watch and listen. Have a look at my pics from the night and videos below.

Three different moods at Druidston - Workshop

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On Saturday I went down to Druidston as the main venue for a one to one workshop with a client keen to improve his photography and increase his understanding of technique and composition. We spent a good few hours at the beach; arriving at high tide and shooting further areas as the tide receded and more beach became exposed. We shot a number of different angles and worked on understanding how placement of elements in a frame can make for stronger compositions and more pleasing results. Looking through the few frames that I shot during the afternoon it’s easy to see how different light, technique, composition and processing can lead to a set of images that offers varying mood despite them all being created at the same place within a short space of time. Below are three images, the first is a fairly classic view taking advantage of the low winter sun and dramatic clouds, the second; a longer exposure looking out to sea with a simple composition and the third, a somewhat more extremely processed image in black and white, giving another interpretation of the scene. Which do you prefer?

If you’d like to join me for a workshop either for a small group or on a one to one basis, please get in touch via my contact form for more info.

Celtic Routes goes live

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As I mentioned back in August; I was part of a team working with Mother Goose Films tasked with a two week mission to get images for the new Celtic Routes project. The project is a joint venture by councils in South West Wales and South East Ireland designed to highlight the shared Celtic history of the regions and encourage visitors to explore the heritage of this part of the world.

We spent the first part of September on a dawn til dusk mission to visit sites and get images for the publicity materials. It was a treat to get to see so many amazing places that are here on our doorstep and further afield in the South of Ireland which I had not visited before. Sometimes we weren’t lucky with the weather but at other times, for example; watching the sun rise and illuminate Hook lighthouse in Wexford, we were treated to some magical moments.

The website with our pics and a short promotional film is now up here… https://celticroutes.wales/

Thoughts on coastal long exposure

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Compare and contrast.

Not everyone is keen on long exposure shots and it’s not hard to see their point of view. Several people have told me that they get sick of seeing the effect and feel that it’s a tawdry attempt at being artistic. However, I feel that in a lot of circumstances it’s effective and is the best way to render a scene. For me, it works especially well on the coast at this time of year in particular.

It’s all to do with texture; this image on the right is taken in high wind on the same evening as the image below. Using a tripod wasn’t going to be possible due to the wind so I hunkered down and took this handheld. I find it too complex, with each of the 3 elements of rock, sea and sky having texture and structure. The scene below, is a very different image made using a long exposure on the other side of the headland and out of the wind. With dramatic clouds, jagged rocks and a choppy sea, it was a texture heavy scene which can appear too ‘busy’ to be pleasing. If a painter was rendering this scene, I feel that in either the sea or the clouds, they would use wider brushstrokes to smear some of the detail until they contrasted the textured rocks in the foreground. Using a neutral density filter to allow a longer shutter speed allows the photographer to do the same. The drama is still conveyed but we have a variety of quality to the elements. In short, we made some parts of the image easier on the eye and the image works better as a whole. Interested to know if you agree… feel free to comment below.