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!

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!

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!

Dusk Landscapes

A few more shots from Thursday's walk, this time taken in late afternoon as the sun was setting and the tide coming in:

Pampas Grass:

A few pictures taken as I walked up through Singleton Park:

Anyone else fed up of this dull and dreary weather we've been having lately?

Dramatic Light Over Mumbles

A few shots from a walk along Swansea Bay yesterday morning. There was plenty of cloud, but the sun was continually trying to break through, resulting in some dramatic views across to the Mumbles:

The trees at West Cross provided some interesting compositional possibilities:

Thank you to those who have wasted precious moments of your lives looking at this rubbish, and especially those who have troubled to make a comment.

May you all have a great 2012!

Scenics, Sunset, Star Trails, and a Dead Gannet

Amazingly clear blue skies here in Swansea today:

Whilst others were seeing Isabelline this and that, the highlight (if you can call it that) of my birding day was a dead Gannet on Blackpill Beach:

The clear blue sky soon gave way to the pinkish hues of sunset. These Asian babes (er, Oriental girls) provided some foreground interest:



Gorgeous colours over the Mumbles:

I went out again after dark, and tried this long exposure shot down at the beach. For the technically minded, this picture was a half-hour exposure at ISO 100 and f/6.3:



These star-trail shots are very much at the experimental stage for me at the moment, but I hope to get something better soon. The moon was a bit bright tonight (so bright that I could read by it whilst waiting for the exposure to complete), but clear nights here are so unusual that I had to give it a go.