The streets are paved with gold

 I hadn't felt the creative bug in a while but walking home it had been raining and seeing the colour of the sky and the lights reflecting on the streets had me itching the reach for my camera.

With the rain and wind creating an evocative dance of shadow and light I was able to take shot of lights that paved the night in gold. Turned rivelets of water running down a wall into lava and created a whirling dervish of dancing branches.

Other worlds

The idea for this week's blog post came purely from looking through the images I had collected throughout the week.

Once again my love of creating some sort of strange fantasy came into play as I looked through the images. The idea that somehow as a photographer you could create some sort of strange other worldly journey became appealing.

In this world shapes and details become important. Perhaps the rain and light on a reflective surface, becomes a journey through space or some strange alien craft.

A shot taken up against the sky or a long exposures of a tree becomes a record of an otherworldly forest.

And the boards and scaffolding put up to keep people out become at night an alien structure, glowing gold in some other night a long way from home. As a photographer the world is as you make it.

Perfect blue buildings

Asleep in perfect blue buildings,
Beside the green apple sea,
Gonna get me a little oblivion, baby,
Try to keep myself away from me
- Counting Crows

Looking upwards in any city and you might find yourself wondering if you've accidentally become lost in some alien world. Glass spires and concrete walls might rise to the sky, surrounding you on either sides.

Or you might find yourself dazzled by the flashes of the sun, glinting off the sides of an otherworldly temples to capitalism and profit. You might find statues carved in dedication to legions of inquiring minds, gods or angels.

And above all of this a dome of perfect blue, like a glass wall designed to protect you from a great, azure sea.

These designs are our mark upon the world, our attempt to create true beauty in it, a way for us to impose our idea order upon the world, or perhaps a way to protect ourselves from the impermanence of it?

In any case it pays to look up once in a while and dream of buildings lost in a blue sky.

Cardiff Bay

Cardiff bay is one of the feathers in Cardiff's stylish but modest hat. Sat overlooking a beautiful waterfront, host to the Welsh Government's assembly building, home to any number of attractions and boasting a great selection of resturants, its the perfect place for a day out.

Its also an entertaining and varied place to take photographs, as at any time you can stumble across shoals of brightly coloured tourists, street performers, artfully designed buildings and any number of great sunset shots gleaming across the bay.

My arrival on a hot summer evening had coincided with the arrival of a full blown carnival and the bay was suitable transformed by its glits and colour. After exploring the stalls, rides and attractions that lined the main promenade. I took a stroll alongside the bay itself and watched as the sun slowly slid into the sea, turning everything gold and blue in the process.

As the night rolled in and the crowds departed I decided to walk back into the city centre, leaving the glittering carnival behind me.