A sun enthroned in heaven

"An image of the sun enthroned in heaven, radiating one thousand beams of light:
Were one to shower bright rays of light upon all beings, how exellent." - The Seventh Dalai Lama

Light plays a very important role in my work, its something I find tremendous beauty, divinity and inspiration in. I look at people like Turner and I find inspiration in the way artist like these captured the subtle interplay it creates in our world.

Spiritually I find it very uplifting as well, I see God in the way that the sun comes out from behind the clouds and the way that street light comes through trees.

Its something I'm always trying to capture and never quite reaching, this sun enthroned in heaven.

The Tenovus Cancer Care Goodnight Walk 2016

The annual Tenovus Cancer Care Goodnight Walk is an event that is as inspiring as it is fun. Its a chance for all those who have been affected by cancer to come together and literally light up the night. As people of all ages came together and walk to raise money to fight cancer and to support each other.

The 2016 event was no exception as it was a night of fun, dancing, community and frivolity with at its a heart a serious message of hope for the people whose lives had been touched by this disease.

At the event as people geared up for the walk there were hula hooping, dancing, music, beauty stalls, a selfie mirror, our very own live choir singing and and more joyful entertaining then you could shake a stick at. As I wandered the event people dressed in outlandish outfits, amazing colours and bright lights wandered past.

Then with a whoosh they were off, setting off to make a loop of the five and ten miles walks. People of all ability and physically fitness setting off to make a difference for themselves and others.

On route they were given the opportunity to light candles in brightly coloured jars in memories of those they were walking to support.

As a volunteer I was given a lift to one of the station where we set up a bright, light and welcoming beacon for our walkers complete with water and a bathroom break to refresh and reinvigorate them.

As the night drew to a close and the last of the participants past I was left with a feeling of warmth that only came with the knowledge that we were really helping people. That in no small way we had all helped to light up the night in the face of cancer.

If you still want to make a difference there is still time as there is another Goodnight Walk being held in Swansea on the 16th of July, interested? Then follow the link below:

http://www.tenovuscancercare.org.uk/get-involved/sign-up-to-an-event/goodnight-walk-2016/

The highway

Hi to all my regular page viewers, first I'd like to apologise for the absence of any blog posts for a while. When I first set up this blog it was because I wanted to have an outlet with which to publicize my art which was so important to me. Unfortunately over time I found the pressure of out putting a new blog post every week soon began to take a toll on me creatively and I ended up suffering from creative burn out. From now on I will be still be doing blog posts but it will be at a more relaxed pace. One that I am more comfortable with. Thanks for bearing with me and for regularly viewing my work guys. 

The highway near where I live had been calling me for a while and after one nights wandering I came across a bridge over it. I was fascinated by the cars passing by and wanted to capture some of th light trails that came from it.

I found that light trailed created the sense of some futuristic city viewed from above of strange and hypnotic light trails slipping away into the night.

Far above the road and found a new way to view the highway.

Unnatural vectors

Recently I've really been on a drive to really push myself and my photography in new and interesting ways and directions. This week I mainly focused on me exploring unnatural and man made structures as a focus for my photographic style.

In doing so I was able to find buildings that really accentuated broken lines and strange vectors. This along with the almost sickly light that fell on the nearby trees was able to create a series of images that were by turn strange, jarring and distinctive in the extreme.

As a rule of thumb my photographs tend to create images that blur and celebrate the natural world to the point that they begin to reclaim any man man influences upon them. These works were almost in opposition to that showing the warping effect that man made structures have upon nature.

To this point I was able to create a series of unnatural vectors, ones that would pose troubling questions about our effect upon the fragile world around us.

Creating abstract images: Is it still a photo anymore?

In the wake of the tragedy that has befallen Paris I would like to extend my well wishes and prayers to the people who live there and have been affected by this tragedy. I would also like to say that it's important to remember that the people who did this want to inspire hatred and violence in others from religious and non religious sides alike. To quote mr Lincoln "we are not enemies but friends, though passions may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection"

This week while editing my photography I was left with a condrum that I usually try to avoid; my photos looked better when the tonal levels were heavily altered in photoshop. Now this led to an interesting question that held up a mirror to my own work. If a photograph becomes too heavily altered through an effect is it still a photograph?

In our day and age it has become common place to take images and stitch one sky onto another foreground (often with some extra interesting features stitched in to enliven the picture). I've always had mixed feelings about this process, after all if you have to alter an image so completely to make it a great photo should you be spending more time improving your photographic technique? On the other hand to photoshop well requires skill, an artistic eye and serious technical expertise.

So it might be a little hypocritical to say that when I take an abstract photo, I normally justify in my head that the fact that I have captured it in camera (normally through utilising different shutter speeds), somehow stops it from feeling like cheating.

But this week when I was editing my work I really had to stop and think about the processes I was using and how that reflected on my own work. The photos I were editing were so far removed from their starting point, were they even the same images anymore?

At the end of the day I very much come down on the side of turning photography into art and while I'm having my cake and eating it by posting these pictures while writing a blog post about it I feel like anything that pushes the medium of photography is worth exploring. Are these images true photographs anymore? Maybe not, but are they art though? Most definitely and therefore worth showing to the world.

A beautiful blur

 Sometimes I forget why I do photography and need to be reminded. See its not for me about the pictures I take when I travel (although I enjoy that) or about experimenting. For me I'm most alive when taking pictures when the photo I'm taking speaks to my soul and most of the time it does that when its abstract, when the world is a beautiful blur of color and motion.

I went out tonight and I took photos for me, I twisted the camera trying to create the images I wanted. To capture the feeling that would refresh my soul and for me that's not found in static images or people protraits but in an abstract expression of how truely beautiful the world is.

When the world you capture with your camera is a beautiful, colourful blur its all you need to keep the art in your soul alive.

Cardiff Pride 2015

"My mom, she’s a fan of Saint Thomas of Aquinas. She calls pride a sin. Saint Thomas saw pride as the queen of the seven deadlies. She saw it as the ultimate gateway sin that would turn you quickly into a sinaholic. But hating isn’t a sin on that list. Neither is shame. I was afraid of this parade because I wanted so badly to be a part of it. So today I’m marching for that part of me that was much too afraid to march. And for all the people who can’t march. The people living lives like I did. Today, I march to remember that I’m not just a me. I’m also a we. We march with pride.  So go (explicit) yourself, Aquinas." - Jamie Clayton in Sense8

Pride had once again come to Cardiff and being the out gay man that I am I decided it was my patriotic duty to get off my arse and attend the event. As usual it was the perfect mixture of high camp, colour, glamour and most of all a feeling of pride to be part a larger gay community.

What I've always liked about pride in Cardiff is the sense that for one day the city is transformed into something approaching a massive party. Everyone seems friendlier, the town centre is transformed into something that is colorful and bright and everywhere you go you get the sense that life has gotten a little bit brighter and more exciting for a moment. Its great to think that the gay community can share this larger then life moment and enliven the world around them.

Coopers field in the Cardiff was definitely the centre point for this filled as it was by rides thumping out dance music, shops and stalls selling brightly coloured gay paraphernalia, delicious food and several stages filled with dance acts, singers and comedians.

Everywhere you looked wandered people dressed to the hilt in brightly coloured costumes, leather gear, over the top drag outfits and even a few people in very little at all.

There was however a very serious side to Pride as attested to by the numerous stalls such as amnesty international, the faith tent, the police and army tents to name just a few. All delivering the important message that ignorance, hatred and homophobia are still very much a part of our world both at home and abroad.

And so it was also a time to stand up and show the world that we as the gay community are not filled with shame or self hatred, we are not to be loathed and feared and we will welcome the world with open arms and we will do it with pride.