The NATO summit

The NATO summit came to Cardiff and Newport in the early part of September. To be in those cities at that point you would have thought that Britain was preparing for world war three.

Legions of armed policemen were drafted in, HMS Duncan docked, Cardiff castle became ringed with metal, roads were rerouted and the Celtic manor where the event was held was turned into a Welsh version of Fort Knox.

Overall us British held up our fine tradition of grumbling as the overall mood became one of did two cities really have to grind to a standstill for all of this?

In spite of this the mood remained good, it was something different to see in Cardiff. And even if people did find the police presence a bit excessive, us British do have a tendency to support our servicemen even if we are sometimes a bit skeptical about the cause.

The day of the summit itself left the city ghostly quiet as any expected terrorist attacks failed to appear and any turnout for NATO based protests were rather lower then expected.

Once it was over the extra security measures seemed to melt away over the weekend. Leaving Wales to have its brief time in the spotlight.

Where are all the wild things?

I have a question for everyone in the UK, when was the last time you saw a hedgehog? Or a Slow worm? How about wasps this summer? Or bees even?

Those were the questions at the heart of this year's governmental report on the state of nature. The report's findings were rather worrying: Out of 3,148 species that the report monitored, 60% were found to have been in decline in the last 50 years and 31% were shown to have declined strongly.

This has been linked to factors such as the destruction and degradation of Britain's natural habitats and global warming. With an emphasis on the decline of species with specific habitat requirements. The fact is the world of nature is changing fast and not for the better.

When I was a child I grew up in the town of Monmouth, I'm not going to pretend it was an idyllic childhood, but the lasting impression I have was one of being surrounded by the beauty and wonder of the natural world. There were multicoloured butterflies, bees nests to be avoided, slow worms to be gawped at and swallows that nested in the eves of our houses on late summer days.

But the question is how much of this wonder will our children have left by the time they have grown? Will they have insects to pollinate their crops? Will they be able to tickle trouts under rocks? Will they still see heron's fishing on the river? Or will they turn round to their parents and ask the question where are all the wild things? Where did they go?




You can find the report for yourself in the link below.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/stateofnature_tcm9-345839.pdf

Industrial revolution

After having moved to a less then salubrious area of Cardiff, I discovered to my delight that I was right round the corner from an industrial estate. I had made a mental note to explore it and so as the sun was setting I made my way to the grounds and began to explore.

I discovered damaged gates, rusting metal, barbed wires and electrical cables and all around it the surge of nature, an unruly tide threatening to swallow everything in its path in its quest to reclaim the land that man had taken from it.

It is these places that I love the most. Forgotten, decaying and being slowly retaken by the greenery that begins its eventable creep inwards.

It also offers fantastic opportunities for photographers, filled as it is with details, wonderful colours and dramatic shadows against the sky and it shows that for a photographer anything, even something that can be as ugly as an industry estate can be remade into something that is colourful and beautiful.

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.