Cornwall Part 2: Polperro and the sea cliff walk

 After a day spent lazing on the beach me and my camping buddy decided it was time to do something a bit more active. We had had the sea side town of Polperro recommended as being an excellent place to visit and so we decided to take the cliff side walk to reach it.

It was a good ten mile walk all round from where we were camped and so we started early. The views themselves were stunning as we passed dramatic rock formations, beautiful blue waters, waterfalls and stunning beaches.

The walk was also great for nature spotting as we spotted diving birds, butterflies and dramatically coloured flowers and a bird of prey hunting high above the cliffs.

The walk itself took a little bit longer then expected and we arrived in the late afternoon. The town itself was as picturesque as expected and we spent some time exploring the lovely local shops, eating ice cream and topped it all off by having an exquisite lamb stew at one of the local pubs.

We left and made it in good time back to the campsite and we stopped for a little while to take in the truly magical sunset that slowly disappeared along the horizon. I spent my final night relaxing and watching the stars. By the time the next day came I was sad to be leaving Cornwall but also glad to be making my way back from camping to the comforts of home.

Cornwall: Lantic Bay and Polruan

I had recently decided that I had to take a break away from work and with the weather currently being nothing short of fantastic I decided that a camping trip was in order.

One of my friends suggested that we take a trip down to Cornwall, to camp near the quaint town of Polruan and sunbath on one of his favourite locations, the majestic Lantic Bay.

We took the train down south from Cardiff to Plymouth and then to Par, before taking a short bus ride over to the twin sea side towns of Fowey and Polruan. The towns themselves were beautiful and displayed Cornwall to its best effect. Full as they were of rustic winding streets, historic buildings, quaint shops and a bay full of brightly coloured boats.

We stopped in Fowey for lunch at Sam's, a fantastic resturant where I sampled freshly caught chilli tempura friend red mullet. Afterwards we crossed over to Polruan to wander and enjoy a refreshing ice cream and a spot of tea at a local resturant. We then headed over to the camping spot to chill out, eat dinner and sleep.

The next day we set out for a day down the beach. Lantic Bay was particularly beautiful, surrounded on all sides with dramatic cliffs, the clearest, most vibrate blue waters and full of multiple coves and nooks to explore. We set down to sunbath and relax for the day and as the sun set behind the cliffs we were treated to the most dramatic sunset as the sky went pink and the waters turned to a milky blue.

We went to bed that day happy and ready to explore the nearby sea cliff walk and town of Polperro.

The woods of strange impressions

It has been a while since I had done any abstract photography. Most of the things I had done recently had been focused on charities, urban decay and brightly coloured skies or objects.

I therefore felt like I wanted to reconnect with a artist subject I am passionate about. The only problem I had was that I had been feeling the need to push myself in new directions. After all this was a subject that I had covered so thoroughly it was actually beginning to bore me.

It turned out that taking these photos at a different time a day was just what was needed to inspire me. It was dusk when I started and the street lights were just beginning to be turned on.

This changed the black and golds I normally worked with into vibrant greens, white and orange. Subtle hints of purples rose from the ground and flashes of yellow came as the evening light hit the trees.

I used a mixture of delicate moments, circles and zooms as well as violent jerks and hard crash pans on subjects to create a series of images designed to evoke the feel of a painted forest of strange and beautiful impressions.

The Rainbow Bird Sanctury

The Rainbow Bird Sanctury is based just outside of Cardiff, in the neighboring town of Castleton. I stumbled upon it quite by accident after wandering the country back roads of the area. What I presumed would be an afternoon of me doing landscape photography therefore became one of me taking pictures of these beautiful creatures.

After getting to know the owners I discovered that the sanctuary was set up with the purpose of taking in ill and unwanted birds. Birds such as Bobby a Moluccan Cockatoo (black and white picture to the left) who was taken in after his owner experienced a change in circumstances and could no longer keep him. He much like his fellow birds at the sanctuary proved to be friendly and charming and gave off a palpable air of intelligence and curiosity.

Birds like these are long lived and clever and therefore require a tremendous amount of commitment and care. If not given the correct amount of attention they can become easily bored which can lead to them becoming destructive both to themselves and the environment in which they live. So its very important that when choosing one of these birds as a pet that the owner careful consider if he can properly commit to keeping one as a pet.

As I wandered around taking pictures of the birds I was thoroughly impressed with the amount of care that the owners clearly put into looking after these animals. Now the sanctuary itself exists though profits raised through selling birds that its mating pairs breed and through a local shop that sells everything from cages to seeds but they always welcome donations from the general public. You can donate through going to the internet link below and giving some money.

The sanctuary itself also gives tours of their birds but because of the sensitive nature of the birds and their breeding patterns these tours must be made through telephoning the sanctuary directly. Again the website link below provides all the information you will need to both donate and to book a tour.

I left the sanctuary happy that I had stumbled upon such a wonderful site set up to care, feed and take in these beautiful animals.

http://www.rainbowbirdsanctuary.co.uk/home.html


The birds in the photos are listed top to bottom: Macaws, Moluccan Cockatoo, Ring Necks, Sun Conures, Rainbow Lorikeet, Celestials , Budgies and another Macaw>

And the sky wept colour

I had been getting a bit bored with the photography I had been doing and had really started getting the urge to push myself. We all get there as artists, feeling stuck in a rut and wanted to push ourselves artistically but not really being sure how to do that.

A walk down to the sea near where I live really helped with that. What started off as an exploration of the rubble strewn beach slowly an inevitably became a study of a sky that began to weep with colour.

The fact that the area was fairly industrial certainly as the street lamps and electrical pylons that ran over head criss crossed the sky, accentuating the strange and vivid shapes that the clouds formed overhead.

I stayed until the sun went down, until finally all the colour had been wept from the sky and the stars finally emerged. And I left happy and truly inspired.

Tenovus Cancer Care: The goodnight walk

 Its a sad fact that one in two of us will at some point in our lifetime develop some sort of cancer. This is has gone up in recent years from one in three of us doing so.

Why is this the case? Well there are a number of factors such as the amount we drink, our diets, if we smoke, how much exercise we get and how much we decide to expose ourselves to the sun.

But as sad as these figures are there, there are organisations out there willing to tackle cancer and its effects on society and Tenovus Cancer Care is one such organisation. As one of the leading cancer charities based in Wales, Tenovus has worked tirelessly to educate, reasearch and support efforts to alleviate this illness and those suffering from it.

But to do that Tenovus needs the support of the general public and thats where fundraising activities like the goodnight walk come in. The money raised from this event and events like it will go into funding things like the mobile cancer support units. Vans designed to go out into the community and give direct treatment to those struggling to get to their appointments at their local hospitals.

Or Tenovus Cancer Care's own support line which is there twenty-four seven for those suffered from cancer or for those whose lives have been effected by this disease. These are just a few examples of the things that Tenovus are doing to fight and one day overcome it.

The night itself (set in my very own city of Cardiff) was a fun, vibrate and exciting event, filled with music, colour and festivity all designed to light up the night. There was group zumba, a choir, sparkly fashion, a selfie corner and on a more serious note the walker's wall where walkers could leave a messaging dedicating the walk to those that they had lost or were still fighting cancer. It was also a great success, helping to raise at the very least £40,000 for those suffering from cancer.

So next year if you've been effected by cancer or want to make a difference to those who have please feel free to come and fight the good fight for the goodnight walk.


Below I've included a link below to Tenovus Cancer Care, follow it if you want to know more.

http://www.tenovuscancercare.org.uk/

Rust and water

The sea erodes things, its one of the truly ironic facts of our planets that the ocean that gave birth to us is constantly seeking to break down every part of the land that it touches.

Whether it is by its slow erosion of our shores by the constant action of its waves, the devastating effects that a storm by the sea can have on our homes,  the poisonous effects of the high amounts of salt that the sea contains or the corrosive effect of sea water on metal that causes it to rust away. The sea is constantly at war with the land.

But in the same breath that the sea may take away it also gives back. It is the primordial womb from which all life was born, it is a haven for an extraordinarily diverse number of life forms, by evaporation it gives us life giving rain and by its physical processes it regulates our planet and its temperature.

Sadly though little by little man is being equally corrosive to it. We dump copious amounts of chemicals and litter into the sea, we over fish it until less and less of its abundant life remains, we heat our planet, melting ice caps and causing the very oceans to creep slowly and inevitably upwards.

The sea is our lifeblood and slowly, little by little we inject poison and filth directly into that vein until we ourselves are poisoned. The truth is that as much as the sea may take away, it at least gives as much if not more back, maybe we should try to be doing the same.

If not we may be left with an ocean that is little more then just rust and water.