Spellbound

Walking back home through the back streets of Cardiff I was struck one by how large and bright the moon was that night. Its strange, pale light lit the night and cast an unearthly glow upon the streets below. I was instantly spellbound.

Taking pictures that night I followed the moon. Capturing passing street lights and strangers, shadow filled roads and the buildings that had been caught in the glare of these strange and beautiful lights.

Buildings became haunted houses, passing strangers became romantic and other and trees became arcane and occult bewitched by the light of the moon.

For that night the streets of Cardiff weren't the same, for that one night the city wasn't the same. Under that unearthly night everything became spellbound.

A metal and plastic sky

A year or so ago I discovered the joy of finding reflections in unorthodox surfaces; puddles, rivers, concrete and windows. All these I poured over looking at new angles from which to take photos at.

One day I was at a bus stop with my camera and when I looked up I was inspired for above me was a second sky, one of metal and plastic. I always meant to return to explore more of the strange sky but I never did, until now.

Its been raining over Cardiff today, so I was taking shelter under a bus stop with my camera when I looked up. Immediately I knew what my latest blog post would be about. I explored a number of stops in my area as the light over head changed from a grey grizzled sky, to a deep bruised colour before finally setting into night.

It was a new world, a colourful and bright on that shimmered and shivered with all the colours and reflections of a metal and plastic sky.

The swamp waters

Down by where I work are some swampy waters to which I sometimes go, filled as they are with rushes, reeds, trees and tangled beds of roots. Fish swim in their murky depth and sometimes I can imagine that stranger, larger creatures prowl just below the surface of the waters.

Sometimes I am joined by a single solitary heron who patiently stalks the water looking for any fish who are foolish enough to pass by beneath it.

Water drips down from a grey sky creating ripples in the waters below, the reflections on the waters surface momentarily disrupted.

Its somewhere I go when I want to think, to watch a world quietly going by without a man or woman to disturb it.

And in these strange swampy waters briefly I find peace.

The world at the bottom of every pool

“Why, if we can get back to our own world by jumping into this pool, mightn’t we get somewhere else by jumping into one of the others? Supposing there was a world at the bottom of every pool.”

C.S Lewis - The Magician's Nephew

 

I've sometimes had a secret fantasy that one day when passing by a particularly clear watery reflection that I would jump in and instead of emerging soaked I would continue to fall directly into another world, one of fantasy and magic.

Of course its just a fantasy but when I set out recently to take photos its something I bore in mind as I scoured the streets looking for puddles that reflected the world around me.

Its been raining non stop for the last week and the UK is groaning under the weight of all the water that has poured down upon the streets.

Out of all this bad weather however came the most amazing opportunities for photography as black and gold patches of water stretched across its lanes.

And though it was challenging, through patient effort I was able to create a number of images that reflected this fantasy. A series of photos which hinted that the depth of these reflections held something more. At a world at the bottom of every pool.

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.

Night by the riverside

On the weekend I took the bus up to my local park, I had felt a desire to take pictures on the riverside there for a while but hadn't got the chance until this weekend. But I stopped procrastinating and actually took the trip there.

The night had transformed what was a tranquil area in day time into something quite otherworldly by the cover of darkness. I met with a friend and wandered this suddenly wild world. The street lamps along the way made each path leading into the darkness into a living fairy tale. One where a fey and strange creature could lay in wait to pounce at any moment.

The tree branches stretched over the river over a grey and purple sky. And in that moment I could imagine that in that night I was on a silent road by the river that would lead to grandmothers house where the big bad wolf would devour me whole and where the fey folk would ride out across a bruised sky.

On a night by the riverside the world was suddenly filled with dark and mysterious magic.

Urban brushstrokes

After spending the last few weeks focusing on nature I decided that I wanted to push myself in a different direction. The urban world isn't one I explore often with my photography but it was very much one that I decided to explore this week.

I wanted to apply my more impressionist technique to the streets of Cardiff and with the recent wet weather the streets had become glowing canvases on which to paint with light.

The colours, the lights, the people wandering its streets became the perfect subjects from which to create an impression of the city at night. From these elements I sought to capture the neon soaked painting of passing cars. The feeling of strangers passing through the night and the ghostly outlines of the houses that lined the way.

It was through these that I sought to create something different. To build up a picture of the night, build upon a thousand urban brushstrokes capturing the shimmering Cardiff night.