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.

Glastonbury and Wells: The lsles of Avalon

Set like a lighthouse amidst the rolling green seas that are the fields of Somerset. Glastonbury Tor is inescapably the first thing you see as you arrive into this beautiful and historic countryside.

I had decided to take a break from city life and catch up with a friend who lived there. So for me my Glastonbury weekend didn't involving getting knee deep in mud, as much as enjoying delicious vegetarian food and sunbathing on the hill of Glastonbury tor.

I started my weekend in Wells, a beautiful and quintessentially English town a couple of miles outside of Glastonbury and got introduced to the cathedral there. It turned out to be as impressive on the inside as it was on the outside. With a beautifully decorated high ceiling and a clock that came to life every hour with miniature figures.

After that me and my friend took an hour to wander around Wells and take in the sights, including a beautiful garden just near the abbey before taking a bus over to the town of Glastonbury.

Now Glastonbury itself is held as somewhat of a sacred site both to the local christains and pagans that have made the town their home. This is due to the fact that the famous Tor has been variously an iron age site, the resting place of an early church, a site mentioned in Arthurian legends and most recently a rebuilding of the church tower itself. The town is also the site of a thorn tree said to be planted by Saint Joseph of Arimthea. Who according to legends struck a staff down that became the famous tree.








It has become therefore somewhere to enjoy both the natural beauty, old worldly pubs and ambient spirituality (and admittedly sometimes slightly unhinged spirituality) which goes with the place. After catching up with my friend we spent the day pursuing shops, enjoying the beauty of the White Springs (a lovely underground building which houses one of Glastonbury's natural springs) and sunbathing on the Tor itself.

After enjoying some food at one of the local restaurants we got some beers and enjoyed the sunset overlooking the town itself. The next day we climbed the Tor and got to enjoy the wonderful views over Somerset that the hill provided, did some more shopping and enjoyed music from a local band playing at one of the pubs in the town.

I ended my last day having a pint and a nice Sunday lunch at the George and Pilgrim before heading home rested, relaxed and spiritually refreshed ready to get back to the working week ahead.

Radyr and Castle Coch

Located on the outskirts of Cardiff, Radyr is a rather idyllic place to take a stroll, before taking in the beauty that is the fairy tale like Castle Coch.

Designed in the 19th century by William Burges as a gothic revival castle, its filled with the type of mythological detail and intricate design that it  makes you feel like you've fallen down in Alice's wonderland.

The beauty of the castle is only enhanced by the wonderful natural surroundings. Whether its a walk through the maze like woodlands of Tongwynlais, a bit of cycling or the peace that comes from a quiet stroll along the riverside it really is a lovely place to take the family for a day out.

After all this activity you can then take in a pint at the local town or enjoy some of the lovingly prepared food in the castle itself.

The world in a mirror

I love car windscreens and hoods (i'm strange like that). They produce beautiful effects and with them you can create everything from an expressionist painting to a window into some far away galaxy.

I love them covered in fresh raindrops when they glitter and shine or reflecting street lamps on a frosty night when they become a constellation of stars. They become multicolored filters that twist and turn the world in a multitude of different ways. Or they can create impressionist dreams of colour, shape and form.

Beauty is where you find it and occasionally for me thats reflected in the bumper of a parked car.