Senedd building Cardiff Bay

I took the train to Cardiff Bay from Rhiwbina station, which is close to the Travelodge in Whitchurch. It was only £2.05 there and back including a stop off in Cardiff City Centre.

It is two and half years since I visited the Senedd building. The main public building of the National Assembly is an open building into which you can walk, have a cup of coffee in the Oriel on the upper level, and go into the public galleries from the Neuadd on the centre level. It is a sustainable building, built of traditional Welsh materials such as slate and Welsh oak. It is also sustainable in the way it is heated; for example, the earth exchange system uses heat from the bottom of the old dock, on which the Senedd stands, before it became the area which is now Cardiff Bay. The large funnel recirculates the air in the building.

Autumn Colours

Called in at Westonbirt Arboretum on the way to Cardiff to lecture for next two evenings. Proved to be exactly the right time for the maple colours. The light was pretty poor but didn't detract from the wonderful reds and oranges.

CCC Exhibition

Two reasons why no blog posts since Saturday - 1) I have been helping put up and steward Cambridge Camera Club's Annual Exhibition in the Guildhall in Cambridge and 2) Sadie is now very keen to stay on two not four feet and can therefore reach all kinds of new things. She really enjoyed the Exhibition - just needs the prints a bit lower next year.

Some monochrome images from an afternoon on Dungeness Beach. I intend to redo the conversions with Silver Effex at some stage but hope these give the feel of desertion and loneliness of the place.

Olympic City

We visited the Olympic City site on an amazingly warm day for late October. In fact, today they completed the Orbit by Anish Kapoor but we had left before they lifted the last curved piece onto the top. The Stadium looked great with a foreground of cosmos flowers.


To contrast with these images taken from the viewpoint near Pudding Lane, the following show some of the security surrounding the buildings viewed at lower levels.

Ironbridge

We visited Ironbridge Blists Hill on our way back from north Wales. As I had been fairly recently (August 27th blog), decided to concentrate on one area. The Ironworks is an 1815 cast-iron framed smithy building from the Woolwich dockyard (my homeland), whilst the machinery and furnaces housed are from Walmsley’s Atlas works in Bolton. I am still working through the images but here are five to show the colours and the shapes that occupied me for my time there.

Saturday at New Brighton

We were so chuffed with our 4th place at the PAGB Interclub print finals on Saturday that we found the energy to spend the twilight hour at New Brighton, photographing the lighthouse. These show the change in the colour as it went to full night conditions. The final shot was lit by car headlight, hence the white light.

Friday at West Kirby

I had no internet access at weekend so a bit of a backlog. Here a few dramatic skyscapes from Friday when we broke our journey to Connah's Quay at West Kirby on the Wirral for an hour or so at dusk. I was amused to meet Dennis Healey - or anyway his eyebrows - on the walkway.

Autumn mists

Back in Cambridge and enjoying the autumn sunrises and misty cobwebs.

Aberdare

Went for a walk around the Dare Valley Park, Aberdare, previously the site of several coal mines including Bwllfa Colliery. The river has been diverted to form a large lake and the various coal tips landscaped. I enjoyed the trees, water and ferns.

Newport Wetlands Centre

Visited Newport Wetlands Centre, which is run by the RSPB, in the company of Steph who I reckon I haven't seen for about 20 years but didn't look any different. It is a very large area of reed beds under the shadow of the Severn Power Station. There were several Cetti's Warblers singing but not a lot of birds to see as the tide was low. Still many butterflies on the wing in the warm sunshine. We also disturbed a grass snake - as I didn't have a suitable macro lens, tried the fush eye and quite pleased to have captured snake, Steph and her delightful dog.