WW - Sailing Away

Yachts anchored off Llandudno, North Wales

Freedom. That's what's this photograph represents to me. Just being able to sail off into the sunset has always been appealing, especially as the pace of life seems to get faster and faster. Imagine getting your own boat and sailing it anywhere you wanted to. My reasons for wanting the Lady Catherine are probably becoming much clearer now.

Sailing around the UK would make a brilliant photographic project. Documenting the voyage, the places, the people you meet, would be fascinating. If i ever win the lottery I'll probably do that, but I'd need some crew. Applications on a postcard can be sent to....

WW - Menai Straits

The Menai Suspension Bridge

Getting onto the island of Anglesey is a doddle. Just drive over the Menai Straits using the Menai Suspension Bridge designed by Thomas Telford. Prior to the completition of the bridge in 1826 there was no fixed connection to the mainland.

Nearby is Bangor, one of the smallest cities in Britain. It was there, at a yacht brokers called Dickies, that i spotted my perfect yacht - the Lady Catherine. I liked the boat and i liked the name, but sadly the rather large asking price for the Lady C was slightly out of my range. Never mind eh!

WW - Betws-y-Coed

The Pont-y-Pair Bridge and River Llugwy at Betws-y-Coed, North Wales

If there is one place in North Wales to visit it's Betws-y-Coed pronounced Bets e coed. The name mean Prayer house in the wood, which describes the village's location to poetic perfection.

Betws-y-Coed features an assortment of shops, including several well equipped outdoor sports stores that any certified mountain biking, fell running, canoe paddling, rock climbing nut would adore. I've actually seen people dive of this bridge into the pools of water below as part of outdoor pursuits courses. Not something i'd recommend.

WW - Welsh Hills

Welsh Hills near Bangor, North Wales

Remember the photographs of the stone wall that i posted at the start of this month? Well this was the scenery on the other side of that wall. The diversity of the U.K landscape is something that tends to be ignored by Brits. You can go from completely flat to mountainous in the space of a few hours drive.

The reason why Wales seems to be such a popular tourist destination for many people is due to the diversity of the landscape. You can leave the sea and sandy beaches behind you, drive for twenty minutes and then be alone in a mountainous landscape. Absolute bliss!

Top Blog

I received this rather nice E-mail yesterday:-

Congratulations! Your blog http://www.richflintphoto.blogspot.com has been named a Top Blog at YouSayToo. As a Top Blog, you are included in our Top Blogger section.

Well what can i say. Thank you very much. It's always nice to get a little recognition for all the hard work put in. Well i say hard work... i love it really ;o)

Wales Week

A fiery sunset over the mountains near Llangollen - 2003

This week, the blog will be hosting the Wales week series of posts. A colour photograph, from my trip to Wales in 2003, will be posted everyday this week starting with the 'sunset near Llangollen' image above. The V shaped collection of white objects in the foreground is a caravan site. I especially like the silvery glow of a large puddle near to the site entrance and the shadows of the trees on the fields.

Like all good sunset photos, you have to wait for the right moment. I spent a rather spiritual and magical 25 minutes on the mountain side, just watching the sun slowly set, waiting for that decisive moment to take the photograph. Moments like that stay with you forever.

Darker Skies

Those of you familar with my black and white landscape work might have already guessed how i got the title for my new photoblog. Yes, i've launched a second photoblog called Darker Skies, that will enable me to write about certain photography issues that aren't really suited to this photoblog's topic list. A couple of articles have already been posted and more will follow soon, including one about the faults with the photographic eduction system. Let me know what you think.

Darker Skies can be found at http://www.darkerskies.wordpress.com/

Things to Come

A Norfolk barley field in late evening summer sunlight - early July, 2009

I finally got around to looking through this year's crop of photographs from Norfolk. I'm rather pleased with a number of them including this gorgeously lit picture taken in a Norfolk field. I think it has a wonderful old English summer feel to it, although it certainly doesn't reflect the majority of the disappointing weather we've had so far this summer in the U.K. Hopefully September will bring some warm sunny days that are perfect for a bit of photography.

A few new bits and pieces are on the way regarding the websites. Along with the regular twitter feed, two new additions will be arriving soon. I've already talked about AudioBoo in a previous post but a new exciting addition to this 'podcasting' service will be TweetReel. TweetReel is video, shot on an iPhone, uploaded to a website to form a video blog. I'm rather excited about adding both AudioBoo and TweetReel to the blogging output. I hope to release the first short (a maximum of two minutes per episode) TweetReel videoblog around the middle of next month, filmed in a great location up in the north of England. It should be lots of fun and will, most probably, be filmed in a slightly experimental way to see what works and what doesn't.

Other online developments include adding more material to my ImageKind and Redbubble pages. This is a pretty slow process as much of the material has to be scanned, and edited before uploading. ImageKind has recently updated it's business terms so that an unlimited number of images can now be placed on the website for free. The third photograph sales area that requires more work is located on the main website, and this will also be expanded to include far more images over the coming months. I will have lots of work to do this winter.