Getting High

The older I get, the more I seem to fear things, and my fear of heights seems to grow in waves but is generally overcome fairly easily. Once I’ve plucked the courage to look down, it passes and I’m fine.

Looking down from the roof of Newport’s Kingsway car park got the blood pumping, or I should say, kept the blood pumping after the walk up the stairs. It’s not that high, I lost count after 4 flights of stairs, but while it’s far from the highest building in Newport, it almost provides a nice view of the city and it’s the most accessible. It was really nice to chill out up there.

It’s views like this that fuel my passion for getting higher. I love seeing photos of towns and cities from up high, from rooftops, or tower cranes, but I lack the knowledge or bravery to do it.

I remember a few years back, I was passing through Swansea while the Meridian Quay tower was close to its 29 story completion. I must have driven and walked past the building no less than 10 times, looking for an entrance that would take me up to no doubt spectacular views. A broken chain link fence was peeled back slightly from the post, just enough for me to slide through. I was in the confines of the building site. This was risky and my heart was racing. Luckily, this was a few years ago, I was slightly fitter and the stairs were less of a problem. Unfinished concrete stairwells didn’t give off the luxury feel just yet. I carried on cautiously up the stairs, listening to every little noise. The crunching of grit under my shoes, the echoes of each footstep. I think It was floor 6 I got to. CLICK. Then a beeping sounding every few seconds, the kind of beep I instantly associated with an alarm. Had I triggered something? Would I get to the top floor, capture the views over this “pretty, shi**y city” and head back down in time before the hounds were released? It was doubtful. I headed back down the stairs double time. Back out of my chain link hole and casually back onto the street. I kick myself to this day. I don’t think there was security on site, very unlikely that there were hounds or killer bees to catch me and I just know that the views at the top would have been stunning. Trespassing in the UK is not a criminal offence to my knowledge, but with the amount of people around who are out to steal metal or tools, how can you prove that you’re not just out to do that? It beat me.

One day I will get really high.

Down by the Riverside

Some time ago, I was looking for and found a location that would be great for long exposure photography. I stumbled upon this rocky beach on the muddy banks of the River Severn with perfect views of the Second Severn Crossing; the bridge that charges time conscious people to enter Wales from the south. This place had a lot of variables that would make for an interesting long exposure photograph providing the conditions were right.

At the time, on this windy, cloudy day, I was equipped

No Escape

There was a lot of cloud cover and a breeze in the air, and compared to the recent spate of weather, 10 Celsius felt tropical.  While the city centre appeals to me as a photographic playground I decided to avoid it on this particular occasion. Being a Friday I didn’t really want cider and kebab spilled on me, or my equipment. Escaping the city wasn’t really an option either. With my fuel gauge on the red

The Beginning of Something Beautiful

Canon EOS 5D MkII, Canon EF 50mm f1.8 @ f1.8, ISO 3200

The sky was clear, the air had a chill in it, but I got out last night with the camera. I’ve been planning to set myself a photographic project for a while now, but nothing really inspired me. Until, for some peculiar reason, I thought of Newport. Despite being one of Wales’ newest cities, Newport has never really had a good name that I can remember and is known to be a little abrasive to say the least. While millions of pounds have been spend in trying to regenerate the city, it’s still struggling to evolve in to the environment that people want to visit. For reasons unknown to me, I’ve decided to try and find the hidden beauty in this  micro metropolis and display it to the masses… or the readers of my blog.

At this point the project details are fairly sparse and I should really look to set myself some criteria. It’s open ended and have no end date. I currently have no intended outcome. I just need to try and make Newport pretty with only the use of a camera, tripod, lights and maybe a little creative flair. A collection of photographs to show a different side of my local city.

Watch this space. #MakeNewportPretty

Never too old to learn

Nightmares generally occur at night. I ticked that box. With the Greeting Card Photograph idea from my previous post fresh in my mind, I set off to a location with ideas for a birthday photo. All good so far until I get to the the end of my street which is where the impulse decision took place to completely ignore my plans and go somewhere else. Somewhere a little closer to home. After all, times are tough and fuel is expensive!

On arrival at the car park at the base of the mountain (ok, it’s 1,375 ft/419m so read “hill”) visibility was obscured by the tree line. I needed to get higher. Being the well prepared soul that I thought I was, I changed into my walking boots, took out my new birthday torch, put on my hat, gloves and camera bag, slung my tripod over my shoulder and began my ascent.

Around halfway up this monstrous mound, I started struggling and could have done with some water. Fail point number one. My original location would have been a lot closer to the car should I need supplies. I paused to catch my breath a little and carried on up.

This particular hill has a “pimple” at the summit that is an Iron Age hill fort or caused by being the burial site of a giant, dependent on who you speak to. To shelter from the stiff, fresh breeze that was rolling in, I’d setup base just at the bottom of said pimple. I sat and just took in the beautiful scenery and listened to nothing but the wind while I caught my breath.

As the street lamps twinkled in the distance, I setup my tripod, made sure it was straight, and attached my camera to it… and attached my camera to it… and… I had taken my tripod mounting plate off previously to test a separate, in car mount that screws to the headrest for some in car video footage. The mounting plate I needed was in the car, in the little cubby below the stereo. I could see it in my mind. Fail point number two.

I managed to precariously balance my camera on the tripod and wrapped the neck strap around to secure it. This sufficed, but I didn’t like it. If the camera fell off, I could just imagine me picking up bits and pieces of lens that had shattered over the floor. I couldn’t leave the camera to light paint as my hands were constantly hovering, ready to snatch the camera should it fall. Growing tired of this, I decided that the best tripod I could get in this situation was the ground. Balancing the lens on a rock and the camera on the ground. I managed to frame a shot using live view.

On taking this shot, the home made “lightsabre” that I’d repaired a few days earlier was holding up really well, until, luckily I suppose it decided to break again at the top around 450 second into the 493 second exposure. Fail point number 3. It seems my soldering skills were lacking. Luckily I got the shot though.

I like to think that I’ve learnt my lessons from this night. But it’s highly unlikely. Unless I write them in my ideas book… now where did I put that?