Undecided – not sure if these photographs of Rhossili Bay, Gower work as images.

????

The first image required 5 stops of Graduated Neutral Density filtration to cope with the exposure difference between the sky and setting sun to the bracken in the foreground. I think the filtration of the sky is too obvious, but having seen some other landscape images recently by other photographers in a similar situation they seem to do the same as well. The path is leading the eye out of the photograph, but I think the bright sun behind the cloud draws it back in again. Other exposures with less filtration looked too weak in the sky area, and I think it is the contrast of the sky and sea that I also find slightly distracting as well.

The second image has a lot of my favourite ingredients: great cloud formation, setting sunlight, strong colours and waves. It still doesn’t feel right to me though. I think it may be the vertical format, making the image look tight and perhaps a horizontal view may have given a better sense of space. I don’t have a horizontal version to show, which is unusual for me as I usually take a photograph in both horizontal and vertical versions. If I remember correctly I was trying to keep the setting sun out of the photograph.

Rhossili Bay is well known as the location of Worm’s Head, which is a distinctively shaped headland at the southern end of the Bay. I took some photographs of Worm’s Head as well, but once again I’m not sure if the work or not. I was trying to do something different from the usual style of photograph that is seen of the headland, but I will have to live with the photographs a bit longer before I make up my mind.

I also noticed that one of the houses near the path down to the bay had less Swallows and Swifts nesting this year, and this is something I have noticed across the whole of Gower. Perhaps this year their numbers are down, I will have to find out. Another bonus I noticed while watching the Swifts and Swallows was that as the wind blows up the cliff face they use it to hover in the air, keeping them fairly stationary, which should make photographing them in flight easier. This is also done by a Kestrel that is hunting in the grass on the cliffs. I will be returning with the long lens to try and get an image asap!