A second visit to St. David's Cathedral.

A few weeks ago we visited St. David's Cathedral for the second time. The weather was a lot brighter for this visit, with bright sun and blue sky. This gave far better outdoor photographs than for my previous visit last year.

The first photograph was taken from near the main entrance and shows the cathedral in its entirety. I hope this conveys some impression of the size and majesty of the building. Impressive when you consider the building was started in 1181.

In the second image, below, I show the decorative ceiling of the tower above the choir in the centre of the church. I like this shot due to the unusual angle that I took the photograph. I was worried about the sunlight streaming through the window arches in the tower spoiling the photo, but I must have been lucky as there are no obvious streams of light.



In the third image, I show some of the decorative stonework on one of the arches. Without modern tools, the stonemasons have incorporated rich designs into the structure.



Outside, there were also old gravestones lined up against a wall, some dating back to the early 1700s. These had a lot of lichens slowly covering the surface. Below I show one example with more in the gallery.



I have added about half of the photos I took into the 'Images from Wales Gallery' - I hope to add the rest next week.

Technical Details:
Camera: Canon EOS 350D
Lens: Canon 17-85 IS
Outside Exposure: Typically 1/25o @f13
Outside Settings: Auto WB, 200ISO
Indoor Exposure: Typically 1/30 F5.6
Indoor settings: Auto WB 800ISO

Frosty Mornings

This is just a short blog this week - we are still sorting the house out after moving home on the 9th and I still haven't broadband - so I am on dial-up and the web is sooo slow... I have managed to upload a new picture of the week as shown above an added a couple of more images to a picture gallery.


This first one I like because of the colours - the blue and lilac tones of the sky go well with the silvery effect of frost on the grass. The leafless trees also make an interesting silhouette.


This second photo, taken from the same place on another day has a totally different look and feel to it. This time the predominate tone is pink. I never cease to be amazed at how different the sky be at the same time of day.



Next week I hope to be in a position to spend more time on the photography. In my new home I have already identified some interesting views of the surrounding landscape - totally different to what I had in Wales - it is very flat but not dead flat. The rolling hills are as much as 10 metres (30 feet or so) high!

2 Dawn Photographs

One of the advantages of living where I do is the fantastic view from the house across the Teifi valley to the Cambrian Mountains. This advantage will soon disappear for me as we are moving house this week, but I still have loads of photos taken here to catalogue.

We are moving across the width of the UK to a property with less land, and less spectacular views (but still rural). We will be in Norfolk near the east coast of the UK. Depending on the state of the Internet connection there may not be a blog or 'Picture of the Week' next week.

Although it does not look like it, these two photographs were taken on the same day just 7 minutes apart. The first photograph is a view, taken on a frosty morning, across the front garden looking south or southeast to the Cambrian Mountains. I love the way the lilac colour fades onto the blue and gold of the sky.

The second image below was taken near the end of the garden, looking past the trees and shrubs towards the Cambrian Mountains. This time the colours are more red and pink. As these were taken in mid winter, I did not need to get up too early to photograph this dawn.



More photos of the dawn can be seen in the gallery.

Technical Details:
Camera: Canon EOS 350D
Lens: Canon EF-S 17-85mm IS
Exposure: 1/8@ F4 and 1/30@F5
Settings: ISO200 +1/3 stop exposure compensation.