Severnside

A While ago I posted one of my personal favorite imaged I took last year down on the banks of the River Severn at Goldcliff, near Newport South Wales

That prompted me to think that I have never put a selection of the pictures I have from this fine piece of coast on the website so I have finally made a start on doing just that and I have created a new gallery on my website of pictures from the banks of the River Severn

It's never that clear to me what I should think of as banks of the River Severn. Clearly when you can see right across to the English side it's still a river, but it's also tidal and therefore an estuary rather than strictly being a river.

Recently I see a lot of definitions stating that the River ends at the Second Severn Crossing Bridge, but it must have had a start and end before that bridge was built.

The next section is called the Severn Estuary which take us The Severn Estuary is said to extend to a line from Lavernock Point (south of Cardiff) to Sand Point near Weston-super-Mare. so I think I can still call those pictures Severnside (which is a good job as the one above is taken in that section.

Then we come to the section which is referred to as the Bristol Channel which in my mind is a very strange name for the section which is increasingly further from Bristol so what do I call pictures like this from Southerndown?

Luckily the old name for the Bristol Channel was the Severn Sea and in welsh it is still named: Môr Hafren, meaning 'Severn Sea' so I think it's quite reasonable for me to put those in the Severnside section as well when I get a minute

As to Pictures of Tenby, well these are also contained within the strict definition of the Severn Sea as I will call it, but for me these deserve a section all of their own

Life at Full Gallop

A while ago I did a commercial style shoot for some friends who have a trekking school in the Brecon Beacons and in doing it I gained a new found respect for the people who photograph horse racing because keeping them in frame when they are moving at full speed is incredibly hard

The lessons I learned on that day were: -

1. Use a long lens so you can stand well back 
2. Give your self plenty of time to prepare and get ready for it

For these pictures I ignored both of these pieces of advice as I had literally seconds to take this picture, I was too close and unprepared. I had lined myself up for a picture of some seagulls and was aware of them becoming unsettled and then I realised the sound in my left ear was getting closer VERY fast



I simply did not react fast enough to get the "riding into the picture shot" so mid picture was as good as I got.

 More true to rules of thirds, is the "riding out of picture" shot.

My opinion on just how fast these things move has not changed in this experience