Some pictures from the Boia Festival in St Davids last weekend. This was the second year of the festival which is spread between 2 main venues in St Davids along with smaller spaces in local venues in the town. This year, Gaz Coombs headlined in the City Hall but some other great names came to the festival including Katy J Pearson, John Blek, Seamus Fogarty, Arborist, Jesca Hoop, Anna B Savage and many more.
I went down to London at the weekend to attend a workshop led by the photographer Craig Fleming who has had several entries in the Portrait Photographer of the Year Award in the past. It was a chance to watch his process, ask questions and spend some time in a studio environment which is rare for me. The model was Laurie Delaney who was fantastic to shoot and made it easy to make some portraits I was pleased with. Craig created a very relaxed and open atmosphere so no question felt too basic and it was easy to follow his lead.
I’d been in Cardigan yesterday afternoon, I’d watched the drizzle roll in and the day looked like ending in a washout. Checking the forecast I could see that it was only a thin band of rain that was slowly moving East so I decided to head up onto Carningli common and have a look at the heather before the flowers faded away with the hope that I’d get some nice light on the purple carpets up there. As the rain passed over there was beautiful light and I was spoilt for choice of images to make. It’s always been a favourite place to be and to shoot with the view down to Newport in one direction, Dinas Island in another and the Gwaun Valley and Preseli Hills inland. I’ve felt a bit creatively flat recently but with the low Autumn light replacing the brightness of Summer, I found myself seeing opportunities in every direction and being heartened to spend time in the landscape again.
These are all mostly variations on a theme but as it was hard to choose favourites, I decided just to dump a selection here. If you’re reading this, I’d love to know which image stands out to you.
Cor Tadau Trisant, a male voice choir from the Llantrisant area sang in the St Davids cathedral on the 17th June. I took a few pics of the concert for the choir and stuck around longer than I’d planned as the sound of a great choir in the cathedral is such a lovely thing. The choirmaster and soloists had all met as part of Only Men Aloud! who gained prominence after winning the Last Choir Standing competition run by the BBC in 2008. They performed a mix of traditional and more modern songs from the musicals and recent pop songbook. The cathedral is a lovely place to take pictures and it’s always a pleasure to make a collection of images from events that take place there.
A local corner of the Earth. A green womb like space at this time of the year.
A friend and the band he has put together have been creating some new sounds recently. They describe it as…
“Agitated art rock from the Brecon Beacons. Climatic melodies, staccato guitars, arpeggiated synths, impellent beats.
Like pulling back a metal sheet at the end of a garden and discovering a circuit board, but all the capacitors have been replaced with rolled up string which unravel very satisfyingly.”
I’m always a fan of great melody and when that comes with high level musicianship, skillful songwriting and innovation, I’m in. I’ve been playing Gated Estates on repeat since they released their first 3 singles and I’m looking forward to hearing the full studio album. This gig was the launch of the album and it was a great show in the old chapel that is now The Globe venue in Hay-On-Wye. An intimate space that they filled with energy. Check them out on Bandcamp or on the socials. The full album is out on the 9th June Music | Gated Estates (bandcamp.com)
