Paul Edwards
| I was born in the Gower Peninsular in 1967 and I've been lucky enough to live here for most of my life. My hobbies have included fishing, mountain biking, walking and watching wildlife, all of which have mainly been an excuse to indulge in the natural beauty of the Welsh countryside and its wildlife. I work as an Environmental Scientist for Environment Agency Wales, which allows me to indulge further in my passion for this wonderful part of the world, albeit mainly from the comfort of a desk these days. |
Dryslwyn Castle |
Puffins, Skomer |
Up until around 2003, photography was just something I did on holidays, with a “point and shoot” camera. In my younger days I just wanted to travel without being burdened with a lot of bulky equipment. I progressed to a point and shoot digital camera in 2003, mainly to save on film processing costs while trying to capture stills of my restless and camera-shy baby daughter. Going digital allowed me to experiment without worrying about the cost or having to wait several weeks to see the results. |
| I started to browse through photography books and magazines, and was inspired by images in Outdoor Photography magazine and “Three Corners of Gower” by Peter R. Douglas-Jones. The latter made me realise that there’s a lot more to photograph in my local area than the standard views such as Three Cliffs Bay and Worm’s Head. I soon became hooked on digital photography and I finally bought a “proper” camera in November 2003. Unfortunately, my Olympus E-20P digital SLR is already obsolete in the fast moving world of digital cameras, but it still seems to take some pretty good photos. |
Mewslade |
Goldfinch |
Over the last two years I’ve taught myself the basics of photography, digital technology, Photoshop image editing and web design, all from books and magazines, especially Outdoor Photography. In my first year of digital photography I snapped away at anything and everything I saw, taking multiple images to experiment with different apertures, shutter speeds, white balance etc. Trial and error helped me over a steep learning curve, but I soon realised that this trigger-happy approach resulted in hours of tedious image deleting on my ultra-slow home PC. I now adopt a more considered approach and spend far less time image processing, allowing more time in the field or earning brownie points with my family. I also soon realised that all my favourite landscape photos were taken in late autumn and winter, so I’ll probably stick to wildlife photography and mountain biking from now on in the spring and summer. |
| For obvious reasons, most of the photos on my website were taken in Gower and the surrounding area, although I don't claim to have done justice to even this small part of Wales. To me, photography is all about colour and composition. I don’t really go looking for spectacular subjects to photograph as I find it more satisfying to capture a decent image of something that many people wouldn’t even notice. It’s hard to resist some of the classic Gower views, but I’ve tried to avoid the ones that I see in shops and galleries everywhere I go in Swansea and Mumbles. I still have a long list in my head of images I want to capture in South West Wales, let alone the rest of the world, so I think I’ve taken up a hobby that’s going to keep me satisfied for a long time to come. Please watch this space! |
Rhossili Bay |
Swansea Bay |
© Paul Edwards
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