For my RSPB project I tried to document the ancient drainage system of the Gwent Levels, the Reens, Grips and Gouts. I photographed from St.Brides Wentlooge to Peterstone Gout.
I really enjoyed shooting for this project as I use the Gwent Levels a lot as an angler, and I learned a great deal about the history. I intend shooting more around the area as I’d like to create a more personal portfolio of landscape images.
Liam Rowe
I started this project by photographing landscapes along the coastal path. For this idea I was to show the beautiful views of the nature on and around the coastal paths and of interesting places to visit along the way. I hope this project is educating people about the local areas on the Gwent levels.
Photographers
Matthew Beeby
I needed to create images that could be used on various different media platforms and for physical advertisement to get the Living Levels initiative more well known. I had the idea of showing the seawall and the condition it was in after the recent weather conditions. My original idea was to present a series of images I produced for an own personal project which was all about my local area and the surrounding canal walks very close to my house. After I did some research, I found out that my original idea was not usable as it wasn’t in the boundaries of the living levels.
The shoot went extremely well as I had a perfect number of images to send to RSPB relating to how the sea defences coped with the weather conditions and flooding that happened over the weeks. I decided in post-production to make my photos black and white as if they were colour the bright blues of the sky may have taken the viewers eyes away from how the defences are useful.
Photographers
Leah Challenger
I photographed Tredegar House and Gardens, focusing on the magnificent architecture and wonderfully diverse gardens, rich with vegetation and flora. I enjoyed exploring the gardens on a beautiful early spring day and learning about British history in the Tredegar house museum. I took my daughter along and we both had a great day.
Photographers
Bethan Slocombe
Originally, my idea was to go out and create time-lapses of sunsets, sunrises, the movement of clouds and the movement of water. I then decided that I wanted to go out and try a bit of night photography as this wasn’t really something that I had tried before in much depth and thought it would be good to go out and push myself in a new and different area. I went out to the transporter bridge in Newport and took a few long exposure photographs there and I also went into the city centre to do the same. Finally, I decided on Magor Marsh because the location was further away and did not suffer as greatly from light pollution. This has kept my photographs consistent by having the same lighting in each of the images that I took for this project.
Photographers
Sarah Harley
For my Living Levels work, I chose to focus on a documentary project capturing the creation of three sculptures that were going to be placed in different locations on the Levels.
Although I was due to follow the process of all three sculptures, due to changes in timings and then the arrival of Covid-19, the majority of my work focuses on the willow sculpture. I primarily photographed at workshop events and at the artist's studio. I also managed a full session at the woodcarvers workshops. My aim is still to complete the project with photographs of the sculptures once they are in situ.
Working for the RSPB was a good experience as it gave me an opportunity to photograph people, processes and the environment, all of which will be invaluable experience for the future.
Photographers
Gideon Way and Courtney Goddard
For the living levels, me and Courtney chose to photograph churches at night. We chose churches from Newport to Cwmbran and chose particular churches based on the location surrounding it.
The project went through a few concepts before we arrived at night time photography, but we settled on night time because it helped bring out the cliche characteristics of something dark and eerie. I personally enjoyed working with the RSPB, the task became really personal to me and I found I had freedom to sculpt the results to suit my style.
Photographers
Faisal Bilal
I wanted to capture facilities offered in Wetlands for visitors. I photographed many different aspects of the wetlands, including the sea wall.
Photographers
Amanda Newman
I wanted to document the amount of plastic washed up and left on a stretch of coastline of the Gwent Levels, from the mouth of the River Usk to The Lighthouse Pub, a distance of approx. 2km.
I photographed various pieces of plastic that had been washed up or left lying around. Mostly bottles and plastic bags.
I found it interesting shooting for RSPB as it opened my eyes to what is left about and how we just accept things.
