Cardiff

And...here's a sunset!! :-) The buildings are part of a new cinema and mall, in a redevelopment project common in Britain, which isn't nearly as much of a shipping country as it once was.

I took this shot during the same session as my other Parc Bute shots, simply liking how it looked. It's a bit blurred, though, so I'm leaving the verdict up to you. The light was a bit low, so I was using the 1/45 setting on the shutter of my MZ-10.

When I finally arrived in Cardiff, I obviously took a lot of pictures, but for the moment I'm only posting a few. Cardiff does indeed have a castle, like many major European cities, so here it is. :-) It's history, like many castles, is a bit mysterious, as its foundations are Roman. The oldest parts of the current castle were constructed in 1091 by the Normans, although the castle was rebuilt again in 1869, part of which involved the very elaborate clock tower that you can see here. As you can also see, there's a crane in the background, and that's because it's being rebuilt again, although this time solely for preservation.

I did a shot shoot when I was in Parc Bute, or Bute Park, Cardiff's main park, and part of this involved shooting some mediocre landscapes. :-) This one is perhaps my favorite, and I still may post-process it a little bit. I just don't have the time right now.

St. John the Baptist Parish Church was supposedly built during the 12th Century, although most of the currently surviving structure dates to the 15th Century. It is still an active Anglican (I think) church, open every day.

Ta-da!! My first 2008 photo posted to the internet!! It's about time, 6 months behind schedule!! I do have a life, however. :-)

This is the entrance to Cardiff Market, which is a shopping passage, basically an early mall, constructed in 1891. I hate malls usually, but I like this one, since it's in a city centre, it primarily caters to walkers, and it looks nice. :-)

I did several versions of this shot, and this one, converted to black and white, is my favorite. I wanted to convey the sheer ugliness of the malls currently wrecking Britain and everything of value in Britain.

Although it's just a railway viaduct, and not a particularly long or high one, I've always like how this one looks. This is in Cardiff, of course, and takes the former Great Western into Cardiff Central.