New book by Roger Penn. Beyond the Call of Duty document his father's life as a GP in Whitland Carmarthenshire. Available via Gomer Press and Amazon. We also have a range of books we can send anywhere in the world. They include

St Clears the village where I went to school.
A delightful book documenting a schoolboy's memories of his walk to school and all the characters he meets along the way. Accompanied by the beautiful photographs of Stanley Phillips circa 1930. The images give a real feel for what life was like in rural Wales.

The photographs of Stanley Phillips
Almost half a century of work in a coffee book format. Stunning black and white images of Carmarthenshire and events unfolding from the early q900's onwards including Amy Johnson in Pendine. Malcolm Campbell's land speed record, Wing Commander Ira Jones and many more world events, which took place in a sleepy corner of Wales.

The Diary of a Merchant Seaman
This diary documents Stanley's life at sea as part of the North Atlantic convoys. He is a very articulate young man aboard ships crossing dangerous waters shortly before and during the First World War. He documents racing back with the Megantic, sister ship of the Titanic. A beautifully written book full of historic references.

A History of St Clears
Originally written as an essay for the Eisteddfod this book is a charming documentation of life in St Clears from the turn of the century. The writer was known as Taf. We have found plenty of photographs and illustrated the text so that you see exactly what Taf is referring to as you read.

Photographs and Films of West Wales
A DVD featuring the many photographs and films of Stanley Phillips, which are now housed at The National Library of Wales. Charming photographs and films bringing the community of West Wales to life.

If you would like to order any of the above please get in touch via the blog.

Some of the photograph's from today's course with Ashley. Ashley has an Olympus SLR with a standard lens and a zoom lens. We started by looking at moving form full auto to using the aperture priority and shutter priority because these allowed for a little more creativity. We also switched off the auto focus and started using the manual focus. Ashley did a few shots using selective manual focus and varying the depth of field focus.

We used a church yard because it ha plenty of greenery and interesting shadows. The first half of the day was very bright sunshine low in the sky. The aim was to reduce the shadows using fill flash. We also worked on composition and deciding wether to focus on the shadows or the highlights. We paid a visit to the local craft centre and did some interior shots using the skills developed earlier on.

By the end of the day Ashley was more confident using the manual settings and he was able to make decisions based on aperture or shutter speed in different lighting condition. We did cover a number of other areas but the day went very quickly. I am looking forward to seeing more of Ashley's work.

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