I'm running away to Cardiff!

...for the duration of tomorrow, anyway. I wanted to be a teeny bit spontaneous and also wanted to take some photos of examples of symmetry and pattern in the city for my project, so what better place than Cardiff? I'll end up in Swansea at some point too, though not tomorrow. So, I'm going to get ready for a hike around the concrete jungle.

I figured Cardiff would be a better option for me because I'm less familiar with it. I still know it and won't get lost, but I've been to Swansea more times than I care to count. I'm more likely to overlook things. A little fresh scenery will help things, I think.

Plus, there's museums. There's museums in Swansea too, but Cardiff has more art galleries than Swansea. It's a big city full of great architecture and I'm sure I'll have a great time. I'll be adding a few of my favourite photos here after I've edited them. The rest will be on my Flickr page, of which you can see recent uploads to the right of this post. It automatically updates too.

Recently, I had a little editing-fest with some of my symmetry in nature experiments. I went to Llanelli and bought a bunch of fruit I don't normally eat, some that I do. All in all I ended up getting strawberries, a huge orange, a grapefruit, a pomegranate and a red delicious. I then proceeded to cut them in half and took photos of them in various ways. So far I have the strawberries, apple, tomatoes, onion and melon done. Just a few more left.

Course, this isn't a project that's just about fruit and veg. This is only a small part of the "nature" section. 

My entire summer project is about Symmetry and Pattern, and how we find it everywhere in both nature and man-made things. It's such a deeply ingrained part of who we are it governs the way we perceive things like beauty. Indeed, a large contributing factor in what we consider aesthetically "beautiful" or "attractive" depends on how symmetrical it is. You only have to look at a car, a building, a new gadget or even the human face and body to see that.

And despite this, it's so often overlooked and taken for granted.

We're creatures of habit, and gravitate towards that which we find aesthetically pleasing. We try and make sense of everything around us - even the clouds in the sky and the stars out in space as we lie on a grassy bank somewhere and gaze upwards. From the microscopic to the enormous - electrons orbiting protons and neutrons, and planets orbiting a sun - symmetry and pattern is everywhere. It's in nature and it's in our own creations. 

We cannot escape it. 

And given the option, I don't think we'd want to. 

My project looks at this through the medium of photography, and how this subject brings a sense of order to an otherwise messy and chaotic world.