Antique style cameras installed to capture the changing landscapes through your camera

Three antique style ‘fixed point’ cameras have been installed across the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty as part of a citizen science project to document the changing landscape. With cameras at the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Loggerheads Country Park and on the Prestatyn to Dyserth old railway line there are cameras accessible by all in some of our most picturesque settings. The project is asking members of the public to take a photo through these cameras and uploading it to Instagram using #CRDV_AONB to tag their photo into the project. By doing so photos will add to a growing online dataset of images capturing the seasonal, land management and climatic changes of this outstanding landscape.

Howard Sutcliffe, the AONB Officer and Countryside Management Association Chair for Wales, has long wanted a fixed-point photography project in the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB and with recent ‘Special Landscapes Special Places’ funding from Welsh Government this idea was finally able to become a reality. Working closely with a local blacksmith and metalwork artist, Rich Jones from Heat and Beat, Tom Johnstone Climate Change Officer for the AONB worked up with Richard numerous design ideas were worked through before the final design imitating a vintage folding camera, was settled upon. The cameras were laser cut and welded by Rich who then copper plated them to give them both a long lifespan and a beautiful finish that sits in the landscape neither detracting from the natural beauty, nor going unnoticed.

The ambition for the project is that over time as more photos are added, changes in the landscape will become apparent as you scroll through images taken in different months or years. All the sites chosen have the potential to change through conservation management practices, whether they be removing invasive non-native species, managing woodland or conservation grazing. Equally all three sites will change dramatically through the seasons with the autumn colours of the Dee Valley being well known and photographed already, the sunsets and skies over the Clwydian Range in frame from Loggerheads and the spring bloom of hedgerows, wildflowers and the limestone grasslands above Prestatyn all providing a visual treat. There is also the risk these landscapes will change due to climate change, droughts, heatwaves, floods or wildfires. We all hope these impacts will never come to the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley but having already seen the devastating effect of wildfires on Llantysilio Mountain in 2018 we know the potential is there, and should the worst occur having a visual record of the before, during and after will provide a powerful message. With photos being added to Instagram there’s no need for a project officer within the AONB team to ‘manage’ data into the future making this a very low maintenance project and having used a local blacksmith any future work that might be needed on the cameras has already been considered. With luck we’ll be looking back in 20 years’ time over a huge collection of photos showing off this incredible landscape.

Climate Change officer Tom Johnstone said he’s “incredibly excited to see more photos uploaded as part of this project. I’m really looking forward to seeing the autumnal colours and morning mist of the Dee Valley, the sunsets over the Clwydian Range from Loggerheads and the contrast between winter and spring on Prestatyn hillside and the railway line”.

AONB Officer Howard Sutcliffe said, “It is great that this project has come to fruition in such a spectacular way, the cameras are beautifully made by Richard and compliment the wonderful landscape of the AONB, and Tom has led this project with such enthusiasm, but also with an eye to the detail”.

Lead Member Win Mullen-James “I am very excited about the fixed-point photography project, not least because it gives the public a great opportunity to be involved in recording the changing season of the AONB, but also because we have our own record in order to witness climate change. I would like to thank the team led by Tom Johnstone for their innovative work”.