Life Observed

We saw two male voice choirs in Salisbury Cathedral cloisters at dusk. They were singing the trench calls and taunts from the Great War across the green to each other. Some of the songs have a bitter irony to them: Not long to go dear. Captain says it's true dear, So keep the kettle on the fire, The King himself can't be a liar...

This three picture panorama (click on it for the larger version) is an example of why I like dusk so much. There is something magical about the contrast of the warm artificial colours, the street light and hotel sign, and the beguiling blue of the sky. There is a moment when the fading dusk will balance the other elements in the image.  Chose your moment!  Carpe Canem!

A clear sky at dusk is a wonderful sight. It is one of my favourite times of day. It is particularly effective in winter when you see the shape of the tree outlined as a silhouette against the cool colours of the sky. Something else. The fading light caught on shiny paintwork with my new wide angle lens.

A cold front passed over here yesterday and gave us this lovely dusk. A giant cloud hung over the horse exercise yard at the end of the day. A cold front changes the weather in a magical fashion from dull and grey to bright, cold and showery. The cold over warm arrangement of the air makes for an unstable situation. Rising cumulus clouds propagate and expand, and can form a giant anvil that brings on a thunderstorm. In this case the cloud ran out of energy at the end of the day and restricted itself to heavy showers.

"The Golden Hours are slipping away" Thus spake my ONC Electrical Engineering lecturer in the last weeks before the summer exams, way back in 1970. Thanks mate. No pressure then.... So, the final day of 2011 is slipping away. Your last chance to make your mark on the year. Dusk: Not so much a golden hour, more like a golden fifteen minutes. Once it's gone, it's gone So, to get your excellent dusk image (or your amazing sunrise shot ) you need to think, plan and act fast...

If you want to photograph a car and make it look good, then I say you should wait until dusk. There's something about the colours and reflection of the sky on paintwork that shows off the shapes and curves particularly well. Here's an example from last year. We took the big Merc SL500 to a corn field on the top of a hill one evening. There were no buildings or trees nearby so wall to wall sky shows off the shape quite well.  I suspect a clear sky would have worked more effectively, however the clouds add a certain drama. Here is another (rather humble) subject photographed against a cloud free sky at dusk. Here the gentle graduation of sky colours work their wonders on the painted steel. In this case I was lazy and left the car near the local trees, which add and subtract from the image in my opinion. Reflections of trees and buildings do give important visual cues in these circumstances, but they can also be distracting.  

That moment between dusk and real dark. The giant daisies in the garden are swaying in a nocturnal breeze, and I am out there with a tripod trying to bring home the moment.. No doubt the neighbours are looking out of the windows saying "what is he doing?"

Every year the longest day seems to come round too soon. We here in the northern hemisphere have not had our summer, and yet the days are now getting shorter. What an unpleasant prospect. Even more annoying is the annual change to GMT, which makes the final hours of the working day a depressing descent into darkness. Am I to live out my life cursing this foolishness, surrounded by fellow sufferers, and not see this error corrected by government? No-one I know wants the clocks to go back in Autumn, but we do it every year.  Promise me you will abolish this and I will vote for you regardless of your other policies...   Hello. Is anyone listening?

My watchword when composing a picture is always "what can I leave out?". This maxim reminds me to look round the viewfinder carefully before that fateful shutter press. So, we must ask ourselves "Is less more", and can we take minimalism too far.... On holiday in Cyprus Here we are on the beach near Polis. I could show you a picture of the sand and the sea, but that would just be another sea and sand picture. I could show you a nice sunset over the Akemas peninsula (and I may well do that one day) but that's just another sunset. So, how do I give you a flavour of a Mediterranean holiday? This is my best shot: Sun, sky, sunshade. It doesn't matter where it was, it was clearly a very nice day :-) A Midsummer night This was taken on the longest day very late at night. This is a time of year I love a great deal, but we pay for it dearly. All those lovely late evenings must be paid for in November and December. I wanted to show the dusk and ...