Life Observed

My researches show that the average densiity of the universe is about one atom per cubic meter.  That isn't very much, is it? I mean, there's an awful lot of atoms in a galaxy and there are an awful lot of galaxies. In that case there must be awful awful lot of very empty space. Then I got to thinking, how do you measure the density of the universe anyway?  Oh yes. First you measure its volume then you weigh it. Simples.

Orion marches across the sky over the village at midnight.  Some things don't change, some do. The stars are the same, but these days there are plenty of rooms available at the Inn. But what is that bright blue star below and to the left?  Surely it cannot be Sirius.

Dark skies over the Mediterranean.  I was hoping I would get a spectacular Milky Way photo with my twenty second exposure. However I discovered that the 12mm wide angle lens was nowhere near wide enough. I also found the 20 seconds isn't really long enough, and it you expose for longer the stars start to streak. On the good side, my improvised lentil bag worked well and saved the weight and inconvenience of a tripod* I also found that the sky isn't dark enough. You need to be up a mountain away from the damp air by the sea and miles from any sort of street light. *Who takes a tripod on holiday anyway?

Apparently the Moon has an agenda of its own. It wanders the heavens looking for interesting stuff, and every now and then these wanderings bring it into our back yard. When this combines with a full moon you get a particularly impressive sight. As I say, apparently. So it was this last weekend: It hung in the air like a large round hangy thing. Yes, I did deal with this topic before: Here's an example...

It's dark at breakfast, dark at tea, And in between we only see Clouds hurrying across the sky And rain-wet roads the wind blows dry From a poem by John Betjemen, a worthy pencil squeezer or I'm a Dutchman.

Twenty nine of your Celsius degrees is forecast. Is that too hot for you?  Perhaps this will help you chill out: The day I took this picture it was probably an uncomfortable minus three degrees with a twenty mph wind. We are not very well adapted to the universe, temperature wise, are we? For us, too cold is 270K and too hot is 300K. When you consider the Sun's corona temperature exceeds a million degrees K, perhaps we should get out more.

Standing out amongst all the fluffly round things, here's some Mare's Tails Cirrus clouds. They look man made: Like a badly drawn chalk mark across the sky. Maybe, like crops marks, they are a message from aliens.  Yes. That's what it is, a message from aliens. "Stop looking up here and get back to work"

Ah, now here we have proper weather. Traditional Summer in the Lake District. The cloud is so low the cows lie down so they can see each other...

Contrast can be a good thing. Look at the way this sky and land panorama (click to see the full size scene) is defined by the contrast between the gathering storm and the yellow crop. It's just another photographer's trick...

I found this glowering Cumulus cloud towering over the village recently. The contrast between the sunny day and potential thunderstorm seemed well worthy of a photograph.  The counterchange (a term and technique used by watercolour painters) of bright wet roof and dark cloud was a nice little bonus. No photographers were dampened in taking this picture.

Cold dry air that overlays warm damp air leads to unstable cloud behaviour. Cumulus clouds develop and rise into the colder air, and latent heat is released as water vapour condenses. The resulting updraught lifts more damp air and the characteristic white cauliflower shape bursts upwards until it can get no higher and an anvil shape starts to form. So little light penetrates these huge clouds that it turns quite dark underneath, a sign that all is not well overhead. These conditions create vast amounts of condensed water in the form of droplets or ice high in the cloud. This in turn gives rise to sudden downpours and even thunderstorms. The uplift in these towering clouds is balanced by descending cold dry air, giving the patches of blue sky. This produced the characteristic "sunshine and showers" cold front forecast. I hope your clothes and camera are showerproof...

A biting cold westerly wind greeted me yesterday on by short walk round the village. Westerlies are not generally cold, so there must be something odd going on up there. Here's a big sky picture aided by my new ultrawide* lens . If you place the horizon at the bottom of the frame, then the view at the top of the frame is almost directly overhead. I rather like the range of colours in this one. Even at this time of year the Sun can still show the promise of warmth for the months to come. *If this lens were any wider, there would be a danger of getting your ears in every shot :-)

Point your lens at the sunset. Add some choppy waves, include an inexplicable element in the form of a seagull and let the lighting work its magic. Contre Jour or Carpe Diem?

Well, out on the river Blyth actually. This is Ferrywoman Dani Church plying her historic Walberswick ferry this summer. We used the service to cross over to Walberswick for a walk and a cup of tea yesterday. A hand rowed ferry: No motor to disturb the peace, and a chance to talk to the ferryman/woman instead. This is typical of the quirky, odd and edge of empire feel to these towns at the Eastern edge of Britain. The pace of life is slower, especially out of season. Their relative isolation at the end of the A12 and the ever present threat of flooding or invasion from the North Sea lends these places a temporary but determined feel. Excellent. Long may it continue...

Battling it out in the skies over Hampshire yesterday were G-RAIR and G-ZENN. In fact this particular thermal was home to ten gliders for a short time. There has been some sort of national championship going on. Well, it proves to be impossible to get an arty picture of ten gliders because they spread themselves out so much, so I concentrated on these two. As far as composition goes, that's more a matter of timing than anything else... However I do maintain that the hint of cloud in the corner makes this picture. Two gliders on a plain blue background is a great deal less satisfying.

The recent rain brought the harvest to a temporary halt, and for a moment you could see fields lying half cut all around the village. You can't work when the soil is wet, the combine harvesters prefer firm ground. If the crop has too much moisture it may germinate in storage which is also a bad idea. With this picture I was looking for the right lighting, the combination of three colours and  of course, the shapes left by the combine. This enforced pause won't last long. As soon as the moisture has subsided the big machines will be back. Here's a panorama of the valley near the village one morning. The graceful lines of straw left by the harvester serve to emphasis the sweep of the ground. Click for larger version...

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.  

Finally a feast of four images that benefit from a square crop, in my opinion. Fistly, an avenue of light and shade in a horse paddock on the farm where I work. Sea defences at picturesque Walberswick in Suffolk. Ignore the nuclear power station on the horizon, ok? An approaching summer storm in North Hampshire On the beach at St Ives in Cornwall Viewers should note that Normal Format will be resumed as soon as possible.

Just a moment from seven years ago. I caught the walker on a Wiltshire hillside outlined against the sky. Are they composing a pocket book of poetry, inspired by the astonishing view. Or are they heads down, fiddling with their iphone like most people these days? I wander lonely as a cloud I feel the peace that silence brings. Distanced from the madding crowd: When all at once an iPhone rings.. It speaks of "recent accident" I don't recall, I feel no pain. But then I am reminded of - my long lost compensation claim... (No it can't be an iphone, it hadn't been invented then. Let's imagine it was a book of poetry shall we..)

Here's a mean and moody shot of a storm threatened crop.  Well, all is not quite what it seems, as I took my portable sunshine with me and created the mood myself. It was an overcast day, but I felt the look needed enhancing. This is a standard strobist trick. I used an off camera flash to put light down onto the corn from overhead, giving the look of a shaft of sunlight. It is then just a matter of adjusting the flash power and the camera exposure so that the background goes dark while the foreground is over-lit. The trick can also be used in a more subtle manner. In this case the post box has a small splash of light to lift it, while the background is once again allowed to be dark and brooding. In addition to the lighting trick, narrow depth of field also separates the post box from it's background.