Magic Hour in Yorkshire

I took this frame in the late afternoon/early evening of a day in November, 2007, from the window of a moving train on the Esk Valley line between Middlesbrough and Whitby. After many grey skies and soft exposures on my 2007 UK trip, the sun finally—momentarily—came out, and I shot as much as I could, The train windows were not the cleanest, and the internal lights reflected in the glass, so I was constantly trying to find an angle to both catch the scene and exclude reflections. This one has an almost painting-like feel: the softness of even the direct light as “golden hour” progresses—note the length of the tree shadow—and the inherent autumn sombreness combining to create an emotionally evocative image. I left Whitby the next morning, going up the coast to Sunderland, and the light and feel of the next batch of shots is completely different. “Magic hour” indeed! (Just a little contrast work, and one click sharp.) Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

A Grim Magnificence

November 2007 seems such a long time ago! I took this image in Welford Rd. Cemetery, Leicester, UK, across the road from Leicester University, where I was doing a fieldwork survey for my PhD, supervising senior students who were gaining fieldwork course credits by assisting me with the data collection. We had worked through the afternoon, and early evening was coming down by four o’clock or so. The lighting quality created such a painting-like feel, I couldn’t resist grabbing some scenic shots among the dry record images of the gravestones, and as evening progressed the skyscape over the ivy-grown monuments developed a very Gothic feel. Catching detail in the foreground was down to how the chip handled the conditions, and the old Fuji S5600 has always been very good in this respect. I featured one or two shots from my Leicester stopover many years ago, back in the first incarnation of this site. Contrast, gamma and colour were slightly adjusted in Irfanview, otherwise this is just how it looked on the day. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike

Small Harbour

Tour boats at moor, Endeavour Wharf, Whitby, England, November 17^th, 2006. The weather was overcast, as you’d expect so late in the year—note the Christmas decorations are up on the lamp posts. Conditions were not the sort that give you bright, sharp pictures, but I shot what presented itself and there was usually something of interest, if not of earth-shaking photographic merit. This was my first UK trip, to attend a conference at the University of Sunderland, and my first time on British soil in 36 years. I stayed three weeks or so and had a wonderful time, taking 1481 frames in the process. This is not a lot by some standards, I know! Contrast, brightness and colour were adjusted in Irfanview. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Evening Storm

I captured this frame two years and one day ago—September 11^th, 2022. A simple shot, looking west over the back garden hedges, of a storm front moving up from the gulf. This is one of those occasions when nature presents you with a spectacle and says “catch me!” I took a long series of frames that evening, but this one has a strange purple hue to the light that is so effective, so unusual. I could have processed it out, but that’s what the evening looked like, and that’s what I'm presenting. A tiny touch of contrast enhancement was the only effect applied. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

The Goddess and the Australian Sky

This is the goddess Guan Yin, the 18-metre statue at the Nan Hai Pu Tuo Buddhist Temple at Sellicks Hill, overlooking the Gulf St Vincent. It’s been a landmark for many years (begUn 2011), and construction of the complex is continuing. This frame was taken on April 7^th, 2018, during an expedition down to Victor Harbor and back via Mt Alma, and the weather could not have been more perfect. This shot was not enhanced at all, this is just as it came from the camera. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike. Mm

Reaching for Distance

This shot was an experiment with the high-end of the telephoto range of the camera I was working out at the time. It’s a view from Crowsnest Lookout, on the hills above Victor Harbor and the south coast, with the town of  Middleton (IIRC) in the foreground, taken on April 13th, 2019. That’s the Southern Ocean, with the Coorong barrier beach and Lake Alexandrina in the background. We were into ‘golden hour,’ the sun declining rapidly off to the left. Minor adjustments were made in IrfanView. Fuji FinePix S6500. Image by Mike.

 

Gulls on Painted Water

I love shooting reflections, and sometimes, when you close in on a reflective surface to exclude the ‘real world’ source material of the reflection, the result can become abstract art. Here are seagulls on the placid waters of Whitby harbour, Yorkshire, England, photographed on Sunday, November 7^th, 2010. I had taken a long stroll around town in the afternoon, visited the abbey on the headland, and would soon be shooting the lights after dark, but here the ambient conditions were suspended near the end of day, and the waters picked up this artsy look—almost like an illustration coloured in. Minor-adjustments to contrast and colour only. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Down the Tube to Lanantarn

Yes, I’m a sucker for vanishing point symmetry, it catches my eye and I’ll shoot it whenever I find it! This is the Heathrow Express terminal deep under Heathrow Airport, at 5.33 and 54 seconds (by the electronic signage) on the morning of Sunday, October 31^st, 2010. My plane had just got into Blighty, Customs was a quick process (I remember we were the very first plane load fronting up to the desks for the day!) and I was eastbound for London Town with my luggage. I travelled with the camera round my neck and shot as I went, and all sorts of interesting things appear as one goes. The light was low, of course, so non-moving subjects were preferred (cameras were less fancy in those days, and soaring ISO speeds were a thing of the future). Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Deceptive Woods

Why deceptive? This image excludes anything man-made: one would be forgiven for thinking I was in the depths of a forest when I took this frame, and that’s somewhat true, as the whole region is heavily forested. But there was a town’s main street just behind me. These trees are above the carpark at Aldgate, in the Adelaide Hills, where a walking trail begins, leading a few kilometres to Mylor. The main road, carrying the weight of through-traffic, is below and behind my POV; sun through trees is a favourite theme and composition of mine. This frame was captured on the 15^th of April, 2017. Some minor adjustments were made: colour was increased a little, and gamma correction was used to pull out mid-tone detail from the otherwise harsh contrast. Image by Mike.

 

Sombre Evening Sky

The south end of the Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia, is “big sky” country, long and flat, conducive to appreciating those amazing South Ocean cloudscapes that roll in. This is Clayton Bay, in the lakes region, in the late afternoon of May 26^th, 2018, and a weather front was coming up fast. The scene had a moody atmosphere, spectacular but sombre, and I captured several interesting studies of these clouds over the water. The image is sharpened a tad, squared-up with custom fine rotation, and contrast and colour have been adjusted slightly. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Converging Reflections

Anywhere there’s water, there are reflections, and Playford Lake, at Belair National Park, is a place one can photograph over and over, as the changing weather and differing times of day and year conspire to make the precise nature of the pictures different every time. I took this one on a fairly blah day, May 9^th, 2023, an expedition that took us a few interesting places in the Hills region. The weather had been cloudy and the light soft until the sun broke through at this point, and I was able to grab some studies with far more substance—better colour and contrast, with defined shadows and, above all, reflections. These are the trees on the small island in Playford Lake, a haven for waterbirds, and surely one of the most-photographed islets of its sort. Minimal enhancements, via Irfanview. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Pastel Skies

Been very busy and two weeks have gone by since I posted—so this will be a two-post day. First up, one of these shots you just have to be there to get—this is part of a sequence of images taken out the window at my side on the last leg of my journey home in 2010, capturing the changing tones of the sky and light on the aircraft as the sun came up The sun was rising on the other side of the plane, but I got to see the delicate graduated colours in the sky. Luckily, the temperature and humidity conditions conspired to give me a clean, ice-free window at this point. The view is over the starboard wing of an Airbus A-330, the QANTAS plane Noosa, heading into Adelaide on November 17^th of that year. The frame is almost exactly as it came off the camera. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.