Rain Stops Hike // Cloud Appreciation Society

It's been two months since I was last able to make progress on hiking The Thames Path. The rains have swollen the river so that the path is impassable in many places and impossibly muddy in others. See my blog link (right and linked here).

The Cloud Appreciation Society have today used one of my sunrise photographs (linked here) - taken over Blore in the Peak District on 10th January this year. It's the one below in my 15th January post. It was spectacular, as was another five days earlier.

Roy Harrington's Print-Tool

Roy Harrington has recently released an updated version of his Print-Tool (formerly known as QTR-Print-Tool). It's available from the Print-Tool web page, as is the User Guide which I've written for Roy - linked here. The User Guide is free; Print-Tool costs $39 (USD). If you have any feedback on the User Guide that would make it more clear or more helpful then please email me or Roy.

And ... what is Print-Tool? It's a layout and print application for Mac OS X. Print-Tool features include:

Position and resize multiple images on a page
simple drag and drop images, drag edges and corners

Accepts many formats

• jpg, tif, psd, png, gif
• 8-bit or 16-bit; RGB or grayscale

Print to any print driver

• QuadToneRIP, Epson, Epson ABW, HP

Expanded control of ICC color management

• Off, Application Controlled, System Controlled
• Rendering Intents - Perceptual, Relative, Saturation
• Black Point Compensation
• Soft Proofing

Requires Mac OS X with Intel Processor

• Snow Leopard 10.6.8 - Lion 10.7 - Mountain Lion 10.8 - Mavericks 10.9

Cloud and Sky Landscapes

I've added 10 new images to my website - linked here. Whilst they are mostly landscapes, the sky is the main feature of each image. Here are two:

Dawn Over Eureka Dune - Death Valley

Owens Valley - Sunset Over the Eastern Sierras

Gower - Peak District - Thames Path

On a hike on the Gower on Monday we came across an old 6 foot log washed up on the beach. It was almost completely covered with Goose Barnacles. They are so named for their resemblance to a goose head and the ancient belief that they are embryonic geese. Wild geese generally breed in higher northern latitudes, beyond sight of most people in the middle ages so they never saw them breed - hence their 'theory'. More specifically Barnacle Geese are named after these barnacles due to their head pattern resembling a goose barnacle.

The first week of this year was spent in the Peak District. Not much photography but I did find a few worthwhile images.

And finally - my project to hike the Thames Path is on hold due to there not being too much path to hike. The recent rains have flooded the river throughout much of its non-tidal length and it will take weeks (at least) before the path becomes hike-able once more. Linked here.

Mackerel Sky

Whilst in New Hampshire earlier this month we drove by a lake in which this classic mackerel sky was reflected. No choice but to stop ...

Mackerel Sky - White Mountains - New Hampshire

This is a slightly different rendering of the version published yesterday (linked here) by the Cloud Appreciation Society.

New Images added to my Virtually Grey Gallery

It's been a while since I updated my website. There are now a few new images from New England in October 2013, from Dunstanburgh Castle on the NE coast of England and one from a recent hike on the Wychavon Way. The New England trip was excellent in so many ways but politics in the US managed to shut Acadia National Park over the 5 days we were there! However the lovely White Mountains region in New Hampshire was fully open and the waterfalls there were a real photographic challenge.

Hopefully I'll be able to resume my recently started Thames Path hike shortly after I get my camera back from repair after it developed an intermittent focus problem whilst in the US.  The link to my website's New Images page is here.

Dunstanburgh Sky

Ripple Reeds

Sharp and Silky Water

Surface

Photo-hiking The Thames Path

I've just started a new project - photo-hiking the full length of the Thames Path in both directions (at least 368 miles). The primary objective of my photo-hikes (apart from its helping to keep me reasonably fit) is to seek out things which interest me sufficiently to want to photograph and then to spend time on creating finished versions for screen or print. My photographs may or may not betray the proximity of the River Thames and its path. I've decided to record the whole trip in a blog. It's at:

www.photohikingthethamespath.blogspot.co.uk

where, if all goes to plan there will be an entry for each day that I hike.

Ash Grove

TED Talk about Clouds

I often photograph the sky - it's always available, often interesting and sometimes fascinating. Gavin Pretor-Pinney founded the Cloud Appreciation Society to which many sky watchers, like me, submit photographs. I've been lucky over the last few years to have several of mine published on the CAS website. Recently Gavin gave a talk about clouds at TED Talks in Edinburgh which, the last time I looked, has been viewed over 200,000 times. Do watch it, linked here, it's well worth all of the 11 minutes. I was delighted that he used one of my cumulonimbus photographs as one of his illustrations.

If you've not yet come across TED I would encourage you to take a look. The short talks on and about every subject under the sun are splendid, challenging, inspirational, thought provoking, funny, infuriating, ...

Mono Dunstanburgh Skyscape published by CAS and NASA ESD

My monochrome Dunstanburgh Castle Skyscape (posted just below this) has now been published as Picture of the Day by both the Cloud Appreciation Society (in mid July) and NASA’s Earth Science Division (today). Thank you to both. The images are linked here for CAS and here for NASA ESD.

And these links (here and here) are to their daily refreshed pages where new images from around the world appear every day.

For those interested I have a twitter account @virtuallygrey to notify of any new work or updates to my website or blog. It is only used for my photo stuff - nothing else.

Another Dunstanburgh Castle Skyscape

... just for good measure. Monochrome this time.

Evening Sky over Dunstanburgh Castle

Dunstanburgh Castle

Dunstanburgh Castle is a somewhat hackneyed subject - but, when one's there, it's irresistible. Last week I was staying nearby so took several opportunities to visit both early and late in the day. The first image below was at the time of the 'SuperMoon' which rose over the castle in the middle of the photograph. Unfortunately the distant cloud just beat it so the moon was sadly not revealed. The next two were soon after sunrise a few days later whilst the last two were one more day later just before and then after sunset. The way the sky changes so dramatically over such a short period is a thing of wonder. The timing of the visits and the camera positions were planned with the aid of 'The Photographer's Ephemeris' - an invaluable tool when it comes to needing to know sunset, sunrise, moonset and moonrise times and positions. Unfortunately the app can't help with what clouds will or won't be present ... !

9.40pm on 23 June 2013

4.41am - 27 June 2013

5.10am on 27 June 2013

8.56pm on 28 June 2013

10.02pm on 28 June 2013

Sebastião Salgado's 'Genesis'

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours at Sebastião Salgado's 'Genesis' photography exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London. This is the very best photography exhibition I've ever seen, by far. The subject matter is inspiring, the photographer's stunning compositions are breathtaking (yes, literally), the mostly high contrast full tonal range images are printed to the highest quality most of us can only aspire to, and they are superbly presented in a simple but highly effective gallery space. And of course, they are all monochrome black and white images which serves to intensify the attention each and every image deserves. I couldn't afford one of the 500 £7,000 limited edition books of the exhibition, nor one from the 2,500 less expensive £2,000 limited edition - but I did part with £45 for the 500+ page hard back unlimited edition book of the exhibition

Highly, highly recommended, whether or not you're a photographer.

NASA's Earth Science PoD - 27th March 2013

Delighted to say that NASA have used another of my photographs as today's Earth Science Picture of the Day. It's linked here. It was taken on a recent visit to Madeira which, as it turned out, wasn't very productive photographically.

Levada

There are about 1,000 miles of levadas or irrigation channels on Madeira, many of which are walkable. Some are tiny, like this one in the photograph, whilst others are much larger. They distribute water around the contours of the volcanic island to irrigate the steeply terraced mountainsides on which the island's fruit and vegetables are grown. In places the levadas flow through tunnels, some of which can be walked - a head torch is essential for the longer underground stretches. The picture above is just a few miles to the west of the capital Funchal.

NASA's Earth Science PoD - 2nd February 2013

NASA has posted another of my photographs on their Earth Science Picture of the Day website. It's one from October 2012 of Lone Pine Peak and Mount Whitney taken from in amongst The Alabama Hills in California. Linked - here.

And it looks like they will post another soon taken in Madeira.

Eastern Sierras - California

I spent 3 weeks in October in California photographing at various locations along the Eastern Sierras, Owens Valley, White Mountains and Death Valley. Here are a selection from the trip - the full set are in two galleries on my website - here and here. The last four and the second link are images from a memorable visit to the abandoned gold mining town of Bodie. I have a few more images to work on from the trip (Death Valley in particular) - I'll add them in due course.

Convict Lake Sky

Lembert Dome - Yosemite NP

Aspen Creek

Early Dawn over Lone Pine Peak and Mount Whitney

Bodie-1

Bodie-22

Bodie-26

Bodie-8

North Norfolk Coast

A long weekend trip to North Norfolk yielded several images. The weather started fine but deteriorated over Sunday and Monday into the worst September storm in the UK for 30 years, although this area seemed to miss the worst of it.

Reflections on Holkham

Here comes the rain - with a faint 22 degree sun halo

Blakeney Guildhall

Another Cloud

Thanks to the Cloud Appreciation Society for posting another of my cloud pictures - linked here. It was one of four I published herein a couple of weeks or so ago.

Photograph or Painting - Colour or Mono

Occasionally I'll take a picture that may be ok as a photograph but for me it would make an excellent basis for a painting. This image of a pair of Cedar trees reflected in the lake is a case in point. I can see this as a watercolour in soft pastel shades. Unfortunately I have zero ability when it comes to wielding a paintbrush so this image will stay as a photograph. Am I tempted to cheat by 'artifying' it using photoshoppery or 'art' type filters? Certainly not.

Croome Park Cedars

An alternative that I do like is this monochrome rendition:

Croome Park Cedars

Taken with my pocket S95.

This Week's Sunset Skies

The sky is a source of infinite variety for photography. We've had some splendid evening skies this past week. These four were all taken from near my home at or around sunset on three different evenings.

Worcester - Birmingham Canal - Day 7 - The End

My 60 mile round trip hike is now over and the last few images posted below with the full set on my website - linked here. It's been an exercise in hiking with a light weight digital camera (a 7D) rather than my heavy weight large format 5x4 camera, lenses, film holders etc. And an exercise in getting familiar with taking images mostly for colour rather than my usual B&W. Most enjoyable, and I've now extended my understanding of colour image composition and adjustment in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Just one downside that I've encountered. I'm a cropper when it comes to adjusting aspect ratios of my images. I don't subscribe to the practice of presenting images only in the format of the camera used; I crop my images to any aspect ratio I choose. But several times I've almost come a cropper in a different sense. Canal towpaths are popular not only with walkers but with cyclists too, many of whom are travelling at full speed. Unfortunately, only a small proportion of cyclists give due consideration to walkers when approaching. They often approach at speed from behind without ringing a cycle bell and without slowing down to a safe passing speed. As their approach is almost always silent the shock as they hurtle past millimetres from colliding is disconcerting to say the least, and often very dangerous on the usually narrow towpaths for both walkers and for themselves. So, a plea to cyclists on towpaths - please slow down when passing walkers, get a bell and use it to warn of your approach. And thank you to those of you who are already considerate to your fellow towpath users.

Edgbaston Tunnel

Jogger

New Birmingham Library