Maldon

British Summer Time

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Summer Time, winter sky

The first sunset of British Summer Time, when the clocks turn forward. The nights become lighter, so this sundown developed later. But while taking in the view from the open bedroom window of my mother’s Essex house, I was struck by two things – firstly, the raw winter chill continues to prevail.

Secondly, the purple cloud band and fiery orange and pinks are similar to a sunset I once captured from London’s Hampstead Heath – on New Year’s Day. These colours are also full of northerly chill, without the promise of a balmy evening. When will that arrive?…

Second chance gallery

/ mikeosbornphoto / 15 Comments

This happens to all photographers. You take some shots and they never see the light of day. For me, it’s usually because they don’t quite fit into the theme of a post or they’ve simply been overlooked.

Here is a selection of photographs from recent sessions in various locations which I’ve finally lavished with some care and attention. This is a post without a common thread, apart from giving some life to shots which didn’t quite fit at the time.

Click first image to launch the gallery

The remains of the day

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Another weekend was spent in the Essex riverside town of Maldon for a family celebration. I always walk down to the edge of the Blackwater, camera in hand. The landscape and light are always different from the last time.

The afternoon was marching on, and the sun was ebbing away in the distance with a pleasing amount of fire, silhouetting the mature trees of Promenade Park.

Tree skyscape

After this shot, I swung my camera in the opposite direction, at the river, the many boats and tall rigging. While the sunset was dramatic and fiery, the Blackwater was crisp, calm, blue and swallowing the final light of the day. It could be another place, a different time…

Blackwater at dusk

The feathered on film

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I’m no wildlife photographer. For a start, it’s pretty thin on the ground here in west London and it isn’t one of my favourite photographic subjects.

But from time to time, birds make their way into a frame – and some are quite captivating. For me, it’s mostly the gulls along the Thames along with the odd cormorant with its wings outstretched, and the wild fowl that inhabit my home town of Maldon in Essex.

Of course I can’t forget the majestic swan bobbing along in the city parks and rivers where I find myself with camera in hand. In this set there is a gull looking out to sea in Redcliffe, a coastal suburb of Brisbane in Australia. It’s the one bird capture which had human essence…

Click on the first image to launch the full-size gallery

Gold on mud

/ mikeosbornphoto / 4 Comments

The sun was lowering and the tide out on an evening by Maldon’s River Blackwater in Essex. The waterway is notoriously muddy at low tide, and the town is famous for its annual mud race – a messy and sticky event.

But there were very few people around on this occasion, and I was able to walk down the ramp from the bank to take this shot. Just a couple of birds sit calm by the distant water, while the sunlight catches golden flecks across the layers of mud. A combination of factors to make a beautiful sight.

See also:

Stripped sky

Riverside gem