sunsets

Sunsets: 19 days that ended memorably

/ mikeosbornphoto / 11 Comments

A week of lively weather here in the UK has resulted in a run of spectacular sunsets.

It made me think about the many sundowners I’ve captured over the years, close to home in Manchester and on my travels.

This collection brings together the sunsets I always remember and can almost feel to this day.

Anyone who doesn’t marvel at a sunset is missing a piece of their humanity. Do you agree?

Tap/click first image for gallery view

Dramatic sunset looking towards Salford

And here’s the latest memorable sunset from this week. I was looking across to the growing skyline of Salford with the water of the Bridgewater Canal in the foreground. Very stormy skies for the middle of May.

Link to mikeosbornphoto's Instagram account

Moving sky

/ mikeosbornphoto / 10 Comments
Click first image to view the photographs

Gallery entrance

I look at the summer skies over my home in Shepherds Bush, west London, every day. Clouds fly across cobalt blue and rich dusky sunsets happen on even bad weather days.

My aim was to capture some of this movement, using a tripod and a neutral density (ND) filter. This keeps out most of the light and enables you to lengthen exposures even in bright conditions. This was just a stuttering start to show some of the motion of the clouds. The result appears milky and quite blurry, while foreground objects – such as a pigeon graciously sitting on an aerial mast – retain their clarity.

I haven’t decided whether I like the motion blur effect, or if it would be more impressive with a much bigger sky and very long exposures. Time to experiment further, I think…

Evening rush hour

Moving sky

The photo below was a regular exposure, but sky porn too good not to include, with its smoky pink puffs of cloud and aircraft trails picked out by a blazing evening sun.

Trailing the pink

2014 moments #3

/ mikeosbornphoto / 7 Comments

I would like to share my 10 most memorable photographs of the year over the coming days with you. These are shots that I am particularly proud of, while each evokes a sense of place and meaning from 2014.

Pink Freedom

PINK FREEDOM

This was just one photograph from a weekend in the Hungarian capital Budapest. The elegant Freedom Bridge, which spans the Danube, is framed in a glowing pink sunset. It’s a shot that embraces the architecture of a wonderful city, offering so much for the photographer and traveller alike.

The Photo Shop

A tale of two skies

/ mikeosbornphoto / 6 Comments

Dorville at sundown

Anger

Britain is an island of tempestuousness at the moment. Sultry air has been pushing in from the south, leading to dramatic thunderstorms. While many people have been capturing impressive lightning strikes, I photographed what threatened to be the prelude to a storm.

On one side of the sky, there was beautifully pink-tinged sundown. But on the other side swirled dark, foreboding clouds. They eventually came to dominate the rooftops over my west London street, sweeping the tranquil sunset away. There was an impressive shower of rain, but the full sound and light show seemed to pass us by this time.

Everyone loves a sunset, but I am taken with the texture of the black clouds. Which do you prefer?…

Click first image to launch the gallery

Gallery entrance

London’s burning

/ mikeosbornphoto / 6 Comments

Thankfully, it isn’t really. But this week a string of spectacular sunsets have graced the capital, and I was lucky enough to capture one very close to my west London home. In this corner of the city, it’s hard to see a full view of the horizon, but this sundown swept high into the sky with plumes of glorious burnt orange.

Perhaps not as full-fledged and glorious as a recent Canary Islands sunset I witnessed from the top of a bell tower, but somehow it’s more impressive in your own neighbourhood.

Burning duskI felt another shot sporting much more silhouette was ripe for conversion to monochrome with a dramatic red filter which packs the contrast home with a punch. As ever, evening skyscapes never fail to delight.

Desaturated dusk