Posted in Photo of the Day, tagged church, city, clouds, Europe, outline, silhouette, sky, skyline, sun, sunset on March 30, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
“Sunset Silhouette” : Porto, 10th September 2011
When I took this photograph I didn’t think that it would turn out to be anything special, but now I come to process and publish it, it suddenly seems as though it’s one of my best. Strange how things sometimes turn out that way…
You can see a larger version of this photo here.
Posted in Photo of the Day, tagged architecture, evening, panorama, Porto, Portugal, skyline, sunset, urban on March 29, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
“Porto Afternoon” : Porto, 10th September 2011
The clouds and rain having withdrawn, I was granted a couple of hours in the late afternoon to get out and record the last parts of Porto I hadn’t yet photographed.
Here, with my back to the river, I could survey the entire town between the two large church spires on the horizon.
Right at my feet were a charming row of tiled Portuguese houses, a little worn at the edges, and home to some colourful characters, with the dying sunlight striking the most attractive building…
Not a perfect composition by any means, and none too revolutionary, but I’m very pleased with how it turned out.
You can see a larger version of this photo here.
Posted in Photo of the Day, tagged branch, dry, Hiroshima, leaf, Nikon, season, sunset, tree, twig, winter on February 14, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
“Winter Skeletons” : Hiroshima, 4th December 2010
Late afternoon, just over a year ago, and I went out to test my then new Nikon D7000.
I climbed up Ogonzan, a local hill which commands great views over the Inland Sea and the city, and is reputed to house the villas of yakuza kingpins.
I survived unscathed and took a number of sunset landscape shots before noticing this forlorn leaf cling to the skeletal remains of a tree, bathed in the amber glow of the sunset, and thought it made a great symbol of the stark beauty of winter.
This shot is straight out of the camera, with no cropping or post-processing whatsoever.
Check out a larger version of it here.
Posted in Photo of the Day, tagged insect, macro, nature, photography, rainbow, spider, sun, sunset, web on February 8, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
“Sunset Spider’s Web” : Hiroshima, 21st July 2010
This is one of those great photo opportunities that appears out of nowhere when you’re least expecting it.
I wasn’t in any exotic location, and I wasn’t doing anything exciting, I was merely bringing in the laundry from the yard when I noticed how the sinking sun was producing beautiful rainbow colours in the spider’s web.
I rushed in, unceremoniously dumped the washing in a heap on the floor, grabbed the Nikon and charged out again, lest the moment be lost.
Not only do we have the spider here, we also have what appears to be a grisly corpse, which looks to me like another arachnid. Could it be that this was one of those famous occasions when the female kills the male after mating?
Have a look at a larger version of this image by clicking here.
Posted in Photo of the Day, tagged clouds, Japan, sky, storm, sunset, typhoon, weather, wispy on November 25, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
“Competing Clouds at Sunset” : Hiroshima, Japan, 25th October 2011
At the end of the summer Japan runs into typhoon season, and while there isn’t much fun to be had in weather systems which at best cause transport delays, at worst, loss of life, there are still some great photographic opportunities to be had.
This is one of only two new pictures I’ve produced since early September.
I can’t remember if the typhoon had passed or was on its way, but I glanced out of the window and saw this unusual sight.
Rushing out onto the balcony of my house I was able to capture these two competing cloud formations, the dark grey in the foreground heading one way and the more distant red in the other, both at considerable speed.
You may wonder why I chose such a strange aspect ratio for this particular image. Well, it wasn’t out of any artistic considerations, but because the lower portion of the sky was full of the overhead electrical and communication cables the Japanese are so fond of suspending everywhere, restricting my view considerably.
Luckily this particular typhoon didn’t pass directly over us, so there was no local damage.
You should really check out the larger version of this photo here.
Posted in Photo of the Day, tagged cityscape, photo, photography, reflection, silhouette, skyline, skyscraper, sunset on August 2, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Sometimes we’re so intent on what’s ahead of us that we miss something wonderful in the opposite direction.
That was nearly the case on a crisp winter day last December as I headed into town with the camera, head full of ideas for things to photograph, never thinking that turning around and facing the sun might actually produce something of value.
We get so used to wanting the sun behind us or to the side to provide the perfect lighting for our subjects, that we forget that shooting into the sun lends itself to the intriguing world of the silhouette…
As chance would have it, I glanced over my shoulder and discovered this unexpected view.
The moral of the tale : keep your eyes peeled at all times.
A larger version of this picture can viewed here at my dedicated website and store, Andy Lightfoot Photography.
Posted in Photo of the Day, tagged clouds, photo, photography, sky, storm, sunlight, sunset on July 26, 2011 | 5 Comments »
I’ve been photographing clouds a lot this last week, and there were some really dramatic skies, but somehow nothing came out right, and no amount of post-processing could make it otherwise.
So, here’s a shot I took exactly one year ago from the balcony of my house, looking west towards the city centre. The textures and tones here are wild, and I doubt I’ll ever top this for drama.
I sometimes think this one needs to be cropped at the right, but doing so seems to diminish it, even though the composition looks a little off.
This one really benefits from a closer look, so click on the image or here for a larger, higher resolution version.
Posted in Photo of the Day, tagged "rice field", 18-200mm, cultivate, harvest, HDR, image, Japan, Japanese, Nikon D7000, oriental, paddy, photo, photograph, photography, Photomatix, plants, reflection, rice, sunset, zoom on June 9, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I have to walk along a narrow path next to a rice paddy to get to my house. I’d often noticed that at times the clouds reflected in the water might make a good picture, but yesterday it was particularly suitable: a ruddy sunset beginning, and the rice plants were verdant. I grabbed the camera, came out again and took a series of bracketed shots, then put them into Photomatix Pro to merge them into an HDR composite, and this was the result.
A larger version of this picture can viewed here at my dedicated website and store, Andy Lightfoot Photography.
Posted in Photo of the Day, tagged Bergen, cityscape, clouds, evening, landscape, Norway, photograph, photography, silhouette, sky, skyline, sunburst, sunset on March 4, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
An evening in Bergen, Norway, September 2006 provided me with this amazing sunset: photographers prefer clouds rather than pure blue sky sometimes…
A larger version of this picture can viewed here at my dedicated website and store, Andy Lightfoot Photography.
