Ikea’s gnome advert sparks complaints & What happened to the week that was?

I saw this headline this morning and couldnt believe what I was actually reading… “Ikea’s gnome advert sparks complaints” …..The world has gone mad !! Lets face it, is this all we have to complain about? I doubt it. I, for one could complain about the weather until the cows come home. Hang on a wee minute…..is that seen as “anti-cow” seeing as they dont actually live in homes and I may be seen as being cruel. I think not.

Back to the Ikea advert…seriously have we all gone potty. Lets consult the Oxford Dictionary shall we

Gnome

• a legendary dwarfish creature supposed to guard the earth’s treasures underground
• a small garden ornament in the form of a bearded man with a pointed hat.
• informal a small ugly person: a grizzled gnome of a man
• informal a person regarded as having secret or sinister influence in financial matters:the gnomes of Zurich

Yes, we have gone barking mad…We obviously have nothing better to do? Next will be someone suggesting that the legendary dwarfish creature should now be compensated for the slanderish remarks on a Swedish furniture stores television campaign. Injury Lawyers for you are now going to be inundated with phone calls from Gnomes all over Europe saying that a former relative has been crushed on live television in a bid to “big-up” gardens this summer. It’s just not going to wash is it? Seriously. If you are keen on seeing the rest of this article then the link to the BBC is here. I, on the other hand will refrain from dwelling on the “”small” subject and move on to the week that wasn’t. I had better be careful, as remarks like that will get me in trouble…I mean, who would ever suggest that a gnome was small…. tut tut. Moving on……

And that’s exactly what is was. A nothing week in terms of photography and weather that until Monday was up and down like the umbrellas that people actually needed to avoid it. After sitting in the garden on the 26th and 27th of May its has been quite unsettled. The opportunities to get out and about with the camera have been very limited however I did manage a trip to the airport for a few  “dull” looking frames but as a whole that was it.

I found it quite frustrating to be truthful. The few sunny days have been consumed by other matters from meeting friends, visiting family and a void of forgettable events. At the end of the day when opportunities arrive I found myself exhausted and photography at the bottom of the pile. This is normal and I should really be used to it by now. I am too much like my father and grandfather when it comes to the weather and knowing that I have mentioned this before I wont rattle down that road again. I think the next time it rains I will get Elaine to take a photo of me….Yes I will do that.

So the week merged in to a fuzzy clump and I hoped that this one would be better. Maybe the end of May would bring in “flaming” June. My hopes and plans came to fruition. Monday was lovely and yesterday wasn’t too bad either. The whole of May saw just 861 RAW images from my cameras; compared to 2012 this is down by around 60%. The running total for 2013 is also down by a similar percentage. Not good. Back to Monday and a day out in Bronte Country saw 151 frames in a couple of hours; mmm there is hope I thought. That was equivalent to 1/6th of May’s images all in a single day. I was on a roll as Tuesday saw more sunshine and I seized the opportunity with a quick wander up to the Dam closely followed by a lovely sunset from Rawdon Billing. Here I am up to 503 images and its only the 5th June….keep it up Mark.

As we approach the time of the year where the sun moves in the opposite direction at sunrise (21st June) I find it very difficult to grab the sunset and sunrise on consecutive days. For instance, June the 21st sunrise will be at 04:35 and sunset will be 21:41 the previous evening. Going to bed at 23:30 really limits the amount of sleep gained to about 4 hours and the result is a very unwell “me”. Monday saw me trying to do this, and failing miserably. I set the alarm for 03:15 to get up and head over the valley to Denholme. Why you ask? Well, facing east from the back of Denholme an image can be composed of the Wind Turbines against the sunrise. Trying to kill two birds with one stone (hang on a minute, is that statement going to land me in trouble) I planned on visiting Haworth which is just down the road after the sunrise. Anyway, it never happened. It nearly did…the alarm rang at 03:15 and one gaze out of the window sent my head back towards the pillow. It wasnt the weather or the view that did this, it was just sheer tiredness. This is one that will live to fight another day.

The view above shows the wind farm at Denholme on a Sunny day in June 2010. I am sure you are seeing where I was coming from with the sunrise. After sleeping in and eventually discovering that I had missed an awesome sunrise (again) I decided to head over to Haworth after lunch. I will write a separate piece about this later as there was lots to see….

Thanks for reading, and not forgetting me. I always feel that “not blogging” reduces your viewing but I guess it doesn’t really matter anyway.

Bye for now.

P.S. No Gnomes were harmed in the writing of this piece….just saying.

BBC Look North Weather… Blink

I missed it !!! I havent sent the local BBC weather programmes an image for a while so after the success of the recent sunrises I took a chance. I uploaded it quite late in the day and it wasn’t until I got several messages from friends and relatives did it become apparent that I had missed it. It may have only been on-screen for a few seconds, but I had done it….with a sunrise too.

Sunrises and sunsets are quite a clichéd subject with the photographic community; something that appears to have been well trodden if you know what I mean. Unless you can come up with something a little bit special your image would normally be cast aside and placed on the pile labelled “normal”. I know this, I have been there, done it and obtained the T-shirt….more than once.

In this day and age (I hate that expression really) any publicity involving your own images is normally a good thing and something we can sometimes capitalise on; not just financially but as a medium for making progress in this dog-eat-dog world we come across as photographers every day.

Keep on taking the photos folks….the weather forecast for West Yorkshire over the next few days is not brilliant. Since when has that stopped you?

Thanks for reading this short post.

They keep coming…but then again, I keep going…

I have discussed this many times in my blog and let me apologise in advance if this is covered territory. I am now going to admit a personal addiction live on the internet. Are you ready? I cannot resist the temptation to photograph the rising or setting sun. If you regularly read this blog you are probably thinking right now “Well that’s nothing we all didn’t know”….and you would be correct, as I have mentioned ir many times prior to this….I appear to be obsessed.

There is something about being outdoors first thing in the morning…it probably stems from doing milk rounds and paper rounds as a boy. The feeling of being the only person up and about, the solitude and the experience of seeing the rising sun as it breaks the horizon. Maybe those are not the best choice of words but they flow from the heart.

Since last months snowfall and prolonged cold snap the opportunities to grab some morning sky shots have been few and far between. With an improvement in the weather and some clear mornings I took the opportunity to get out and attempt to restore that “Morning” feeling.

The position of the rising sun moves quite quickly as the summer months approach. Below is an image showing the calculations for sunrise and sunset. This is a great tool for calculating the position of the sun in unfamiliar locations.

As the sun moves further to the east as the summer approaches it gives me an opportunity to visit my local water feature and obtain images accross the water. There are a few months a year where this opportunity presents itself. Between the months of October and February it is almost impossible as the view of the horizon is restricted.

Moving on to the images from Sunday morning; the weather was ideal, cool and clear but a few scattered clouds. I knew this was a great opportunity. No one likes getting up at 04:45 but sometimes it has to be done. If you have a passion and a fire in your belly then you just go with the flow. I have had this passion for a long time now, I dont need to go in to detail as I already have a page on this blog that details this, please take a look here. I drove the short distance to Yeadon Tarn/Dam in the dark and could already see the sky paling. The view I was about to capture was looking straight down the Tarn towards the end of the airport runway in an easterly direction.

The conditions were perfect, just the prefect combination of cloud and sky, the water was quite still but just rippling slightly to create some interest for the image. The birds were waking up and there was plenty of activity on the water, everything from Gulls to Canada Geese, Swans to Mallard Ducks. Even a lone fox showed interest in the goings on. As the sky started paling it was almost pinpointing the location I should be aiming towards. It was exactly as planned. My ideas were about to come to fruition. The sky changed quite rapidly as 05:10 approached, colours changed every minute and now was my time to shoot. I fired off over one hundred images, some single, others aimed at photostitching in Photoshop later. The opportunities were endless, even after the sun broke the horizon giving way to the daylight more images presented themselves. It was sublime.

Welcome to Sunday Mark….

People say to me….”Don’t you get fed up of taking these images” ….. “No….I don’t…every one is different, just like every day”. Take a look for yourself at the image below……

A Sunrise & A Sunset … all in 10 hours

The low light addiction continues. At last some nice weather….with nobody working in the planning department over the last few days (btw the planning department is fictional and is actually my personal  ideas bank) and the intermittent rain the camera hasnt ventured further than my cupboard. I have actually thrashed around looking for photos to edit and to my horror after playing around with a recent photo I discovered ten gazillion dust spots. With no sensor swabs left I am stuck with the wretched thing in this condition for the time being. Not to worry, the advantages of having a spare camera body.

Last night the sky looked quite promising and opened up a wealth of opportunity for a an evening sky shot. I jumped in the car, drove the couple of miles over to Rawdon and set my stall out. There are one or two vantage points that are not so high in Rawdon, thus allowing some foreground in the frame. Been to high up limits foreground inclusion and getting the foreground makes all the difference; silhouettes are the primary value of this type of low light photography and as much as minimalism has its place this was not todays foray.

Yes, the low light addiction continues and so does my passion for panoramic stitching. I find it irresistible. Just one look over the vista and I am mentally sewing imaginary images together like a digital tailor. Anyway, one to last nights image. At this time of year sunset is at a reasonable time and 8pm I can cope with when a sunrise is planned for the following morning. At the shortest part of the year, a good spell of weather tests my mentality as well as my strength as the time between sunset and sunrise is at its shortest. The time difference on June 21st is only 6 hours 55 minutes. When you deduct travelling time and getting up along with the fact that the best sunrises are usually before the sun breaks the horizon, the best sunsets after the sun actually sets then you can see exactly where I am coming from.

The following image is taken looking almost due west towards the Pennines just after the sun dipped below the horizon. It comprises of three horizontally stitched images. The clouds were moving from right to left very slowly and in my opinion made the whole scene a much more pleasing. If I had my way (which I didn’t) they would have covered much more of the scene.

After the result of Friday evenings offering and the knowledge that fine spell was to continue for the next twenty-four hours at least I planned on an early morning sunrise image-fest. With only 5 hours in bed I was up with the birds at 5am and heading out of the door to this mornings chosen location. A few months back I tried some images from a place called Adel. Adel is a small hamlet in North West Leeds just a few miles from the city centre. It is situated in quite a rural area with a vast array of photographic opportunities. Not only that, something I was in need of….Foreground.

I left home in the dark and drove the 6 miles to the east. The location looks across a plethora of fields each bordered by small thicket and the odd tree scattered for good measure. Awesome material for sunrises. One of the advantages of this location is its’ position in regard to altitude. It is in a valley floor and the expanse to the east is flat too. This is a great place to be for including foreground objects as silhouettes. I was on to a winner and maybe a sunrise and sunset within hours of each other.

I knew exactly where I was heading for, previous visits and Google Earth have a lot to answer for you know. On to the images…in the space of 20 minutes the whole scene changed. It started with a glow of orange that paled in to the blue early morning sky with a few scattered low clouds. It finished with a mass of orange spread across a vista of fields, trees and hedgerow.  Two images are shown below to illustrate the difference twenty minutes can make.

The final image looks quite dark in the foreground but viewed large you can actually see detail. A worthy trip out at both ends of the day even if it did span two dates. Thank you for looking, as usual all comments welcome

Enjoy your weekend.

D-Day….Do it !

The Pain has gradually got worse over the last couple of weeks until it eventually made me sick. In truth I am not sure what actually made me sick. It could have been the excessive medication or the pain, either way it wasnt very nice. So ten days ago I booked a doctor’s appointment to see try get some pain management sorted out once and for all. Ten days to wait for an appointment, what is the world coming too. Ok, Easter had positioned itself right in the middle but what can you do about that. The whole system seems to grind to a halt for that reason yet aircraft still fly, Hospitals still care, Police still patrol and shops still open.

So I carry on, the pain is there but I still…carry..on…. I must, I have a wife and children and I have a purpose too. Otherwise we give up.

I am now going to grumble about the weather again. Yesterday I ventured out early in the frost to be greeted by a very clear but beautiful dawn. Tarnfield Park at sunrise is sublime. Less than half a dozen people are around at 6:00 am and it feels like you have the place to yourself. That is of course if you choose to ignore the abundance of bird life. Yesterdays sunrise was somewhat bland; a distinct lack of clouds to create some colour and the whole image lacked another dimension if you know what I am getting at. It looked more like a small silhouette with an enormous orange to blue graduated filter; something I could have created in two minutes using Photoshop.

Bad news….this morning was exactly the same. This got me thinking so I decided to look back through my archives and in particular last years images from this time. Guess what?

Cloud !! Well, just a little bit. Every image from around this time appears to have very little cloud. I have studied sunrises and sunsets for years and if you look through my pages on here you will see a full article on them.  The temperature has a huge influence on clouds; during sunrise and sunseta good opportunity arises to observe different aspects of clouds. During these periods, changes in the contrast and colour are observed as well as structure of the clouds. Such sunrises and sunsets can develop into some of the most spectacular events that exist in meteorology.

Obviously, sunrise and sunset are mostly noted for the associated changes in the colour of the sky especially around the sun. On some occasions, clouds will also reveal different colour patterns if present around sunrise and sunset. It is very difficult to describe the various colour changes that occur with the different clouds around these times. But there are general stages that are associated with the times from dawn to sunrise and sunset to dusk.

The heights of the clouds have an important influence on the length of times that cloud reflections occur. The higher the cloud, the longer the cloud bases will be able to reflect light. In fact, high clouds will reflect light for periods of up to 30 minutes whilst low clouds will typically reflect light from their bases for around 5 to 10 minutes. The reason for such a vast difference is that lower level clouds near the horizon are much closer to the observer ( around 1 to 15 kilometres away) than clouds at higher levels which may be up to a few hundred kilometres away. The cloud bases of higher clouds therefore reflect light well before sunrise and remain so until just before sunrise. The same situation still applies for sunset but in the opposite order. The process of sunrise and sunset obviously occurs in a set pattern. Let us consider only one level of cloud in the sky. The cloud closest to the horizon will reflect light first. Gradually, clouds further away will also begin reflecting light. The process continues with colours changing from red and pink to yellow although occasionally some blue or violets are also observed. This of course depends on the heights of the cloud and the patterns of their bases.

Now, if combinations of clouds occur, then different patterns will be observed representing the different reflections of light from different levels of clouds in the atmosphere. This means that the higher clouds are still reflecting light from the sunrise for instance and lower level clouds are only observed as darker regions with no light being reflected from their bases. In the case of the lower clouds in particular, their shadows are observed as well as the sun’s rays. This provides the observer with the opportunity to observe the outline structure of the clouds, especially cumuliform clouds with rounded tops such as cumulus.

During sunrise and sunset, even the same types of cloud may appear different in various regions of the sky. Cumulus, for example, will reflect more light at the opposite regions of the sky to that of the sun as compared to cloud closest to the sun. This creates a varied contrast and must be taken into account by observers trying to determine the different types of clouds in the sky.

Sunrise and sunset represent a short period of time where there are changes in the intensity of light and the colour of the sky signifying the transition between day and night. It is important to note that sunrise and sunset occur as a result of the earth’s rotation and not the movement of the sun around the earth. We obviously know the sun does not revolve around the earth. Nevertheless, it is more “convenient” to associate the sun as the object moving across the sky (which is its relative observed motion) especially when referring to and explaining weather concepts.

Both sunrise and sunset reveal changes in the colour and intensity of the sky during the morning and evening respectively. The changes in colour occur due to light passing through the atmosphere being scattered at different frequencies. The frequencies that lie in the spectrum of red will be scattered by light particles more than those frequencies in the blue spectrum. This means that the sky near the sun on the horizon will appear red since the light will be scattered to the observer. On the other hand, red light from the sun whilst it is well above the horizon will be scattered away from the observer. The light from the blue spectrum will be scattered least and hence pass through the atmosphere straight to the observer. The sky therefore during the day will normally appear blue. The light during the period from dawn to sunrise increases in intensity near where the sun will eventually rise and eventually covers the whole sky area. The intensity also increases radially away from the sun’s rising position. It therefore becomes easier for an observer to predict where the sun will rise. The process during sunset occurs in reverse.

Of course there are other factors that influence how sunrises and sunsets vary from one location to another. The latitude is one of the most important factors and is directly associated with the length of sunrises and sunsets. For instance, in the most extreme case, both the north and south pole during their respective summers have 24 hour sunshine just above the horizon and therefore have the longest sunrises at certain times of the year. During winter, the sun is non existant with complete darkness.

Another factor is the altitude. In fact, altitude can influence the appearance of sunrises and sunsets in two ways. First, if the observer is located in high mountains, the sunrise and sunsets may appear earlier or later depending which way the mountain faces . Second, if other areas exist to disturb the pattern of the normal landscape, then this will influence the amount of colour visible during sunrises and sunsets.

I am yet to edit the images from yesterday so this morning’s is at the back of the queue. I will post the image as soon as I can. Breakfast next, then the doctors waiting room. Cross fingers.

Bye for now.

Modems, Mobiles…The Flickr Images

An excuse for a photo session…., a set on Flickr.

Modems, Mobiles & Tablets – Who needs an excuse for a photo session? Well, it would be rude not to……wouldn’t it?

One of my favourite images from last year.

Sunrise | Leeds Bradford Airport – 19th November 2012 – and what a sunrise too…,
a photo by Mark Winterbourne | P H O T O G R A P H Y on Flickr.

This was taken at Cemetery Road, Yeadon looking south-east towards the airport at the rising sun. In November the skies are normally grey but in 2012 we didn’t do too badly. This was probably the best sunrise I saw all year. Capturing the aircraft in the scene made for a combination of my two favourite subjects.

Via Flickr:
A compilation of images, some photostitches and some cropped – Not seen a sunrise as nice as this for many months..some of the images are aviation related as opportunities couldnt be missed. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did shooting them and editing them. Thanks for looking

Two Boeing’s, One Moon & A Sunrise

There are only a few days a year that an image like the one shown above can be obtained with the actual sun behind the tower. The odds are stacked against me as the first week of October is usually poor as in terms of weather. It takes the sun about 4 or 5 days to move from one side to the other at sunrise. The only other opportunity is in early February and once again, at this time of year the weather will either be dull, dark, cloudy and wet or even snowing; or clear sky and no clouds.

Yesterday was very cloudy, but as we all know, the best sunsets and sunrises come with clouds. I chose to stay at home despite glancing out of the window and missed an ideal opportunity. Fridays sunrise was sent packing. This morning I was prepared. I had checked the weather and was ready for a clear frosty morning and the possibility that I would even have to de-ice the car. If you have looked at some of my sunrise images you will know that I like to combine my love of low-light photography with my other passion of aviation. A sunrise shot with a departing aircraft in my opinion, is an awesome spectacle.

It was dark when I left the house at 06:15 and after de-icing the car headed the 1.38 kilometres to my location of choice. From my position near the Cemetery at the end of the runway you have an uninterupted view to the South, South East and East. The weather forecasters had got it spot on this morning; the sky was cloudless apart from half a dozen partially formed vapour trails pointing east; these became apparent at the paling of the sky and glowed orange. The trails were all the early morning inbound flights to mainland Europe from America and Canada and were illuminated at their high altitude by the inconspicuous rising sun.

Aircraft were departing from the airport and creating nice plumes of spray from the wheels on the damp runway. This is always a great opportunity for a couple of shots but with such low light the quality is never going to be high. Based on this information I chose to make the images just like that…Grainy and gravelly. I adjusted the camera controls and made sure the Image stabilizers were switched on and fired off a few frames. My expectations were not high but if you set your standards based on knowledge and experience then you wont be disappointed with your results. There was a Crow sat in the tree next to the cemetery as all I could hear was Caaaw Caaw Caaaw..I looked round and saw it silhouetted against the moon..Great shot went through my mind.. in near darkness, now that’s a challenge. Never to turn down a challenge I lifted the camera and before I could say cheese it was off. I was left with a shot of the trees and the moon. Now, before I decided to drop this image in to the recycle bin looking at it again made me think twice, it had a peculiar feel to it, almost haunting. On that basis I decided edit to the best of my ability and keep it.

The sun slowly began to emerge from behind a mass of distant cloud. An orange glow started to form as the sun rose above the distant bank. It was apparent that the images were going to be nothing special this morning as they were very few flights today and the sky was bland. Time to move on to plan B and think of alternatives.

Plan B in my world, is making something out of very little. The sun had started to rise a lot further to the left of the control tower than I had hoped but this wasnt really unexpected. It was a very dull orange as a result of the atmosphere. We all know that sun light is composed of seven colors — Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red. In the mornings and evenings, when the sun is near the horizon, the rays have to travel about fifty time’s longer path in the atmosphere to reach us than it does in the noon. The dust, smoke and water vapour present in the atmosphere scatter away these colors differently. Violet, indigo and blue are scattered most and red and orange are scattered least. That is why most of these two colors reach our eyes. As a result, the rising and setting sun appears red. I now had the problem of finding suitable foreground for a decent image. When you are stood on high ground this really does present a problem. In the past I have used trees, fences, gravestones (a last resort) and even sheep for silhouettes but today was going to be a none starter. The only item of interest I could use was a bank of trees to the North-East of the terminal building. I even decided to keep the rising sun slap bang centre too… It really was a bland and uninteresting sunrise. I tried to squeeze something out of another shot just down the road with a view over the terminal and control tower but it was fruitless. I will post a link to my images very shortly. Thanks for reading…..Comments welcome as always.

Bananas ! A Faux Pas

Exactly ! Bananas….that’s how Thursday started at Winterbourne Towers. In a nut shell (or Banana skin in this case) I stole my wifes breakfast. Technically speaking it was a “portion” of her breakfast. Well I didn’t know that she wanted a banana in her porridge did I? Elaine never has banana in her porridge, she always has Granola. Having said that so do I. Anyway, to cut a long story short we’ve not had chance to shop this week yet so supplies have been diminishing slowly with Granola and bananas holding on to the top two on the shopping list chart rundown. This is all beyond my awareness as a male by the way. So Thursday commences like any other Thursday.  I got up slightly early to make sure the sunrise wasn’t up to much after yesterdays faux pas. And also because I had agreed to meet my good friend Lee Pirie aka Yorkshire Flyer to have a morning taking aviation images. Two days in a row I hear you say. Yes, its been a while hasn’t it. Anyway, back to the bananas… I am going to try to defend myself here but it’s probably all in vain as I know I was in the wrong. So here goes…My beautiful wife (that’s not a grovel by the way, that’s what I always call her) Elaine was about to put two bowls of Porridge on the table and as usual I pop a sliced banana in my bowl along with a small handful of  Granola. This morning there was only two very small bananas left in the fruit bowl so I grabbed them both thinking that wasn’t greedy as they were significantly smaller than normal and proceeded to slice them whilst sat at the table.  After Elaine had placed the bowls on the table a brief statement to the words of “Oh there’s no bananas.. err … there were some bananas” came out of her mouth with a comical glance in my direction. Yes, I know, I was guilty. I just didn’t know….. “I’ll just have porridge then shall I” she said….We laugh about things like this, because life is way too short. I did offer Elaine my bowl before you ask.

Despite the Faux Pas at breakfast Elaine was still communicating with me, that was until the second slip up of the day. Elaine has been very fortunate to have been granted a place in this years BUPA Great North Run. My wife is what I would call a serious, casual runner. You know what I mean, she doesn’t go running twice a day and spend 32.5 hours in the gym and she doesn’t need a rub down from a bronzed Italian masseuse afterwards. Elaine runs to a plan; she has a set routine in place for the countdown to the GNR and she’s sticking too it. I have to give her credit as her running is something that has evolved over the last few years and I am extremely proud of her. I never thought I would see someone diagnosed with Asthma run the way she does.  Anyway, before I set off to meet Lee this morning Elaine informed me that she was going running. Now, I don’t have the best memory in the world, but it might have helped if I had listened instead of drifting off in to Winterbourne-Land and thinking of aviation and photography. Half an hour in to my photography I received an email on my phone asking for further details regarding an issue I had with a website I am looking after. Now I knew these details were on my desk at home and instead of being patient and waiting until I actually got home, I did what I always do and ring my beautiful wife, only this time Elaine was 5 miles from home and half way through her training plan.The  only way of answering the phone was to stop her in-ear coach and take my call. Well, I didn’t know did I? I should have listened. I actually rang twice, because she didn’t answer first time which I think made things worse. When I finally did get to talk to her I found out that I wasnt the only one that had rung and I was reliably informed that her morning run was crumbling beneath her feet. I’m truly sorry Elaine……lol 🙂

On to the important bits…. My great friend Lee Pirie, (before you go any further please have a read of Lee’s Bio here because this guy is the salt of the earth and what you would call a real true friend. You know what I mean, someone who would do anything for you and you would do the same back ). Lee loves his photography just like me and with the weather being so nice it was an ideal opportunity to get up to the airport. Lee expressed his desire to get some photographs of this mornings Thomson Holidays flight as it departed. So that was it, the stage was set. Cloudless skies, wall to wall blue and sunshine..yeehaa..a photographers best friend. In winter the sun rises almost in the south-east and this leaves a bit of a problem at Leeds Bradford Airport as it means shooting in to the sun. Who cares !! this is No Rules No Limits Photography … so we did.

Jet2 Boeing 737 departing Leeds Bradford Airport

As you can see from the shot above, the images do require a little bit of attention once you get them in to the computer. But they do give an impression of what it was like. I really like seeing the heat from the back of the engines in shots like this, it really provides atmosphere. We arrived at the end of the runway just in time for the Thomson flight and with the view down the runway looking direct in to the morning sun it was going to be a similar effort to the one above.

Thomson Boeing 757 rotating off runway 32 at Leeds Bradford Airport

It was, in fact it was almost an exact replica. What happened next was very strange and it took a couple of minutes to sink in what had actually happened. As the aircraft passed overhead and climbed in to the Yorkshire sky it started to snow. Seriously. Lee and I looked at each other in disbelief. There were no clouds and the sun was shining.  You could see the snow, feel the snow it was very strange. Before I had time to take it in, it had stopped. The only explanation I could muster up was that it had blown off the wings of the departing 757 and it was actually small ice crystals and not snow. Who knows.

It was a slow morning  at Leeds as aircraft movements were limited but we had a great time and I managed to tap off just under a hundred frames. It was also great to catch up with Lee again, I am just hoping it wont be as long before we get together again. Thanks Lee.

On a final note….Yes, we have no bananas, we have no bananas today…..

Skyline 2013 (No.1)

Sunset from Yeadon – 8th February 2013

Its been quite a scarce thing has the sunset in Leeds over the last few weeks. The weather certainly hasn’t helped on that front but when you compare it to last year January was pretty good when it came to available light for photography. One hundred and sixty-eight images posted to Flickr for the month. As opposed to the seventy-four from this year that’s a stark contrast for me. Above is the view from my living room window, during the months of September through to March I can see the setting sun. Out of those dates the sun sets too far to the north and west to be visible.  If you like sunsets and the colour of the sky, why not take a look at a complete set of my low light images here – Any comments will be most welcome. Enjoy