Sunset (exposure)

Posted on January 10, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Exposure, Landscape, Life, Photos, SunsetLeave a comment

Have you tried moving your camera when you take a photo of the sky? When the sun is rising or setting people generally take photos of the landscape in the direction of the setting sun. Much more dramatic than the other direction. But include too much sky and the light entering the camera can be too much causing over exposure. Include more land and less sky and the sunset colours emerge more clearly.

By including more land the cameras automatic exposure changes. The area in silhouette may even reveal more detail than if you aim more at the sky. Also remember, if you have a crop tool on your camera you can remove part of the landscape while leaving the sky.

The only difference in these two photos is that I moved between the first and the second and I included more land in the second one.

Sunset sketch

Posted on December 29, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Artrage oils, Colours, Doodling, Drawing, Evening, impression, Picture, Purple and orange, Sketch, SunsetLeave a comment

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I wanted to do a colourful sketch of the sunset which was all oranges and purples. I can’t get it exactly right as it is drawn in ArtRage oils, basically it’s a finger painting. I got the idea from a photo by a friend on a Facebook page, but as it’s just an impression there is no point in sharing the photo as this is much more impressionistic than the original.

Sunset over Alsager Mere

Posted on December 4, 2019December 4, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Alsager mere, Colour, Light, Photographs, Silhouette, Staffordshire, Sun, SunsetLeave a comment

It doesn’t get more spectacular, looking out over the mere as the sun set, changing from orange and blue to a peach and rosy purple. It was a long day but enjoyable.

It’s interesting that on Mars the sky is red with dust in the daytime, then the sun sets and the sky turns blue.

I live on the wrong side of the hill so that I don’t get to see sunsets very often. It was lovely to see this.

Sunset over the mere

Posted on November 26, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Fish, Mere, Pike, Predator, Short story, Sunset, Very short story, WaterLeave a comment

The clouds lifted over the mere as the sun set. For about five minutes it stopped raining and the drumming on the roof eased. The mere was almost invisible in the darkening evening. The only indication of it were reflections of house lights on the waters surface.

One strange ripple broke the surface. The wake of something moved across the glassy water of the mere.

A duck was heading for its nest for the night. Snap! It was gone.

A few feathers were all that were left.

The ripples stopped as the predator sank deeper. Patrolling now up and down the bank, a snap here, a snuck there, finding food…. The Pike picked its prey carefully.

Clocks, going back tomorrow night.

Posted on October 26, 2019October 26, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged British summer time, Clock, Clocks go back, Daylight saving, Depressing, Sunset, Time7 Comments

I live in the UK and the clocks are due to go back at two am tomorrow night, that means :

Advantage… Extra hour in bed

Disadvantage….. The sun sets an hour earlier. The winter blues set in. I hate it when the sun sets before 5pm. It takes ages for it to set later than that in the winter. It’s so depressing. Why? Because the Earth is tipped by about 23? degrees. That means in the winter the sun rises further south east, curves in an arc further south than in summer and sets further south west. The hours it is visible in the sky are less. (in the summer around here the sun can set about 11pm and rise about 3am!).

Cold and dark, shivering, chilly. Even now you can feel the year dwindling.

And… WORDPRESS changes from one day to the next at midnight. Not 1am as it does in the summer. That means I have an hour less time in the evening to post before the clock ticks into the next day….

Drat…

Winter faces

Posted on September 24, 2019September 24, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Colour, Design, Landscape, Painting, Sunset, Tree spiritsLeave a comment

I might be ill but I still need to paint.

This is called winter faces. I often paint images with faces in them. I think this one is because I used to walk in an avenue of trees in the park near where I lived. The trees seemed to each have a face, they were spooky but interesting at the same time.

I think I thought there were tree spirits, I hadn’t heard of ents or ent moots then! This is a 6 inch square acrylic on canvas. Solitary tree at sunset with stone lying snow.

Autumn equinox

Posted on September 23, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Autumn, Chill, Cold, Colour, Equinox, Fungi, Leaves, Sunset, Trees2 Comments

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When the sun sets tonight in the Northern Hemisphere night will last slightly longer than day. In the Southern Hemisphere day will now last longer than night. In six months time the tables will be turned as North heads back to spring and South to autumn.

Mists and mellow fruitfulness is the phrase from a poem I always think of. Finding mushrooms in the garden, seeing Robins looking for food, seeing the leaves change. Already there are tinges of red and yellow on the bigger trees, I think because, being higher up, their leaves feel the chill first. Driving up the local hill you see more changes. Presumably the trees on the lower slopes are more protected. Perhaps its a micro climate?

In a few months it will be winter. I’m hoping things don’t get too cold. But maybe I should hope for cold to cool the climate?

Happy Autumn Equinox.

Sunset

Posted on September 16, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Beautiful, Black, Blue, Bright, Colours, Firey, Maroon, Orange, Purple, Red, Sky, Sunset, YellowLeave a comment

When the sun set tonight it as like the sky was on fire. A deep purple/blue shading down to maroon, red, orange and then yellow.

I’m not sure I have quite the right colours on my phone camera, they seem slightly more intense, but that’s to do with how the eye accommodates in low light levels.

Whatever the colours the reality was spectacular. Beautiful. Colourful. Awesome. I would have liked to see the horizon but I was going into choir practice and didn’t have the time to drive over the other side of the hill.

Purple skies

Posted on September 8, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Camera phone, Clouds, Photos, Purple, Sky, Spode site, Sunset5 Comments

I don’t know why but the usual grey clouds you get at sunset (sometimes tinged with pink) came out strikingly purple last night. I have read that there is dust and ash in the stratosphere from a couple of volcanoes which is giving the sky a violet tinge at the moment. Maybe it’s that or maybe its my camera phone. Anyway I will post a couple of these to the cloud appreciation society Facebook page. Maybe they can explain.

Sunset

Posted on September 7, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blue, Colour, Grey, Hill, Landscape, Orange, Photo, Sky, SunsetLeave a comment

Sunset tonight, I saw the light on the clouds so I drove over the hill to see it.

That’s the trouble living on the east side of a big hill. It gets in the way of sunsets!

The clouds appeared dark grey but on the photos they have a blue hue. I’m not sure if that was because of the way my eyes adjusted to the light or the way the phone camera reacted. The sky was bright orange as I looked at it but appears brighter in the photo.

I tried to get a close up shot of a bat that was flitting around low to the ground, but it was only visible as it crossed the bright band of orange.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Sunset

Sunset (exposure)

Sunset sketch

Sunset over Alsager Mere

Sunset over the mere

Clocks, going back tomorrow night.

Winter faces

Autumn equinox

Sunset

Purple skies

Sunset