STORM CLOUDS, SUNRISE and SILHOUETTES

Well it's a day later than I like to publish but sometimes other things just have to come first.

It never ceases to amaze me how people love to take pictures of the sun. Be that sunrise, sunsets or for me the sun shining through storm clouds and it amazes me even more the feedback photographers get from having taken them.

I certainly like taking the pictures, I think you can get some stunning effects with the sun in the right place even though you sometimes have to play with the exposures the point where your family has got bored and wandered off into the distance.

The joy of the modern camera phone is that it's possible to get very good shots without having to lug your dSLR around with you so I wanted to share a couple taken with my Pentax and a couple taken with my Samsung Galaxy S2.

These first two are taken in Cardiff Bay, Wales and are from the 'mobile' set on my Flickr site taken on my Samsung Galaxy S2.

For me the low sun on both of them gives the opportunity for some nice silhouettes. I liked the sun coming through the light fitment on the top of the lightship and on the other, I was keen to capture the silhouettes of the tree, church and cranes in the background. Neither of these shots used any special settings and were just taken 'point and shoot'.

This shot taken on Brighton Beach, Sussex one overcast and stormy afternoon was the last of a number of images I took in manual mode trying to get the balance between the contrast of the bright sun and dark clouds.

And finally ... this one has been around before and featured in my blog of 11th January based on around Clevedon.

I'd be really interested if anybody has any advice or guidance for me on taking this type of image I'd be really grateful for your feedback.

Reach for your camera first, and then the sky.

I've had a great time reading Exploring with a Camera: Capture the Sky and wanted to share with you some of my experiences.

For me sunrise and sunset gives the opportunity for capturing some excellent colours and vistas. I love this shot which puts the foregound in shadow whilst showing off the evening colours. By the way his wasn't taken with a wide angle lens but the cropping has made some think that it was.

This is a late afternoon image with the sun finally peeking out after a dull, rainy day. Great sky colours with just enough contrast to be able to show off the contours of the rocks in the foreground.

A deep blue sky gives an excellent opportunity to show off some some foreground colours. The red and white of this RAF parachute stack is off set beautifully against the deep blue sky and the landscape cropping accentuates the subject.

This image shows off some real angry clouds, it's a classic shot with a low horizon and plenty of sky.

Finally, the most difficult shots I find are air-show shots. The main difficulty is shooting into a bright sky, varying from bright white to dark blue whilst panning to capture a moving subject at a slow enough exposure to show the motion of turbo-props rather than freeze them totally. Thankfully when you get it right it can be really right as these images show.

Angry Skies and Wet Sands - Sweet Shot Tuesday 22/02

Last weekend was an opportunity to stay with family near Bournemouth, on the south coast of England. Often called "The English Rivera" it is a beautiful area in the summer with long sandy bays and many hours of sunshine. Of course in February it's different. The skies were heavy and angry with an occasional hint of sunshine.

When the sun did come out there was a contrast between the dark and white clouds, the wet and dry sand with the blue of the sky and grey of the cloud reflecting on the sand where it was wet.