The sky and the weather are two of those subjects that never end. Either they are with you or they are against you. In some countries, the weather is a constant source of discussion, in others, it is considered “bad taste” to talk about the weather as if there were nothing else to talk about.
Only if you have nothing else to say, do you start talking about the weather to keep the conversation going. Somewhat. For photographers, this is quite different.
Photographers will try and talk about the weather, the light, and the skies as if they own them and that nobody else has anything better to say about them than they do.
Mersey River
I guess I must be one of the latter. When the weather gets nasty, I like to go out, unless it endangers my gear. Be that audio or camera gear. If the gear is safe, then I can go out and use it.
Mersey River
That’s what I thought until a few weeks ago. I ended up with a nasty bout of flu and had to remain inside “until further notice”.
Notice has been given and I am out and about again.
Liverpool
That is not to say that all the pictures in this post have been taken in the past few weeks. The lead picture was from when I still lived in Halifax, on a moody evening. The weather was foggy, but by the time I arrived on the boardwalk, the rain had started. That was one of the first times that I had fog to shoot in a long time, so I stayed out, practically drowning my camera in the process.
Western Head sea smoke
After that shoot, I decided that “fog is fun” and tried to capture more of it whenever it showed up. The muted colours and sounds are what it’s all about in the fog. The foreground and background and everything in between seem to be separated much better with some fog. But sometimes, that fog is and remains out of reach.
Sea Smoke
Following a recent cold spell of a few days, the fog was called “sea smoke”. At first, I had to look up the term as I had no idea what that was about. As it turns out, it is nothing but icy cold air over warm water giving off steam. The temperature of the water was anything but warm, though, more like +0.1C or so. Definitely not swim-friendly.
Carter’s Beach
As the arctic winds continued to blow, I decided to freeze myself some more and go out shooting more. Scenes like the above picture reminded me of the old pictures of the British Navy in the 1700s with those billowing clouds and richly coloured waters.
Carter’s Beach
Carter’s Beach, however, has never seen battle of any kind. A nice, peaceful view of a small beach that is coveted by the locals in summer. I prefer it in the winter when there is nobody around 
.
Summerville Beach
But no beach scene series is complete without a picture of Summerville Beach, close to my home. The sea had partly frozen and the beach was strewn with chunks of sea ice. The dramatic sky added to this scene as if something bad was going to happen soon. The day before, when that arctic blast was still going on, I harvested quite a bit of sand and dust with my camera.
Now it’s time for cleanup. Atmospherics are nice, but the dust and salt inside the camera might prove to become an issue one of these days.
Until next time…