Michael Hilton

According to my camera this was taken at 6:05am; and pre-sunrise the weather was pretty bad. So it can be worth getting out early. How many great sunrises have I missed by not getting up in the dark on the offchance?

Probably lots.

Not the greatest or most dramatic photo, but it was an unusual sight to see a train and an aeroplane together, especially when the plane is an Osprey. You might need to click on the image to see it a bit larger.

The classic combo. A boat and some water; a very peaceful scene. It’s a traditional photographic subject but none the worse for that. I took lots of photos of this boat but in this one the sun’s late evening light just touched the boat and was gone shortly afterwards.

Do all photos have to be sharp? Definitely not, although perhaps at least one element should be – just to prove that the blur was intentional! The diffused look makes the picture more abstract and removes distracting detail I think. This is the ceiling of the Walker Art gallery in Liverpool. An ideal subject to photograph while seated in the cafe with a cup of tea.

There is a thing in photography that pictures need to have impact, or perhaps that’s IMPACT.

It’s probably especially true when one’s picture is in an endless stream passing through Instagram, Facebook or wherever on the web.

I think this picture does not have impact; you may not even have seen Beeston Castle rising through the mist. The sun’s only just coming up so it hasn’t touched the mist yet, unlike the picture of Peckforton in the previous post. But I still like the picture a lot; it’s subtle. If you look closely you can see not only the castle but also the first glimmer of sunlight at the top right; I could have flooded the whole picture with dawn orange but that would erase the delicacy I think?

At this time of year (i.e. December) once can see the sun come up without leaving one’s bed too early. So when the forecast predicted fog in the morning I was able to make a relatively leisurely start and still get to my viewpoint as the sun came up over the Peckforton Hills. The fog was swirling around so things came into and went out of view. It was a beautiful morning.

The tree and its red berries looked great but in my first attempt at a picture it all merged into one. So I thought I’d try something creative. Well all pictures should be creative, but you know what I mean. I photographed the tree from several different angles around it and then merged them all in Photoshop, plus a bit of adjustments to make it light overall.

So it still all merges into one but the overall picture is I hope quite pleasing.

I didn’t see this picture for a long time because I was walking from the top of the hill (a Tor on Dartmoor) down with my back to the sun. Eventually I looked behind me to see what my companions were looking at and realised that the lone tree was silhouetted against the rocks.

The bright sun streaming in from the rear left made the scene more dramatic than one can capture in a photograph, but this isn’t too bad I think.

This is an old and picturesque Scottish lighthouse which I believe was originally lit via a log fire, never an electric lamp. So there is only stonework, through which the setting sun just happens to be shining.

I had actually planned this picture long before by using a smartphone app that showed exactly where the sun would set on the days I was in the area. Very very fortunately it was a sunny day and I was in position at the right moment, perhaps less than a minute, when the sun shone through the lighthouse.

For photographers, recession isn’t about the economy. It’s the gradual fading of the landscape into the distant haze.

This is a view of Peckforton Castle on a rare day when the combination of hazy weather and sunlight made the castle visible, in silhouette anyway. Normally Peckforton lurks invisbly in the shadow of the higher hills beyond. So this picture is the lucky result of the right light and the right haziness on a not very nice day.