Many of my photographs are taken on cycle rides. A big part of both photographing and cycling is the weather. This blog post is about one particular aspect of the weather – the wind.
The wind can turn a tree into a swirling dancer
For a cyclist the wind can be a hindrance or an assistance. It can blow you along the road encouraging you to go further than you should; then you will find yourself working extra hard to get back. It can push you up a hill which can be very helpful; sometimes though it can force you to pedal downhill which is so unfair!
The worst type of wind for a cyclist is a crosswind when you suddenly find yourself buffeted from the side. It’s this sort of weather that can dramatically affect the outcome of a road race. You might have seen professional cyclists riding in echelons across the road all trying to get meagre protection from each other and taking turns at the front. If a contender has missed out and is not in that group they will find it very hard to get back into contention as they will be exposed to the wind.
On a windy day the lighting can change rapidly as the clouds move across the sun
A cross wind for mere mortals out cycling might mean avoiding exposed roads on high land close to the coast. This was not what I did recently when I cycled from the village of Abbotsbury close to the Dorset coast in the south of England. I took the road up out of the village and along the coast; the wind was coming off the sea stirring up the waves far below. Up here nothing much was growing so there was little protection. All I could do was hunker down as low as possible on the bicycle and look out for a turning that would take me into the sheltered countryside further inland.
The wind can play a part for photographers, too, especially landscape photographers. It means that the lighting is likely to change regularly very quickly; if the sun isn’t shining where you would like it to be, give it a few moments and it soon well be. Also, strong winds and high clouds can give a dramatic backdrop to any landscape photograph.
The wind can almost animate your pictures in other ways too. Waves on the shore or trees in full leaf look dramatic when the wind hits them. Slow the shutter speed down to turn them into a blur.
A few moments after I took this photograph that cloud was dropping hailstones on top of me!
So, if you are looking to take dramatic landscape photographs, head out when the wind is up!
I am always fascinated by how, as photographers, we create something out of little more than light. Before we go out with the camera the images do not exist but when we get back there they are on the card or on the film.
Every weekday morning I try to go out photographing.
Some of the photographs I take on my morning walk
There are a couple of reasons for this. First of all I try to take a picture everyday of the year (check out the gallery here to see how I am getting on in 2024). Secondly, many of the photographs are taken in the morning as I go for a walk before I start work. I work from home (my day job is an e-learning developer) and I find that getting out of the house first thing is a great way to separate my personal life from my work life.
As I stroll around my local streets I try to clear my head and simply observe my surroundings. At some point I am likely to stop and look at something. It could be a particular building, shadows playing on a wall, reflections in puddles or flowers growing in a local park. Maybe I will walk around it a little bit to view it from different angles. I might even try to get up higher or down low for different viewpoints – it must look extraordinary behaviour to any passers by! Eventually I might decide to make the photograph or a series of photographs before I move on.
Later, when I am back home I’ll take a look through the images I have taken and it always fascinates me to think that before I left the house the photographs did not exist; when I get home I have created something new. In a way I have created something out of nothing but light, my own imagination and how I observe the world.
This is the case for all photographers who think about their craft but sometimes it is unspoken. It has been so long since the invention of the ability to capture an image of our surroundings (whether chemically or digitally) that we have grown used to it. We perhaps think of the end result more than the process itself.
Reminding ourselves of that process and how we can create something out of nothing but light and our imagination is a great way to inspire us to photograph.
A few photographs taken on a cycle ride taken in early 2024 on a cycle ride to Hatfield Forest, Essex. There had been heavy rain the night before but as the day wore on the clouds began to break to let through a sight of the sun.
It was just after Christmas 2017 that I first began to notice them. I was strolling around my local neighbourhood getting some fresh air when I suddenly began to see them all over the place. They were propped up outside front walls or sometimes on the edge of the road. Most of them were on their own but a few had gathered together for support.
They were Christmas trees, of course, and they had recently played a prominent part in the festivities. There would have been a day when the tree was brought home and then stood in the front room and decorated. Perhaps decisions were made about where certain decorations should be placed; maybe there were family traditions that had been stuck to every year. Once the tree was adorned, brightly and intrigingly wrapped presents would be stacked around its base building the excitement for the big day.
After Christmas Day, however, it would be all downhill for the tree. Now there were no presents beneath it the needles that it was already shedding would become more obvious. Perhaps the tree, a temporary guest, was in a position that required some negotiation to get past which until now had been met with good humour. Now that the big day was past it was perhaps becoming more of an irritant having to lean sideways to be able to see all of the television screen.
And so the tree is stripped of its decorations and placed out on the street for the council to collect, and for me to photograph.
I have always been interested in more quirky subjects and sometimes this has included rubbish bins (yes I know!) so abandoned Christmas trees seemed an interesting subject to explore. I was also inspired by a friend who was looking for Christmas cards that were a little bit different to the traditional. I thought it might be nice to redecorate them with one or two baubles (to keep it simple) before I took the photograph.
In a celebration of renewal I give them a new lease of life.
You can view more of my photographs of old Christmas trees (and other festive related imagery) in my ClickAsnap album here.
I wrote a little while ago about the difficulty of motivating myself to cycle in winter. Over Christmas 2023, whilst in Dorset, I was determined to go cycling everyday.
I was rewarded with some dramatic skies (and Storm Gerritt!).
Here are some of the photographs I took whilst exploring the Dorset countryside.
Back at the beginning of the year I thought about taking a photograph a day throughout 2023 – how did I do and should I try again?
You can view the photographs I took here and, as you will be able to see, I was not terribly successful. I started the year well, sometimes taking random photographs of objects such as my coffee or my breakfast, and occasionally I would make an effort to go out to seek something to photograph in my local neighbourhood.
As the year went on, though, I began to skip days and then entire weeks. In May I started to keep a journal of my efforts, printing out each day’s image and writing a note about why I took the picture. I hoped this would be a method to keep me going. It did work to a certain extent and I have kept it going throughout the year on an ad hoc basis.
So what was the purpose of the exercise and should I try again?
Here are my reasons why I think I should (and you should have a go as well).
1/ Develop your photographic eye
Getting into the habit of taking photographs regularly can help develop your photographic eye, identifying what might work as an image. Of course, it is not always necessary to to actually take the photograph. You could simply observe the world as a photographer. For example, the photographer, Stephen Shore, tried to make “a mental note at random times of the day of what was in my field of vision”. Taking the photograph, however, produces an outcome which could be a part of the next reason to take a photograph a day.
2/ Creating structure
Secondly, photographing at a set time and making it part of a routine could help add structure to the day. I work from home so it is dangerously easy to allow my days to become formless. Choosing to set aside time to go out and photograph can help add structure and form to the day. I add to this suggestion the idea of printing out your photographs and keeping a journal. I have found this a great way to ground myself.
3/ A deep dive into a subject or a place
The photograph a day idea could be used to take a deep dive into a specific location or subject if you wanted to explore every facet of it. I discussed the idea of photographing a single location in depth before. However I did not take it to the level of this photographer in Cambridge who never left the city for the duration of the exercise. Chapeau!
4/ Motivation to take photographs
I think the main reason, though, is that it can be a way to motivate yourself to take photographs if you are experiencing photographer’s block. It is very easy to fall out of the habit of photographing and this is one way to help find inspiration to keep taking photographs.
Exciting news for 2024
If you have ever found yourself in the same situation where you don’t seem to have the inspiration to take photographs any more you might be interested to know that in 2024 I will be putting together my experiences of how I motivated myself in a series of videos. Watch this space for more information.
Winter is upon us again and sometimes it can be harder to go out cycling. It’s colder, the days are shorter and there’s a chance of bad weather. But just occasionally, when the wind is in the right direction (behind you) a ride through the open countryside in winter on a day when the sun is low in the open skies, the trees are empty and the fields are turned can be a glorious experience.
These photographs were taken on a cycle ride from London to Cambridge one Sunday in February 2023. If you would like to see the route I took you can view it on Kommot here.
When I am cycling in the countryside there is time to look around. Often I cycle in the same areas throughout the year and I note the changes surrounding me such as the turned fields in winter, later full of ripening crops. None are more noticeable though than the changing shape of trees throughout the seasons.
In the winter they are dark and spikey; come the spring they begin to soften as the leaves bud and some of them put out blossom; then the summer and a mass of green; now autumn brings a firework display as the green turns to gold. And then the winter once more and the cycle begins again.
On my bicycle rides I observed and photographed all these changes. These became a part of the “Shape of Trees” project which is now available as a calendar for 2024.
My exploration of the shape of trees took me deeper into the woods and I discovered many other shapes of trees such as their roots and the shapes they make as they grow old and die. I also watched them in different types of weather, especially high winds which would turn their leaves to a blur. And I came in close to the old leaves hanging on, and the new blossom breaking through.
The Shape of Trees is currently available as a calendar for 2024 and a handful are still available. Click on the button below to purchase one.
Have you ever fallen out of love with photography?
Have you stopped looking at the world the way you used to when you saw potential photographs everywhere?
Do you not bother carrying your camera with you everywhere any more (even ignoring the one on your phone)?
Sounds like you have lost your interest in photography. Sometimes there could be valid reasons – other things come along that are more important – but often it can be that you have simply fallen out of love with photography. I know the feeling. It happened to me for about thirty years!
But I am back taking photographs again and loving it.
There are a number of ways I have used to try and reinvigorate my interest in photography. I wrote about one of them a little while ago when I suggested exploring your neighbourhood as if you were on holiday.
Another method is to change how you take your photographs and what you photograph. Trying something different is a great way to to reignite your interest so here are four ways you could disrupt your photography.
Mix up your genres
If you normally take street photography try landscape photography (it’s a bit like street photography but with fewer people). Or, if you spend your time indoors photographing still lives, head out to the streets and capture your fellow humanity in their natural environment.
Change your subject matter
Take a look through your back catalogue and check if you have photographed the same subject many times. Do you have lots of pictures of clouds, for example; or does the colour blue crop up in your photographs often? Why not try the complete oposite? If you have been turning camera upwards to look at the sky and the clouds turn it down to look to the ground, noting the details and the textures; and if you photograph blue a lot, choose a different colour and deliberately ignore anything coloured blue.
Take your camera off auto
Put it on manual so you have to set the aperture and shutter speed. Take the ISO off auto so you have to choose that as well. And, going one step further, change the camera’s profile to monochrome so that you focus on light and shade, and tones of grey. Now you will need to think a little harder about the process of making each image. If you regularly use your camera in manual mode, turn it to auto and fire from the hip to see what happens.
Ditch the technology
Find yourself a film camera and put a roll of film in it. It’s like taking photographs without a safety net. You can’t see how your picture has come out straightaway and you’ve only got up to thirty six chances (unless you have several rolls of film). The best way to start is with a simple preloaded camera, some of which are re-usable.
These are just a few ways to help you fall back in love with taking photographs. I hope you found them helpful and I would love to hear your comments on what you have tried. Add them to the comments below.
If you are looking for more ideas then do look out for a series of videos I am planning to put together in 2025 sharing some of my experiences on re-igniting my own enthusiasm for photography.
