Skies make pictures

As a photographer I am almost obsessive about light, both its quality and direction and often outside the studio almost equally so about skies.

We all know great skies can add impact, mood, enhance the composition of our image, as well as acting like giant reflectors bouncing light back down on to our subject.

Often I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time staring at the sky. Anticipating when the sun may appear, second guessing when a band of beautiful rippled cloud will float into frame adding drama. More often than not glancing over my shoulder, working quickly to get a picture before the light painting my subject is swallowed and lost behind cloud.

From landscapes to architectural work, skies make pictures. Sometimes skies in themselves are the picture. Infinitely variable, subtle and beautiful. While it is undeniable that we have more than our fair share of grey featureless skies in England, we also benefit from tremendously varied cloud types breathing interest to our skies. People sometimes say to me on a cloudless blue sky day "great day for photography" and I think to myself a little cloud would be more interesting adding that elusive missing ingredient. Photographers eh? never satisfied.