The simple magic of the skies.
Life is strange and as a species, so is the human race to some extent and the human race itself is more focused on looking down, mainly at screens and never what is happening around them. Of course though thanks to a global pandemic that is slowly beginning to transit to something more “endemic” the past couple of pandemic years has slowed me down as a landscape photographer, okay so maybe in a pre-pandemic would of photography I would have noticed things, perhaps I would have also ignored the smaller details of the hidden beauty that this planet can offer it’s citizens often in unscrupulous ways; but thanks Covid pandemic, you have enabled me via the “stay at home” messages to take a path that veers away from the rush of things and with that I have seemingly found that instead of looking down or what is in front all of the times, some of the most interesting photogenic compositions can be found whilst simply looking up. Of course though this January and February have seen some spectacular skies — and all because of some odd events that have taken place, the first being the volcanic eruption in Tonga, which sent Ash high into the atmosphere and the slight effects of the Calima (dust cloud) from the Canary Islands, which has been pushed due north via the high winds.
Microscopic particles having an impact on the skies, who would have thought it possible? But when you lead a slower pace of life you notice things and time itself seems so much nicer — gone are the worries of life and instead it is about being within the moment. Still I suppose I had one of those “being in the moment” occasions at the end of January 2022.
And that particular “being in the moment” occasion at the end of January was rather unexpected to say the least as it was a day when I had not really done much in the way of any photography at all, yet that afternoon I could sense that something was happening within the skies, as I noticed the light outside changing rapidly and quickly, so grabbing my camera I went outside and the sky was just something else.
“All too often we ignore what the sky looks like, instead always opting to look down or what is in front of us, we never look upwards where the magic of nature and the earth can often be at it’s best.”
When I got outside the sky and the clouds were just something else to behold with hints and a mixture of orange, yellow and purple that happened to be perfectly blended together in a form of pastel colours that seemed akin to an artists easel, yet here I was observing mother nature and the raw beauty of the planet we live on, yet it is “the simple magic of the skies” which can leave you on a certain high, and this was certainly one of them. Yes I love sunsets but this was just different and simple. Yet all too often photographers tend to ignore the simple magic of the skies, and here is probably the proof as to why instead of ignoring the skies, we should perhaps capture them more often, yes the sky is not a “landscape” but it is one that has just as much magic as any landscape has, and that is what makes the sky, skies and cloud formations that little bit more interesting to capture.
