sky first then shoes

festive cordoba

2012-01-12T19:02:00.001Z

haiku for a cold night

2012-01-11T23:55:00.001Z

Getting this shot was pretty tricky - to catch the colours in the sky I had to go for the longest exposure I could manage hand-held(no tripod with me at the time), a fairly high ISO, and that fabulous forced flash to catch the snowflakes drifting past the lens...

pennants for moonday

2012-01-09T22:00:00.000Z

an idle celebration to kick off the start of the working week...

eating habits of the late paleoelectric era

2012-01-06T20:00:00.000Z

threshold

2011-12-28T23:00:00.000Z

unlikely inventions (4)

2011-12-27T22:00:00.000Z

The sky has been stippled with a motif of...

2011-12-24T22:00:00.000Z

voracious library

2011-12-23T22:00:00.001Z

local speciality

2011-12-22T22:00:00.000Z

The island of Ischia is famed for its oversized lemons (some as big as melons!), and its traditional seaside produce, including coral harvested from the sea bed. The most prized coral in this region is takes the form of small antler-like branches of a bright red colour. Colours in the region vary, however, tending into pale and slightly purpley pinks. To see a coral coloured sun setting over the headland at Forio was one fine speciment of "local colour..."

party invites: single entendre

2011-12-21T22:00:00.000Z

further notes from the family album

2011-12-20T22:00:00.000Z

seasonal affective disappointment

2011-12-19T22:00:00.000Z

this season's favourtie haircut - the 'incus'

2011-12-18T22:00:00.000Z

counting games for oxford meadows

2011-12-17T23:00:00.000Z

slices of twilight

2011-12-16T23:59:00.000Z

time to brighten up?

2011-12-15T23:59:00.000Z

gothic tower

2011-12-13T23:55:00.001Z

eclipse o'clock

2011-12-12T23:55:00.001Z

To make sure that I caught this moonrise-eclipse, I went up the church tower 45 minutes early. With the sun setting, and a constant stream of tourists filing past, it was cold up there, pushing up against the ancient stone, in the sunset, in the shadow of the earth.

penumbral blush

2011-12-11T23:55:00.003Z

Somewhat perplexing - according to the USNO data services the moon was to rise in total eclipse, one minute prior to sunset. How could the the planet I was on cast a shadow from the sun I could see in the sky, onto a satellite already visible in the same sky? Fortunately, the moon obliged, by being a few minutes late. A large hill may have had something to do with it...

dream eaters

2011-12-10T23:06:00.002Z

Baku (獏) are Japanese dream eating spirits, traditionally depicted with elephant trunks, tusks and the paws of a tiger, like in these amazing carvings on a tiny shrine in Nikko. I first came across them on a moonlit night, when I took a shortcut back from the corner store to the place where I was staying. It was like stepping into a Miyazaki film - the tall pines outlined against the sky, the silvery stone lions guarding the shrine entrance, the bizarre carvings overhead, and a deep silence broken only by the sound of the wind...

Baku also feature prominently in a rather luscious illustrated tale called The Dream Hunters written by Neil Gaiman, and illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano, where they appear alongside one of Gaiman's best-loved characters, the Sandman.

In this case, the baku seem curious about what's going on above their heads.

diet o-clock

2011-12-10T00:01:00.000Z

can't you just relax and enjoy the flight?

2011-12-09T23:53:00.000Z

Hmmmm. do you think it might be these guys again?

christmas-do for streetlights

2011-12-08T23:56:00.000Z

are all crane drivers?

2011-12-07T23:49:00.000Z

telling secrets to the moon...

2011-12-06T23:37:00.000Z

the great cheesemaker...

2011-12-05T22:59:00.000Z

In September a freak hurricane shoved its way across parts of the UK. In Ireland, plane rides were bumpy. In Oxford, winds were big enough to push over cyclists. After coffee and cake, two friends and I went for a walk around the Water Meadow in the tail end of the storm. Even the clouds were discombobulated.

photography today is...

2011-12-04T22:59:00.000Z

are you going to that party at...

2011-12-03T22:58:00.000Z

sometimes need to be...

2011-12-02T16:30:00.000Z

tint the sky

2011-12-01T22:59:00.000Z

The smallest aeronauts (3)

2011-11-30T18:47:00.003Z

The smallest aeronauts (2)

2011-11-29T16:10:00.000Z

The smallest aeronauts...

2011-11-28T16:32:00.003Z

here be...

2011-11-27T22:59:00.000Z

still in love with the creatures made by fall streaks in cirrus cloud layers...

when i fall...

2011-05-28T14:03:00.002Z

hide and seek (in the clouds)

2011-04-07T01:05:00.003Z

view from above the clouds

2011-03-24T00:00:00.000Z

presciousssss but fleeting

2011-03-23T00:00:00.000Z

evening commute

2011-03-22T00:00:00.000Z

the best way to travel to the circus...

2011-03-21T12:00:00.001Z

...camel-ride to the colosseum!

How to catch a cloud (12): sky silk

2011-03-20T00:00:00.001Z

...and if you pull reeeeel gently, you might get the whole thing through with a plane still wiggling on the end! So make sure you've got a bucket of sky set aside, and don't forget to throw back anything smaller than a 747 :)

vogueing on the rooftops

2011-03-19T00:26:00.003Z

So the BBC's Pop's Greatest Dance Crazes puts Vogueing (originally an underground club move from the NY 80s gay scene) at the stately rank of number four...

sky-blush

2010-10-23T12:13:00.003Z

I'm addicted to the pink tint at the edge of the horizon - it reminds me of one of my favourite printmakers of the Japanese floating world, Hiroshige Ando. His prints often employ hand-graded tints across the sky and water, like in this scene, Crimson Foliage at Kaianji, Autumn (Aki Kaianji Momiji), from the 1830s series Famous Views of Edo in the Four Seasons.

inviting but deadly

2010-10-05T00:12:00.002Z

unlikely inventions (3)

2010-10-03T20:17:00.001Z

formality...

2010-10-01T21:25:00.005Z

end of day(s)

2010-09-13T19:33:00.002Z

I was waiting for you

2010-09-12T21:20:00.000Z

...said the bear cub to the hedgehog.

enlightenment

2010-05-22T22:59:00.001Z

CZA abbrev. Circum-zenithul Arc (n):

2010-05-21T15:14:00.001Z

ever had atmospheric optics described over the phone?

i'm in the pub - in the back garden...
the sun's really low and there are wispy clouds everywhere...
there's this amazing patch of rainbow...
it's about a hand-span from the sun....
above the sun you have to see this...
it's like an upside down rainbow!

that kind of phonecall just makes my day! good thing i had my camera with me, and a handy rooftop to stand on :)

Great works of art and vapour: thinking big...

2010-04-17T14:46:00.004Z

Rodin's Thinker started life as a study for a small figure to sit on top of the Gates of Hell.

nebulus taxonomy: cloud ray

2010-04-12T21:39:00.002Z

featuring a luscious scientific stingray illustration. sourced from Wikipedia commons: "The oldest published depiction of a common stingray, from Pierre Belon's , 1553 De Aquatilibus Libri Duo".

bounded mountains

2010-04-11T21:01:00.004Z

oils transpiring off the eucalyptus trees is what gives the brindabella mountain range their characteristic purple hue. in the ancient world, purple was a hard-to-get colour and usually involved milking the mucus from murex snails to produce tyrian dyes - a precious, but limited resource, reserved for royalty, and controlled by strict sumptuary laws. the sky has no such qualms about conspicuous sumption!

who's hungry now?

2010-04-08T22:20:00.003Z

this season sees the return of the rare, but enduring...

2010-04-07T21:49:00.003Z

circular city

2010-04-06T23:59:00.002Z

militant nimbophilia

2010-04-05T20:59:00.000Z

proper tropical storm front

2010-04-04T23:59:00.000Z

your puny metropolis

2010-04-03T23:59:00.001Z

is nothing compared to the thundering cthumulus...

here comes the sun...

2010-04-02T23:33:00.001Z

Amsterdam afternoon

2010-03-28T09:15:00.003Z

An experiment in mobile photo blogging... writing on the sky, the oldskool way!

parhelion bound

2010-03-25T23:59:00.000Z

dawn

2010-03-24T23:59:00.001Z

in a universe that is not too hot... not too cold... just right

way up in this

2010-03-23T22:12:00.000Z

this is...

2009-10-14T23:58:00.000Z

ride it out

2009-10-13T23:59:00.000Z

over the edge

2009-08-31T17:22:00.002Z

gone fishing

2009-08-06T23:59:00.002Z

wheee! quickly quickly!

fleedom

2009-08-05T23:59:00.000Z

a bright dark place (2)

2009-08-04T23:59:00.002Z

a bright dark place (1)

2009-08-03T23:59:00.001Z

bug powder dust

2009-07-30T23:59:00.002Z

(guest sky by mister z)

above in a time of cholera

2009-07-29T23:59:00.002Z

(guest sky: mister z)

link.

that most mentally medicinal procedure

2009-07-28T23:59:00.003Z

(another guest sky by mister z)

riders on the storm

2009-07-27T23:59:00.002Z

(guest sky by mister z)

cumulous romance

2009-07-09T22:41:00.001Z

because it's her job...

2009-07-07T23:27:00.001Z

There is a Chinese story about the cowherd and the weaver maid, which begins with a princess weaving heavenly cloths for the Jade Emperor's wardrobe. It always reminded me of Yeats' 'He wishes for the cloths of heaven', and also -perhaps strangely - of the three fates whose endless job is to spin, measure and snip the thread of each human life. Sounds like a lonely job, weaving the whole damn sky...

The Chinese tale is a love story, which ends sadly. After offending the August Jade Emperor of Heaven, they are separated forever - two bright stars on either side of the Heavenly River. In his mercy, the Jade Emperor grants them this favour: For one day a year, on the seventh day of the seventh month, all the magpies fly up to form a bridge across the milky way, where the lovers are allowed to meet.

Or is she more of a knitter... With a penchant for lumpy wool?

sultry motorway

2009-07-02T22:09:00.001Z

trust us: it IS beautiful...

2009-06-30T23:21:00.001Z

how the wind was won

2009-06-28T22:29:00.000Z

unlikely inventions (2)

2009-06-27T22:56:00.000Z

i heart wind farms

2009-06-26T23:58:00.001Z

looks like we're having a week of wind turbines! i love these elegant giants. they're leggy and graceful like danish supermodels. and they only roar a little bit...

new religions

2009-06-25T23:56:00.002Z

cappuccino skies

2009-06-24T23:30:00.000Z

reinvention

2009-06-23T23:48:00.002Z

the clouds today are

2009-06-22T23:59:00.000Z

these cirrus clouds remind me of

2009-06-21T21:30:00.001Z

or perhaps I've been reading a little to much kate beaton...

extremely keen, but slightly late picnicker

2009-06-18T23:24:00.002Z

treehugger

2009-06-17T23:59:00.000Z

undulation

2009-06-16T22:10:00.000Z

when?

2009-06-15T22:31:00.004Z

peashooter

2009-06-12T22:59:00.000Z

joy!

2009-06-11T22:25:00.000Z

on the rooftops today...

2009-06-10T21:52:00.003Z

all the statues are out...

what lunacy!

nouveau worship

2009-06-09T23:09:00.002Z

wake up! apocalypse calling!

2009-06-08T23:13:00.001Z

so the week of ice haloes went on a bit longer with this bonus post by mistake...

sun blushed

2009-06-07T22:52:00.006Z

the final installment of the week of ice haloes!

hug

2009-06-06T22:41:00.007Z

The most amazing display of ice haloes I have ever seen. Over the town of Woodstock in Oxfordshire. A 22° halo was visible, topped by a sun gull and parry arc. The sundogs are out of shot here, but were very colourful. The brightest part was the cloud smile (CZA) sitting on top of what looked like a 46° halo, but could also have been a superlateral arc. It was so impressive I was stopping strangers in the street to show them. The may have thought I was a bit mad... They may have been right. It was glorious.

The week of ice haloes concludes tomorrow...

a matter of scale...

2009-06-05T23:59:00.003Z

Can you pick out the bright point - which I think is a Parry arc - above the 22 halo that had been present for an hour or so (sun-dog locations just out of frame).

(A week of ice haloes continues...)

sei shonagon's wish list

2009-06-04T23:25:00.004Z

(the week of ice haloes continues...)