More dusk photography and silhouetting

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I've been out in the evening again and taken some photos as the darkness creeps in. It's a developing style, and I like the silhouette effect that it creates-

The first one is of the River Wear and of Durham Cathedral. It was at the start of the evenings photography session and the light was probably a little brighter than I'm used to trying these photographs at. I've ramped down the shutter speed to try to retain a silhouette effect in the centre of the photograph around the bridge and it's reflection.

I then moved around the city a little, looking as the light failed to create the effect I try to create-

This is Durham Castle from the Palace Green through the trees. The sky is just getting to where I want it, with there still enough light to highlight the passing clouds and add some interest to the sky. Outlines of buildings such as castles are really striking in silhouette, as is the Cathedral-

Again, there's enough in the sky to keep it interesting, and I've included the trees as a backdrop to the silhouette of the Carhedral. The flag flying at the top of the main spire seemed to top it all off for me.

Lastly, the light was getting really dim, so I switched from focussing on the sky to focussing on the city.

The last of the daylight is amplified by the reflection in the River Wear. I like the effect of the vast amounts of dark created by the silhouettes of the trees in the river banks. The fact that approximately a third of the photo is black, still allows the viewer a good idea of the composition of the photo.

Sunset photographs are giving me great pleasure

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I've been going out in and around sunset in the local area recently and in really leased with the results. I've blogged before on using the golden hours to make the best of the sky and recent clear weather conditions have provided excellent opportunities to get photographs with great skies in that really set off the subject matter.

The first is a photograph of the River Wear close to a place called Sunderland Bridge in County Durham. I got there just before sunset and used the fading light to create the reflection in the river itself. I think that the oranges and blues work really well with the dark outlines created by the trees and river banks.

This is Brancepeth Castle a little later in the same night. The sky was so clear and so blue that I thought the shot created itself. The alignment of the castle, the sky and the moon just felt right and from there I only needed to set my shutter speed and aperture at a suitable level to keep the sky blue and the castle in a sort of silhouette form. The slight pinkiness and cloud forms at the bottom of the sky have added a bit of reality to whst cod have looked an unreal scene.

Another photograph of Brancepeth Castle here, and again I've tried to contrast the dark silhouette of the rigid, structured castle against the pastel blues and pinks of the sky. The trees, for me, add a sense of the size of the castle. Once again, I've looked at the angle of taking the photo so I've got the moon in the picture.

It's a continuing process and I'll share the results with you on here.