An 8 minute single exposure photo of Fiddler's Ferry Power Station on the banks of the River Mersey near Liverpool.
A strong offshore wind and heavy overcast cloud has led to the long exposure streaking the sky with shades of grey.
For those who aren't in a rush here's a link to some hauntingly dark classical music to go with the photo: Philip Glass - Violin Concerto Movement 2.
Like what you see here and are interested in photographic composition?.....the blog section of my website now has a complete set of 5 articles covering my personal approach to the subject: Ian Bramham Photography - Blog
For purchasing high quality archival prints of any of these photos you can send me an email by clicking here or by going to my website Ian Bramham - Fine Art Photography where prices are listed in the gallery sections under each individual photo.
@Steve: Thanks Steve.
@Paco Díaz: Thanks Paco...the music is haunting isn't it!
@yz: Thanks yz!
@sorter: Thanks Sorter....to answer your question, of course, we are all influenced in our photography by the locations that surround us and by the weather and light. Amongst my favourite UK photographers are Michael Kenna, who was born about 20 miles from where I live in the north of England, and Bill Brandt.
I had a look at Sam Javanrouh's photoblog....wonderful photos and there are some top-notch architectural photos in there (very different light of course!)
@SKHallisey: It all feels like twilight at the moment here in NW England with overcast grey clouds and very few daylight hours!
@Jeremie: Thanks Jeremie!...to answer your question I've recently completely changed the way that I post process my photos. I'm now doing the bulk of the processing in Nikon's capture NX2 software which handles my D40 RAW files a lot better than Photoshop ACR.
This photo was converted to B&W in NX2 and I used the NX2 'U' point controls to adjust contrast and brightness in the sky etc. I then imported it to Photoshop and did some traditional dodging and burning using a graphics tablet and pen with a large brush size to bring out the contrasting light and shade in the sky.
NIKON D40
961/2 second
F/5.6
ISO 200
105 mm (35mm equiv.)