Norfolk Skies

Someone asked me a few days ago, why I so often burn in the skies of my landscape photographs from Norwich and around Norfolk. Allow me to explain.

I have no doubt that those of you living in Norfolk will, at some point, have spoken to someone who moved away from the area sometime in their life, but felt compelled to return because they missed the flat landscapes, or in a few cases loved the enormous expanses of sky that you get around the county. (Although these go hand in hand, it is crucial to note the difference, and I shall clarify it in this post.)

I’ve always been aware of this. In three years of photographing in Norfolk, I have created many, many landscape images designed to showcase those skies – I love them too. You can photograph the exact same location over and over again and get an entirely unique effect each time, with differences in light and cloud patterns. Tremendous stuff if you take every moment you can muster to traipse across Norfolk, as I do.

Such a great many photographers endeavour to convey the Norfolk skies effectively and realistically - only for the results to fall a little flat when served up after processing. There is a very basic reason for this, judging from my personal experience – most of the time, the photographs are in colour. This depicts the skies, but it doesn't necessarily draw attention to them. It is difficult not to notice the flatness of the landscape in Norfolk – that is a rarity anywhere in the United Kingdom – but I wouldn’t be surprised if fewer people truly recognised the big skies that go with it. Anyone, anywhere, can go outside and see the sky, which makes it far easier to take for granted. In the same way, wherever you go, you breathe air, but you don’t usually take any notice of the fact that you’re breathing. If you see a normal-looking sky in a photograph, you don’t usually stop to appreciate it.



Considering this, I began working in monochrome and playing with the tones of the Norfolk skies, often (though not always) burning them in to make them darker and more noticeable. I noticed that these skies became more than just expanses of blue – they took on different shades at different points in the image, and the clouds became more than just clouds – they became prominent points of contrast. It is the basic principle of monochrome photography, to draw attention to a subject’s form, and I think it really works well with Norfolk’s skies – the equivalent of making your outward breaths dark grey. You’d notice them then, wouldn’t you?