David Amis digital photography

Vistas in sepia

It was overcast, warm and humid yesterday.

The light conditions left a lot to be desired.

There was a strange, sullen atmosphere…an unspoken, underlying tension…

On the day before the Summer Solstice, it just didn't feel right…

Walking through the woods in…black and white…

It was an overcast day but also, warm and humid.

Walking up this path through the trees felt strangely oppressive.

In a bid to capture this strange mood, I rendered these images in black and white…

Sitting on the hillside

A pylon posing on the hill beneath Cleeve Wood:)

This was taken on an overcast, warm and humid day with light conditions that left a lot to be desired. Rendering these two images in black and white somehow seemed to feel right when it came to trying to convey the mood of the day.

A mood which was strangely tense…

Trees by the Avon…

Some of which look to be on their way out. Such is the cycle of life - we come, we go and in between, we hope to make some kind of positive impact upon this world. Which as it's sliding ever closer to a dystopian hellhole, is increasingly harder to do:( As ever, these tree shots are rendered in glorious black and white because…that's the way I'm rolling at the moment…

Vistas on the Hams

A Saturday afternoon walk taken on the first day of halfway decent weather for almost a week. It was an opportunity that had to be taken…going into the city can wait:)

Over and under

A tale of two bridges. One very unassuming bridge going over a stream gently making it's way down towards the Avon. The other being a concrete brutalist structure taking the Keynsham Bypass over Durley Lane. Both rendered in glorious black and white as befits the subject matter:)

Pylons across the Hams - 13.6.26

Documenting the impact of pylons on the landscape was something I used to do a lot of when I was living back in Essex. That's because the part of Essex I lived in had a lot of pylons. So you can imagine my delight when shortly after moving down to Keynsham in 2022, I discovered these pylons striding across the landscape:)

In the woods on a sullen, restless grey day

It was grey with a restless wind. There was a constant rustling of the leaves. There were some occasional spits of drizzle as well. There was a certain, sullen tension to the afternoon. Walking up to the woods wasn't the escape we were hoping for:(

Under a moody sky

It wasn't just a moody looking sky that was dampening our spirits. It was the wind as well. The kind of wind that just isn't normal for a June day when we're at least fifteen miles inland. A wind that added to a feeling of restlessness and tension. The kind of weather that mirrors the mood of a fed up nation on the edge. We were out trying escape from all of that but, it wasn't to be:(

Branches and leaves

I realise that in the early part of summer, black and white shots of trees in leaf are counterintuitive. However, there are things that can only be seen once the distraction of colour has been removed. The greens of the leaves are still pretty vivid and were a distraction from what I wanted to convey so come the editing stage, I opted to create these black and white versions…

Summer vistas - 9.6.26

It was windy yesterday. Too windy for a day in early June in a location that's a fair way inland. Restlessly windy in a way that reflects the restlessness of a troubled and divided nation.

On a lighter note, the wind meant it wasn't a day for close ups. That was frustrating because there was plenty of potential for close ups walking through the meadows with the long grasses and wildflowers. All of which are due to be cut for silage in the not too distant future so, opportunities for close up shots in these meadows are running out:(

More dead trees…

I've been thinking about why I keep photographing dead trees in the summer. It's not just because they're there. To a certain extent, there's something about the aesthetics of bare branches that's almost sculptural and that's definitely one of the pulls. At a deeper level, the dead trees in the midst of the green of summer are a reminder that death is always with us - it's part of the cycle of life. Now I've been on this planet for seventy years, my eventual passing is something that I have to contemplate and come to terms with. Which is why I'm doing what I can to live for the day and get the best I can out of what time remains to me, even if the world is heading towards dystopia…

Tree trunks along the river

These were seen on a gentle Sunday afternoon stroll through my local park. I'll never not be grateful for having this pretty much right on my doorstep:)

An absence of colour…

I know, it's June and despite the dull weather, the greens are vivid and the blossoms are colourful. I should be celebrating this with my photography. However, there are times when colour can be a massive distraction. This may be my own subjective judgement but with the images of the reeds and the blossom, I felt they would work better in monochrome. As for the sepia treatment on the image of the blossom, that's an attempt to add a certain moody atmosphere…

Modern architecture vs nature

What caught my eye as I was walking past was the stark contrast between the minimalist, urban lines of the apartment block on top of the hill set against the glorious, complex tangle of nature on the slope below. The block is the kind of building you'd expect to see in a city such as Bristol where, whether you like this style of architecture or not, it wouldn't look out of place. However, in Keynsham which some people still like to think of as a country town, it looks totally out of place. I accept that this is my subjective judgement.

I've posted a colour and a black and white version as I'm not entirely sure which one works the best.

Scenes seen on a walk - 4.6.26

It was a windy, frisky day yesterday and, it wasn't a day for taking close ups of flowers, that's for sure! So instead, I went for a mix of vistas and close in views of field boundaries:)

Walking up through the wood - 4.6.26

This wasn't the peaceful walk I was hoping for as the wind blowing through the leaves was making a fair bit of noise. There was also the issue of having to negotiate a few fallen trees across the paths. Disturbance and having to deal with obstacles…that kind of sums things up at the moment…