mist Archives - Stewart Mckeown Photography

Jan 01

by stew in field report 0 comments tags: aonb, fog, kent, kent downs, landscape, mist, photography, summerhouse hill

Behind the shot: A Kent Downs Cloud Inversion

Behind the scenes look at a photograph I took at the beginning of December 2019 on the Kent Downs. As I write this on New Year’s Eve, there has not been much winterly weather so far here in Kent with the only real spell of cold weather occurring at the start of the month. This brief 3-day spell did produce some fantastic mist and frost though which I am always keen to make use of in my landscape photography. I have been shooting this area of the Kent Downs nr Folkestone quite a bit over the past couple of years and I had a list of the views I wanted to capture in the forecasted cold snap. The first shot I got on that initial cold morning was this panoramic from Farthing Common. I could see the landscape was covered in a frost as I passed in the car and with sunrise only a few minutes away I decided to grab this rather than risk missing out around the corner. The next morning had very similar conditions. Low winds and low temperatures overnight is usually a good indicator for mist but again it did not occur on the Downs. Perhaps […]

Mar 16

by stew in Canterbury, Uncategorized 0 comments tags: canterbury, field report, fog, mist

Canterbury in the Mist

I always try to take advantage of the misty weather. Shooting in the mist and fog can be great for adding atmosphere and mystery to images; it’s just a shame it doesn’t happen often enough! I’ve been waiting for the right conditions in which to shoot viewpoints of Canterbury and the recent unseasonably warm weather would bring that opportunity. The 1st Morning No mist hadn’t been forecast the night before but luckily my partner woke me up just in time. I jumped out of bed to get to the top of Whitstable Road for sunrise and I witnessed the drama unfold as the sun slowly burnt through the fog in the valley below. This event couldn’t last forever. As the sun rose higher in the sky, a thick haze had replaced the earlier mist, which made visibility poor as I walked onto the grounds of UKC. I found a row of trees that I could frame the silhouette of the Cathedral around to add some depth to the images and I made a few different compositions before calling it a day. The softness to these images gives them an almost romantic feel which was fitting as it was Valentines Day. […]

Dec 01

by stew in field report 0 comments tags: fog, kent downs, mist, postling

Postling: The 23rd of January Trilogy

Postling is pretty village nestled in the Kent Downs near the coastal towns of Folkestone and Hythe. From the church it’s just a short but steep walk up on to the surrounding ridge that enables marvellous views of the Kent countryside all the way to the Channel. This is a shot from one of my first visits in early Autumn. I liked this angle of the church with the wooded ridge in the distance acting as a counterweight. I like the way the light tinges the trees but the Sun is at the wrong angle to highlight the church and it gets lost because of this. If only we had some mist to isolate the spire I thought… I’ve found mist on the downs to be rather elusive over the years. I’ve been disappointed many times when a good looking forecast has come to nothing but as Joe Cornish says, to be a landscape photographer you must be an optimist so it was with this attitude that I set my alarm to get up early on the 23rd January 2014. As I made my way along Stone Street in the […]