Here come ol' flat top...

It's way past noon and I'm still indoors, having a chat with my best friend about photography and the possibilities of what to photograph. The agreed theme for the afternoon's shoot eventually becomes "take a photo of nothing". Almost as soon as it is agreed I have at least one idea enter my head as to what that might be. The final outcome is anything but.

The exercise is to have a walking meditation with a camera over my shoulder, although I bend the rules a bit (well, quite a bit, actually) and take my bike instead. I did stick to the other part of the deal, however, and took just a single prime lens for the afternoon's shoot.

I start in a local park, photographing pine cones and fallen leaves on the grass, but soon find myself on the cliff top of Poole Bay, Dorset, and become fascinated with a distant storm cloud, seen here apparently positioned over the Isle of Wight on the horizon. The warm air rising in the cloud eventually creates the characteristic flat top, which can be estimated at around 36,000 feet  (7 miles/11km), as it reaches the tropopause, between the stratosphere and the colder air of the troposphere. There, I said it.


50mm f/1.8 AF Nikkor. 1/125 second at f/11. - 0.67 EV compensation. ISO 200


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