The Surreal and the Sublime...In The Dark

Welcome to Day 4 of In The Dark! Just between you and me, I was a little worried back there at Day 2 that I'd run out of material. 5 days worth of themed material, how hard could it be?! But thank you to the glorious and bountiful internet, one great find lead to another, and before you know it I had a whole chunk 'o goodness to share with you. Let us begin with the Surreal, and work our way through to Sublime. (Ok that's a lie, all of these images are both!)

This stunning image is the work of Chuck Anderson over at NOPATTERN, and it literally stopped me in my tracks. I've never wanted to frolic through a creepy, deserted car park quite as much as I want to right now.


Next is the truly surreal and utterly compelling work of Tim Simmons. This man knows how to take photos in the dark! He's spent 25 years perfecting it, and goodness me has it paid off! Long exposures and an incredible understanding (and manipulation) of illumination transforms familiar settings into unsettling, alien landscapes. Innocuous carports, walls, trees and boulders all take on a slightly menacing edge, but the allure of Tim's work leaves you wanting more.










And now onto something a little less surreal but undoubtedly sublime...sparkly light blobs! There are whole Flickr groups dedicated to these little glittery blobs of goodness, and for good reason...they're pretty! I'm absolutely enamoured with futureancient's Nocturne set.







Ah light blobs, how I love you so. Sublime!


Meanwhile, I'm thinking I might venture out this Saturday evening, perhaps snag myself a nice little vantage point overlooking the Sydney CBD and watch all the lights turn out for Earth Hour! I might even take the board games with me, and a few candles for practicalities sake! Mode of transport? Glamourous Sydney buses of course!

There's only 2 days to go (or 3 for all you northern hemisphere folk!) - have you made plans yet? If you're stuck for ideas, I threw together a little list of Fifteen Fool-Proof Earth Hour Activities last week; it's right after my environmental rant, just scroll straight past that! Who knows, you might just be inspired! (I'm still secretly hoping someone does either #3 or #8 and tells me all about it! Pretty please?!)

Oh, and remember how I mentioned last Friday that 1,858 cities, towns and municipalities across 81 countries were committed to this year's Earth Hour? There's been a slight increase in numbers...2,712 cities, towns and municipalities in 83 countries! Incredible! It's going to be a great night!

21 comments:

katrina and the king said...

your blog has so much class!
1. how can i follow it?
i love that quote about borrowing the earth from our children. How do I site that photo if I want to blog about that post? steveandkatek@gmail.com

Tina { Luphia Loves... } said...

wow, these photos are so so stunning!!

Anonymous said...

great collection of pix ... i think i am going to stay up all night and poke around the place with my camera now ...
enjoying reading your blog!

diamondsinchampagne said...

Lurve the set of light "blob" pictures... magical!

TONI said...

Love your blog ! Great stuff !

Anonymous said...

Wow, the Tim Simmons pictures are great!
I need to find out when that earth hour will be here in Japan... I'm pretty sure Japan is doing nothing tho...

Vanny said...

Very beautiful pictures!
Too bad they're not real (to show it's natural beauty) but editing these surely made them look stunning!
My fav: The lonely autumn leaf with unfocused blue lights in the background.

The Baking Addict said...

those photos are breathtaking!

starbrained said...

.....
All of these photos are amazingly perfect/gorgeous/stunning/outstanding

William Street Store said...

Such gorgeous images as usual!!
I am not sure if anyone here in Marseille even knows what Earth Hour is, but I will definitely be taking part in it!!
I gave you an award on my blog darling x

Sharon said...

I love the first photo of the rainbow car park! There is just something about it that just makes me happy :)

Anonymous said...

I'm always in awe of photographers that can capture light in magical, amazing ways!

Olia said...

It's a miracle, unbelievable beauty....

DJ Tanner said...

I love your blog. A lot of your images remind me of a video I saw on YouTube for Def Karaoke Jam. Keep up the great BLOG!

Outside Outsider said...

This is amazing. I'm glad you are self curating darkness.

Arica said...

LOVE your blog. and i'm such a fan of your 'in the dark' post series. i'll be peaking back for more goodies. :)

Anonymous said...

These are awesome - I've never seen anything like it

Leigh said...

Wow, those images are just heart-stoppingly beautiful! Thanks for your kind comment on my blog. It's so nice to find your lovely blog!

Anonymous said...

Really Great work!!!

tiatyot said...

i love the dance mode of posed..
seriously,
it made my eyes dreaming bout it..

Ms Unreliable said...

Wow I'm really slow getting back to everyone, I'm so sorry!

The King Family - Hello! You can follow by either clicking the little Follow thing over on the right...If that doesn't work, you can also click on "Subscribe" and then add my blog to a reader, I use Google Reader but there are many different kinds. Hope that helps :)

If you want to cite a photo, make sure you credit the photographer with a link, and if I found the work via another blog I cite and link to that post too, so for example, via That Unreliable Girl (with a link to this post) - it's up to you though, but make sure you credit the photographer at the least :D

Tina - Aren't they great?! I want them on my walls. All of them!

jonas wunderman - I LOVE your nighttime photos so far, keep them coming!

diamondsinchampagne - Me too, I'm almost waiting for a fairy to jump out of my screen, they're straight from a fairytale!

TONI - Glad you like! Hopefully I can keep it up post-Earth Hour ;D

kanmuri - I love Tim's photography too, it's very surreal and haunting. Did you end up taking part in Earth Hour? Even if your local politicans haven't caught on, you can always lead the way :D

Vee - I suspect the first one is edited, but Tim's work is time lapse so I think/hope that the effect is largely photographic and less post-production! futureancient's work is the right lenses/filters too, so I don't think there's much manipulation going on there either!

The Baking Addict - I'm with you, I was even a little lost for words for a while (and that NEVER happens!) :D

La Femme Chic - Couldn't have put it better myself!

Belle - Every little bit counts! And thank you for the award, I'm finally catching up <3

Sharon - I know, it's so eerie but so beautiful! I love it too :)

Rebecca - Me too, especially in the dark! I've never owned a camera that didn't do anything but give me blurry blobs in the dark (not that there's anything wrong with that, they just aren't nearly as pretty as these ones!)

Olia - I agree, so much beauty!

DJ Tanner - Thank you! I tried looking up the video on Youtube but the only one I could find was of Axl Rose, was that the one you meant? :D

Outside Outsider - Hehe that's a good way of looking at things! The dark needs a curator, there's lots of great stuff going on out there :D

Arica - Thank you! I hope I can keep up the goodness post-In The Dark though, I usually blog about bits and pieces so let's hope I don't disappoint ;D

baldouting - From a little spooky to insanely pretty! I'm with you though, there's nothing quite like these photos!

Leigh - I'm glad I'm not the only one who had such a strong reaction to all these images! :D

mailarchive - Why thank you, glad you like! Be sure to check out the galleries of all the talented photographers! :D

tia - Aww thank you!